Trip to McLean VA

Last week, I traveled to NoVA for work. It was a three-day, two-night trip, which was too long to be away from Elliot. So Ed and Elliot both came along. (Ed is so awesome. Elliot and I are very lucky.) I was pretty nervous about the trip logistics, but everything went well. We were able to avoid checking luggage and had no trouble installing our car seat (which arrived safe and sound thanks to the fancy traveling bag we bought) in the rental car.

I managed to get a room at per diem at the Ritz-Carlton, so Ed joked with his friends that he was going to be my trophy wife for a few days. The room was, of course, lovely, and we were provided with a crib, fridge, and baby gift bag free of charge. (The gift bag included a diaper, bandaids, a small stuffed cat, a tub spout cover, and a bunch of other first aid/baby care items. Very thoughtful!)

Here, Elliot talks about his first airplane flight.



Brad and Fiona had us over for dinner and Elliot got to hang out with their two lovely kids.



Fist bump!



Ed, Elliot, Fiona, and Clare went to the Air and Space Museum annex at Dulles (the Udvar-Hazy Center). Ed was very excited about showing Elliot his first SR-71 and space shuttle, but of course Elliot slept through the whole thing.







Afterwards, Elliot enjoyed a luxurious lunch at the Ritz. Note the space shuttle jammies, which Ed wanted to make sure Elliot wore to the museum. We own these in 3 sizes. :)



We were so happy to be able to meet up with Ed's college friends Yvette and Dorian and their two sons, Cyrus and August. We hadn't seen them since the last college reunion when Yvette was very pregnant with August.



The flight back wasn't too bad, even though we flew at the "snitting hour" (as my friend Heather calls it -- right around 6 pm). We had the loveliest TSA employee help us out at security, as our enormous car seat would only go through the scanner if it was out of the bag and reclined at a 45-degree angle. He followed us through the checkpoint and gave us tips for future trips with the car seat.

So, everything went well, but between my meetings, having dinner with friends, catching up on work late at night, and traveling with a baby, we were pretty exhausted when we got home and had just one day to recover before our swim meet.