DC: HAMILTON!!

We've been feeling the sting of our Hamilton tickets being cancelled in 2020 for 2 years now.  DC went from an idea to a reality the day we realized Hamilton would be showing at the Kennedy Center the week we were thinking of going!  There is no better place to enjoy this musical masterpiece than in the city jammed with the history it sings of!  Everything about Hamilton after a week in DC hit different.  From the words of the Declaration of Independence in "The Schuyler Sisters" to Hamilton's writing of 51 Federalist Papers in "Non-Stop" to how we got the Capital in DC in "The Room Where it Happens" to Eliza's raising funds for the Washington Monument ("She tells my story...").  I cried twice and had goosebumps throughout.  My theater kids were in heaven to see their #1 show in such an amazing place!  

We decided to make this night extra special by treating it as a Formal.  We loved Hamilton dress shopping this summer and getting glamorous together in our hotel room beforehand.

(Once again, a friendly family photographer volunteered-- this time a security guard who popped out to say, "You're doing it wrong!  You need this angle for the best shot!" and then "You need to go stand by this sign now!")

We were actually trying to get a Christmas card picture and I think we got a really good one.  But, I'm gonna save it and reveal it in December. ;)

On the rooftop observation deck overlooking the Potomac and city.

In the gift shop!  (Masks required indoors at the Kennedy Center, in case you were wondering.)

So much of the Kennedy Center was a work of art!  We got there early on purpose so we could take our time exploring it.

Showtime!  This is one of the few times in life where our expectations were through the roof and they were still exceeded.  Hamilton just does not disappoint. 

The show was amazing, but check out this Lobmeyer Chandelier in our Kennedy Center Opera House!  It's from Austria and has 12,000 crystals and 200 light bulbs!  Nothing about this night was not special.

So, with this grandest of finales, our time in DC reached its conclusion.  It was an awesome trip in so many different ways.  We loved sharing this city with our kids and processing with them all the emotions that come with visiting it.  We loved sharing history and art and good food and once in a lifetime experiences with them.  It was not restful in any way, but had still had a sense of being recharging.  Not sure how to wrap up my journal on this incredible trip; so maybe I'll just use the words of hope and idealism that Lin Manuel Miranda wrote for George Washington:

  

If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on

It outlives me when I'm gone

Like the scripture says

Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree

And no one shall make them afraid

They'll be safe in the nation we've made

I wanna sit under my own vine and fig tree

A moment alone in the shade

At home in this nation we've made

One last time.