We Were There: The Smithsonian

Oh, my goodness. I'm tired. 21, 974 steps registered on my pedometer, and I didn't touch a treadmill. And the pedometer doesn't give you extra points for all the times we raced up the long steps to the National Museum of Art!

We started the day on the Metro after a bit of a walk from our hotel. Our first museum was the National Museum of American History. We spent a great few hours there. I got to see the "puffy shirt"!! (Seinfeld fans??) Basia wowed some adults when we saw Lincoln's top hat. She remembered what he kept hidden under it when he wore it--letters, since he was disorganized and often forgot to answer important letters until he started to carry them in his hat. Brishen was most amazed to be in the presence of Abraham Lincoln's desk. He just couldn't believe that he was right there next to the desk that Lincoln really used.

We then went to the National Museum or Art. Brishen has studied enough art history to be able to recognize a lot of the names. He most wanted to see something by DaVinci, and he did. Basia got to see "The Dancer" which she recognized from one of her children's books. Basia was starting to get a bit weary, so we only made it through about half of the museum but were glad to come back later in the day for a quick jaunt through some of what we had missed.

We then made it to Air and Space. It has lots of areas for kids to explore while I gladly sat for a few. They were pleased to see the plane that their grandpa flew in WWII. Of course Basia loved anything having to do with astronauts and space. When going for a snack at the museum, we got to learn what it was like to order from someone who did not speak any English. I'll take that back. She knew the word,"sundae" but could not understand the rest of the order no matter how hard or how many times I tried to explain. We ended up taking what she gave us and accepting the fact that we were not going to be getting a drink, no matter how many different words I used for "soda." I think there is a possibility we were on candid camera.

We were then ready for a bit of time outside, so we walked over to the Capitol. It is really neat to see Brishen get excited to see all these places about which he has so often read. Later when we were back at the Capitol waiting to meet Jon, we enjoyed seeing a tour group on Seg-ways (I have no clue how to spell it and am too tired to look it up) gliding around.

We attempted to see the important documents at the National Archives, but we found the lines to be very similar to those in Disneyland. Once we thought we were almost there, we entered a room where we could see just how many people were still in front of us. We were then told that our group would be allowed in after 45-60 minutes. I noticed no one else was waiting in line with any child under the age of ten, so we found the nearest exit and went back to the Museum of Art.

Jon's group happened to be meeting near the Capitol at the end of their day, so we met up when he was done. We then walked over to Union Station for some supper. We then took another fun Metro ride back to the vicinity of our hotel. I think Basia would be fine with skipping the museums and spending our days switching from buses to the Metro to trains and back again.

All-in-all it was a great day. The kids were just awesome, considering we walked over ten miles throughout the day and that 21,ooo of my steps is an awful lot more of their steps. We are all going to sleep really well tonight. Tomorrow Jon will head to his meetings early and get back late. The rest of us are going back for some more fun. We are planning to see the monuments. Brishen is most looking forward to this part of DC.