Weekend in DC

We went this past weekend to see Peguy up in DC.  (Finally!  Why does it always take us so long to do these things?)  We drove up on Friday afternoon, and spent Saturday taking in some of the sights.  Our first stop was the obligatory visit to the White House.  We parked just around the corner, and walked over to join the crowd right in front of the iconic building.

Over the course of the day, we took the opportunity to snap photos with a few of the other major land marks, like the Washington Monument, and the Capitol Building.  We didn't actually make it to see any of the monuments; that'll be something for us to do next time.

After leaving the White House, we piled back into our cars and went to find parking closer to the Smithsonian museums we wanted to visit.  By the time we finally found a garage to park in, we were starving.  It was a bit of a walk from the garage to the Museum of Natural History,  and long the way Peguy spotted the little cafe in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, so we stopped there to eat.  Let me tell you, that cafe could give Disney a run for the first place prize in pricey tourist trap restaurants.  I was a little disgusted at how expensive it was, but considering that the museums themselves were free, I didn't think I could complain too much.

I have been dying to take Elora to see a dinosaur exhibit ever since Peguy and I first hatched our plan for us to visit them in DC.  Elora is a big fan of Dinosaur Train on PBS, and is familiar with a wide variety of dinosaur species, as well as the concept of fossils.  I just knew she would get a kick out of seeing some in person--and she did!

We spent about 2 or 3 hours in the NMNH, before moving on.  It wasn't nearly long enough to take everything in, but with three very little ones we pretty much had to keep moving.  Then it was getting to be late in the afternoon, and we were all flagging, but we still had another museum on the agenda.

There was only a short walk from one museum to the other; they lay on opposite sides of the mall, pretty much right across from one another.  We passed a carousel on the way, and decided to stop and let the kids ride.  They all enjoyed it, but Elora loved it.  She just kept saying "I'm having so much fun!" over and over, and when it was time to go, I had to pry her fingers away from the pole and drag her back to her dad.

Our last stop for the day was for Brandon: the National Air and Space Museum.  It really was just right up his alley.  His whole face lit up to see all of the historic vehicles on display in the main atrium.  He tried to tell me about them, to impart the significance of what I was seeing, but I just couldn't appreciate it the way that he did.  I did enjoy the interactive exhibit on the physics behind flight, and I did enjoy wandering around and chatting with Peguy while Brandon and Elora went to check everything out.  (We weren't sure what Peg's husband, Neil, did during that time; he must have just found an out of the way seat on which to relax and wait.)

We finished the day at a restaurant in Chinatown, and headed back to Peguy's.  The kids were exhausted.  Kaylie fell asleep in the car and didn't wake up again until almost 7 the next morning.  Elora and T-man woke up when we got back to the house, so we let them stay up for a while before putting them to bed.  Elora woke up shortly after her sister did, and T-man didn't rouse until after 8.  (All three kids usually wake up for milk at some point, but that night they let us all sleep.)

Sunday was our lazy day.  We woke up slow, sipped coffee, made crepes (ham & cheese and banana & Nutella), and played around with doing some maternity photos of Peguy.  We were back on the road, headed home, by about two Sunday afternoon.  It was a great weekend.  :)