Oh my goodness! It should not be permissible to have as much fun as we had today!
So, the other day, we went to the American History Museum. We talked about it and thought that might be the one with the most appeal for the kids. (Hello, Batmobile? Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers?) We considered the Air and Space museum, but being the Aviation nerds that we are, we have been to so many and not that it EVER loses its appeal, I don’t want to force my passion on the kids. Anyway, we decided to go there today and when I told the kids where we were going, they cheered. Like whooping and hollering cheers. Apparently I misjudged that situation.
We got our stuff together (late again) and had a very ambitious agenda today so we set right to it. After yesterday’s misadventures, we arrived downtown, and I ask John for the map and he starts patting all of his pockets. No map. My responsibility was lunch (it was delicious), John’s was packing the day pack.
I am happy to report that John is alive and well and we made our way to the Air and Space museum. We boarded the bus (mainly to get a new map) and got off on the next stop, realizing that we didn’t need to get on the bus and it actually took us away from the museum. This was another day that we were ecstatic that it was not raining, but the humidity was nearly unbearable. We got off the bus, crossed the National Mall and then boarded the bus on the other side to go one stop BACK to the Air and Space Museum.
The Air and Space museum is a MAGICAL WONDERLAND and we all could have spent an entire week there. We saw a sign that you could earn a free patch for each completed youth audio tour. We went over and got 4 youth tours and set off to complete our mission! The tour was very informative and took us to a lot of different places in the museum.
Probably the most memorable stop on the tour was the space station toilet. I got a great picture of Trista’s face as they described – in detail – how the astronauts use the restroom in space and Levi can’t stop talking about ‘Mr. Thirsty’ (the, um, yellow tube). There was then a supplemental video where they talked about recycling said liquid waste into potable water. The video ended with the astronaut saying, “Here, we turn yesterday’s coffee into tomorrow’s coffee!”
Some other highlights were the display about the Tuskegee Airmen, Amelia Earhart’s plane, jacket and goggles, a 747 cockpit, the actual TV show model of the Enterprise, having to stand on one foot for the same length of time as the Wright Brother’s first flight (12 seconds), heck, everything we saw and did was a favorite!
From there, we had to dash over to Union Station to do the cheesiest touristy-tour ever. Levi saw the Ducks in Boston and was really upset that we weren’t able to do it there and they have Ducks in DC (the only other place on our itinerary that has Duck tours) and yes, I am very well aware of the safety risks associated with these things, but they are fun and the weather was good and that is what we decided to do. We had such a hard time pulling away from the Air and Space museum that we made it just in time. I noticed as we were running to get on that the name of our Duck was ‘Lame Duck’. I quickly imagined the potential fallout from this if something happened, but we got on anyway.
It really was a great tour, we drove through the city and then into the Potomac River. One of the totally unexpected perks was that we got to drive/boat this thing, in the water, RIGHT under the approach path for DCA! These big jets were coming in about 100 feet above our heads and it was AWESOME! Once we were out into the river, the Captain got out of his seat and asked who wanted to drive. Trista was first, followed by Levi and then John. John drove it for an awkwardly long period of time and even navigated us into position under the flight path. We saw a lot of turtles out in the water!
Once back on terra firma, the tour took us past many of the memorials and monuments and the captain pointed them out along the way. We learned a couple of interesting things on the tour. Apparently the 7th inning stretch at baseball games is attributed to our 27th president, William Howard Taft. He was at a baseball game and around the 7th inning, needed to stretch. He stood up to do so and everyone else stood up out of respect and it became a thing. We saw the SEC building, which is made entirely of glass, evidently to lend itself to transparency!
After the duck tour, we made our way back over to do the rest of the memorials and made some friends on the bus while doing so!
We met two ladies and their sweet little dog. They traveled to DC on a boat! On their way down, they were in the middle of the Potomac, when a boat came speeding toward them. The boat informed them that they were in an area where there was live ammunition being fired across the river and they needed to stay over to one side! YIKES! I thought we had some good stories, but I would love to read their blog!
We all got off at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, took a few quick pics and went right back to catch the next bus (they supposedly run every 10 minutes), 37 minutes later, we boarded the bus toward the next thing.
We made our way over to the Lincoln Memorial and then the Korean War Memorial and then the Vietnam wall. The monuments are all very inspiring and filled with great quotes. It is interesting to me to think about what one must accomplish in life to have such a massive monument built in their honor. (There is a lot more to this, but I’ll keep it light).
The memorials are a sobering reminder of how many men paid the ultimate price for the liberties that we enjoy today. There have been a few times when both John and I have found it incredibly difficult to admonish our children or answer their questions through the lumps in our throats.
We had drilled into our kids the importance of proper behavior and staying quiet at each of these places, probably most of all the Vietnam wall. Just as we were nearing the end of the wall, I felt a drop of something wet on my wrist. I glanced over to see a huge glob of bird poop RIGHT. BY. MY. HAND. Given the circumstances, I resisted the urge to scream, but my eyes bugged out of my head and John looked at me and I looked at my wrist and he calmly got out a paper towel and wiped the excrement off of my arm. I nearly scrubbed the skin off the next time we got to a sink!
We weren’t sure that we would see our friends here, as they didn’t get off the bus at the Lincoln stop and talked about heading back, but we ran into them at the Vietnam Memorial and ended up heading to the bus stop at the same time. One of them was already at the bus stop and the other brought ice cream bars – one for each of them. My kids were sitting on the bench and eyeing the ice cream bars and the next thing I knew, our new friend was sharing her ice cream bar with my kids! I think my kids probably ate about 90% of it! I was so touched by their generosity and enjoyed hearing bits of their story! Even though I am the introvert and that can be hard, I have truly enjoyed meeting so many different people on this trip!
One thing that was cool for us, was to see the World War II Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial. Something we regularly do as a family is go out to show our support for Honor Flight. Honor Flight flies veterans – at no cost to them – to Washington to DC and brings them to see these memorials that were built in their honor. Twice a year, we drag our kids to an overpass with American flags in hand, and we wave and cheer for the buses of veterans as they head to the airport to make this journey. (This is an amazing program and I would encourage anyone reading to look for ways to support your local Honor Flight chapter, ours is Honor Flight Northern Colorado. Each veteran has an escort that goes along and they all receive handmade blankets, etc).
After the memorials, we headed back to find some dinner and make our way home. We ended up near Ford’s Theater again and as we walked by, EMS pulled up right in front of the theater with lights and sirens going. We resisted the urge to yell, “YOU ARE TOO LATE, LINCOLN IS ALREADY DEAD!”
By the time we made it back to the bus station, we had just missed the bus and it was 9:14pm and the kids were already at the end of our patience! The next bus was supposed to come at 9:48, but we found a tracker that showed how far away the bus was and knew it would be later. We made the best decision EVER and called an Uber who got us back to our RV at 945 for about $9!
Once back at the RV, we allowed Levi to try on his new space suit. 1) He was DYING to and 2) I was DYING to see him in it! He is so stinkin’ cute in this thing, but then we had a little PJ fight and he didn’t understand why he couldn’t sleep in his space suit. He did NOT want to put on PJs because then he “wouldn’t look spacey.” ☹
While we were away, Romeo Victor got a bath! Even in the dark, you could see how clean and shiny he was! There was a mobile RV wash service and we have been talking about washing this thing for a long time. After all of the weather we have encountered and trees we have parked under and RV prison, we saw someone else having theirs washed and I went and talked to the owner and the price wasn’t bad, so we had them wash it. The owner called John when they were done and John asked if they had seen anything out of the ordinary and was told, “Just a lot of dirt! MAN that thing was filthy!” Thanks for the wash, Moe!
