Our nephew Michael stayed a week with us so he could expore DC and we had a great time. It was really nice to spend a lot of time with him. He got to see a lot of the great sites around DC and we got lots of exercise. It's definitely hard to keep up with a 15 year old! We've spent the last 9 days doing toursity things around DC. I think we've stood in more lines than anyone outside of Orlando.
On Monday we toured the Capitol with our mumbly, confused, smelly guide. Sara, Paul, Mark, and Matthew extended their stay long enough to take the awful tour with us and then got stuck in DC's awful rush hour traffic on their way home. We hope they're still talking to us. Our evening entertainment was watching Harry Potter and the Someone of Somewhere.
Tuesday we went to the new Air & Space Museum annex near Dulles Airport. It was really cool and well worth the 40 minute drive and ridiculous $12 parking fee. The space is enormous and they have over 1,000 aircraft including a Concorde, a SR-71, the Enola Gay, a Space Shuttle, an F-4 Phantom, Mig 21, P-51, WWI biplanes, experimental crafts, helicopters, missiles, and a Boeing 707. They had lots of super-small aircraft that were barely big enough for one person. One of them looked like a Mini Cooper with a propeller and wings. It'd be a great way to beat traffic on I-66. Michael and I rode in a fun airplane simulator and then went up to the tower to watch planes land at Dulles Airport.
On Wednesday we went to the Peterson House where Lincoln died. Unfortunately, Ford's Theater (and it's excellent museum) was closed for renovations. In an interesting side note, ABC-TV taped a Christmas special in Ford's Theater last week with President Bush. It included Christmas carols, fake snow, and an audience full of people in long-sleeves and coats. Brrrr....
After the 5-minute tour of the Peterson House, we strolled around the Mall and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. This year's themes were Ireland, Vietnam, and Virginia. We saw a great Vietnamese dance featuring drums and a dragon, heard some great Appalachian bluegrass, and watched some guys saw logs to build a boat. We tried to get tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument but had no luck. After walking around for a couple of hours in the oppressive heat and humidity, we decided to return to our air-conditioned home. Katie was the most vocal supporter of this plan.
Thursday was another really hot day so we decided to do something indoors. Michael chose the Spy Museum which is a lot of fun. We got to see crafty devices like a button camera, an umbrella gun, and James Bond's car with pop-out machine guns (another good idea for I-66). Then we took an evening tour of the monuments including Lincoln, Vietnam, Korea, Einstein, and Jefferson. It was a nice way to beat the heat. We were pleasantly surprised at how many people were at the monuments at 9:30 on a Thursday night. We expected it to be deserted.
On Friday we went to Mount Vernon to visit George and Martha. We saw Martha (she said Katie was "adorable") but there was no sign of George. He was probably stuck in traffic on I-66. We had a lot of fun and got to sit on his back porch and wait for a rain shower to pass. We could see the rain-line approach from the river and when it reached us it was very soothing. The rain paused long enough for us to get out in the open before it struck again. We waited it out under a tree this time but still managed to get soaked. At that point, we had seen everything and decided to bolt for the car.
After Mount Vernon we went to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to see money being made. Their motto is "The Buck Starts Here" (seriously). It was pretty neat to see 6-foot stacks of $100 bills worth millions of dollars. Unfortunately, we couldn't get anywhere near the stacks. Katie really, really, didn't like the tour and let us know it. We're not sure if it was beacuse of the heavy smell of ink in the air or if she was upset that people were so focused on money. Either way, she and Nancy left the tour early and met us outside later. There were several amusing signs along the tour but my favorite said, "I print more money than my lifetime salary in just a few minutes." I wonder when the employees go home if they smell like new money.
After the tour we ate dinner in Old Town. Unfortunately, our first choice, King Street Blues, was full but we had a good meal at Chipotle. It was Michael's first time there. We found out later that there's not a Chipotle within 70 miles of Scranton. We thought they were everywhere. Sue joined us for dinner but chickened out on the Old Town Ghost Tour. For an hour a lantern-carrying, costumed story teller walked us around Old Town and paused every block or so to tell us a spooky story. It was a lot of fun and interesting. We had a great story teller who delighted in making sudden movements to scare people. Luckily, I was pushing the stoller so I was spared from his scare tactics. At the end of the tour, he abandoned us in a graveyard. We made it out alive but we took a roundabout route to the car to make sure no ghosts were following us.
On Saturday we watched part of Lord of the Rings and then had lunch at Chick-Fil-A. It was Michael's first time at a Chick-Fil-A. The nearest one to Scranton is 50 miles away in Frackville. Nancy and I are making plans to open a combination Chipotle/Chick-Fil-A in Scranton. Afterwards we went to Arlington Cemetery. Whoever decided to put the cemetery and the zoo on the side of a mountain should be forced to climb a stairmaster for eternity. Luckily, it wasn't oppressively hot. We saw the changing of the guard and wandered around for a couple of hours. Afterwards we had a nice dinner at the tasty Afghan restaurant near our house. It was Michael's first time tasting lamb. We ended our evening with a tasty stop at Del Ray's Dairy Godmother to get some yummy Mint Oreo custard for us and some puppy pops for Rusty.
It was a lot of fun having Michael stay with us for a week and we're sorry to see him go. Rusty, on the other hand, will be happy to get his bed back. He's been without it for the last 11 nights.
No comments:
Post a Comment