Today we took the kids into downtown DC for their first glimpse of monuments, museums, and traffic. They were properly impressed with all three. Although they reserved their biggest excitement for the airplanes flying low into Reagan Int’l Airport.
And Andrew and I were ridiculously proud of our parking spot, so everyone had something to be excited about. We found a spot to parallel park The Beast on Independence Ave. If you’re not familiar with the DC area, that’s a Capitol City Miracle, y’all. (And some mad parking skillz by Andrew!)
We started with the Space and Rocket Center. (Homeschooling Mamas, can I get a full semester’s worth of science credit for this?)
We mostly focused on the large rockets and airplanes in the main exhibit hall, but I made sure we took a detour through the World War II planes and posed next to the radio operator’s seat in honor of Great-Daddy.
We never cease to be proud of you, Great-Daddy, and how you served your country!
And I have to include this shot because it is, honest-to-goodness, the very first photo taken of our entire family of 8.
(We’re all there, although some of the kids aren’t looking in the right direction.)
We also spent some time doing the hands-on exhibit, but I made sure Andrew did all of the explaining during that one. Physics ain’t my bag so I was content to let Daddy do the teaching.
Isn’t he handsome when he’s being brilliant and paternal?
Andrew took a long hike to go feed the meter for The Beast and the kids and I had lunch on the sidewalk and counted the number of fire trucks that went by.
Since the kids were still energetic, we decided to head to the Museum of Natural History. There was one particular hall we knew would excite our fellows… The Dinosaur Hall.
And we were right. This isn’t the greatest picture, but it accurately depicts the darting eyes, the wide looks, and the happy grins.
(I also awkwardly cut off the T. Rex’s head, leaving you with nothing but a few of his pelvis. My apologies.)
After another photo op in Andrew’s favorite sculpture garden…
… we hiked back to The Beast and loaded up. Andrew and I breathed a sigh of relief that we had made it not only safely but successfully through our first Big City Day of Museums. And y’all, it was so. much. fun.
We ended our day with a stop at our favorite restaurant for taquitos and limeades. Then we hopped on the HOV lane (because we TOTALLY qualify) and sped down to our friends’ house. We only sat in bad traffic for a few miles and we considered ourselves mighty fortunate.
It’s as if the Washington Monument was smiling on us today when we brought our little horde into the place we once called home. The kids don’t remember living here. They don’t have the history that we do with the traffic and the restaurants and the many sweet people we’ve introduced them to this week.
But they have today. This one perfect day of happy togetherness…
I hope they remember it forever.
We used to live near DC too and I really miss the Smithsonian museums — I still can’t get used to the Chicago museums’ charging admission!
That is great! I’m glad it went so well for you!! A great day trip is always a blessing. We were just at the Air and Space Museum 6 weeks ago. Tons to learn there and our crew had a blast. It was funny to see so many spots I know – but with your family in the images. Your trip sounds a lot like our’s, right down to my sweet husband taking a hike to move the car. BTW – whenever you happen to go back there is a little section of parking behind the A+S Museum that is free on the weekend. During the week you aren’t aloud to park there at all because it’s right in front of a gov. office. So, it looks off limits and nobody parks there, but on the weekends there are about 5 free spaces there.
Wow. What a trip. Thanks for sharing highlights with us. My hubby and I stopped into a number of these museums on our honeymoon, but we haven’t been back yet. It would be a fun and educational trip for the fam. Some day we’ll get there and maybe we’ll remember the free parking tip from Krystal. ; )