Fancy Dinner

We got all gussied up and took the kids to Legal Seafood for our "fancy dinner".  We walked to the metro station and saw some lovely tulips on the way.  It was quite chilly and windy, but we walked fast. 

The kids looked adorable and were super well behaved (not that they aren't always so).  Nathaniel ordered fish-shaped ravioli, which came with a side of sauce, corn on the cob, and a side of grapes.  Zoe ordered popcorn shrimp with the same sides (except ketchup instead of sauce).  Dave had baked cod and I had baked stuffed shrimp - very yummy.  The kids magically had room for dessert - a brownie sundae for Zoe and three large scoops of blood orange sorbet.  It was still cold and windy when we came out of the restaurant, but there were no taxis around so we took the metro to Dupont Circle and caught a cab for the short ride back (Zoe was especially happy for the cab ride as she had bare legs).  Tomorrow we will re-pack our bags for our ride to the train station.  We will have lunch there and visit the U S Postal Museum.  We will be home tomorrow night.

Day 4 DC 4/19/18

A funny thing happened last night.  We looked up kid-friendly places to eat in DC and found a place called The Diner, which serves breakfast all day and sounded good.  It was too far to walk and there wasn't a convenient metro stop nearby so we took a cab.  As soon as we went inside, Zoe, Dave, and I recognized it as one of our favorites from the last time we were here!  Our B and B from last time was just around the corner.  We had a good meal and came back to the condo for showers before bedtime.

This morning it was raining and a bit on the cold side so we donned our sweatshirts and raincoats and walked our .8 of a mile to the metro stop.  We decided on the way, that city people have great opportunities for exercise.  We went to the Museum of American History first and had a great time looking at the exhibits.  We saw Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street and Bill Nye, the science guy's lab coat.

We went to a room called the Spark!Lab, where the kids made a tactile map for the blind and invented a device for transporting animals.  They enjoyed the creativity.

There was an old gramaphone in the hallway and Nathaniel got to wind it up.  I got to choose the record and I chose Caruso (a very early recording) as my father always had his music on the record player when I was growing up.  It brought back fond memories for me.

After we explored both wings of the first floor, we went to lunch in the cafeteria.  There was a Statue of Liberty made entirely of Legos as we entered - quite cool!

After lunch we went to the second floor.  There is an entire house here.  It was in Ipswich, MA - built in the 1760's.  The exhibit detailed five families that lived in the house over 200 years.  It started as a fashionable house for a fairly well-to-do family and a hundred years later with the advent of industry in the area, was converted to apartments for factory workers.  The kids enjoyed following the families through the years and were especially interested in the ration books and victory gardens during the war years.  We also viewed an exhibit called Many Voices, One Nation, which talked about the various immigrants that make up our country.  We ended up in the American Democracy Hall where the kids found the inkwell used by Abraham Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation (see photo).  This was one of their items on the scavenger list.

We went up to the third floor to see the Gunboat Philadelphia which sank in Lake Champlain during the Revolutionary War.  As we exited the museum we walked by some wonderful cherry trees in blossom so we all stopped to take pictures.  We walked by the Washington Monument (under renovation so you can't go in) and walked along the reflecting pool stopping to take a photo of the White House before visiting the Lincoln Memorial.  The kids stood on the spot where Martin Luther King gave his famous I have a dream speech and did a good job finishing their questions about the memorial.  

The wind had picked up after we left the History Museum and the walk to the Lincoln Memorial was pretty challenging - even Dave was staggered a bit by the buffeting.  We decided to take a cab back to the condo and take a short break before dressing up and going out to our "fancy dinner".  

Screaming hairy armadillo

I figured out how to get it on today rather than waiting for tomorrow.  He has a face only his mother could love.

Day 3 DC 4/18/18

Last night we went to dinner at Firefly.  The kid's meals weren't too imaginative, but they cool thing is that they brought a raw cookie and some sprinkles to the table and the kids decorated their own cookie which became their dessert.  As you can see, Nathaniel is a minimalist and Zoe goes whole hog.

This morning we went to the zoo.  I'm glad we got there early as it was a lovely day and it became very crowded later on in the day.  Our first stop was to see the pandas.  They were chomping away on their breakfast of bamboo shoots and other goodies.  We all agreed that they were very cute.  Zoe's hand is next to a mold of a baby panda - it is about the length of a stick of butter!

We wandered around and went into the small mammal building where Nathaniel found a screaming hairy armadillo (instead of curling up into a ball when it is threatened, it pushes hairs out through its armor and screams).  Dave's favorite was a reptile building and Zoe loved the Galapagos tortoises.

We saw a 40 year old female orangutan who was playing with a sheer window curtain - putting it on her head and then wrapping her whole body up in it.  We also visited the gorillas.  There was a new baby, but it was not in view while we were there.  The lemurs were very active - I love that their tails are longer than their bodies.

For some reason, the armadillo picture is being shy and doesn't want to post.  I will try to put it on tomorrow.  They kids had a great time - and even enjoyed their dipping dots to cool down as it was in the 60's this afternoon.  Nathaniel had rainbow and Zoe had panda dots.  The last photo is one of the very long escalator at the zoo metro stop - you can see the bottom is way down. 

Day 2 DC 4/17/18

We had breakfast in the condo this morning and took our time getting out the door as most of the museums don't open until 10.  We opted to stay inside as much as possible today as it was 45 and very windy - way too cold to walk up to the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.  We took the Metro down to the Mall area and walked over to the Air and Space Museum.  We were the first in line and only had to wait 15 minutes until the doors opened.  We wandered around a bit - checking out the Discovery Room until it was time to go to the IMAX 3-D theater to see "Journey into Space".  It was very good.  We then went up to the second floor and spent a lot of time in the Wilbur and Orville Wright exhibit.  The kids were fascinated with the early attempts at flight.  I took their picture sitting on the steps of the Wright family home with Wilbur and Orville in the back.  We saw a moon rock and checked out a mock up of SkyLab.  We went down to the first floor and they each chose a ride to go on.  Zoe picked the Flight Simulator and the shot of her is trying out the levers before she gets on the ride.  Nathaniel chose to go on the Virtual Reality Transporter.  They both said they enjoyed the experience.  We then walked to the cafeteria for lunch only to find out that it was closed for maintenance.  We walked across the Mall and went to a small cafe in the Museum of Natural History (their larger cafeteria was being renovated).  We then explored the museum Nathaniel liked Insect World the best and even got to hold a Madagascar Giant Hissing Cockroach (Yikes!) and Zoe liked the Hope Diamond (she didn't get to hold that!).  We came back to the condo and are resting our smoking feet and journaling until it is time for dinner.  It is still very cold and windy outside so we may take a cab to dinner. 

Washington DC Day 1 4/16/18

We woke Nathaniel and Zoe at 6:15 this morning so they could dress, eat breakfast and brush teeth before we drove to New London to catch the 7:40 train.  Unfortunately, it was raining this morning, but not pouring, so we got a bit damp going from the parking garage to the station, but no one was soaked.  We had to walk through three cars before we found 4 seats together, but we settled in and got comfortable for the ride.  We looked for Jimmy and Jeanne's house, but didn't see it - we did wave and say "Hi" at the point where we thought their house was.  We also said "Hi" to Zoe's Yaya as we went through Stamford.  We got to New York in about two hours.  The kids played games on their machines, did some puzzles and coloring pages about DC that I had packed and watched Yukon Gold on Nathaniel's machine.  We had lunch on the train - not a lot of choices: sandwiches, burgers and dogs, but they kids go to choose. 

We got to DC at 2 and wouldn't you know, it was raining again.  We hopped in a taxi and got to our home-away-from-home in Logan Circle.  By the time we got settled, the rain had stopped and we went across the street to Whole Foods to get some breakfast items.  We then walked to the Dupont Circle metro station and went down to the mall.  We got off at the wrong station for the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial so we changed plans and visited the outdoor sculpture garden where the kids had their photos taken in front of their favorite sculptures and had a ride on the mall carousel.  The carousel was moved here from Baltimore in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King.  On the same day that he gave his dream speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a young black girl and her father were the first people of color to ride the Baltimore carousel.  The kids enjoyed the ride and we got back on the metro and headed to Chinatown to have dinner.  We chose to eat at the Corner Bakery Cafe.  Zoe had a breakfast sandwich and Nathaniel had pasta and meatball (singular and it was the largest one I have ever seen!).  They each had a bowl of fruit with their dinner.  We "metroed" back to Dupont Circle and walked back to the condo.  We were all happy to shed our shoes and the kids are writing their journal page.  Tomorrow we will start with the Air and Space Museum and then go from there.  BTW, the cherry blossoms are out, but they are a little past peak.