Washington DC

It was a pretty easy trip to DC from Petersburg. Our RV park was highly recommended in my Grand Design RV owners group on Facebook and we had an excellent stay at Cherry Hill Park Campground.  We had to scramble to get laundry done and dinner ready for hosting Jerome and Emma.  It was so good of them to drive to find us since we had not yet figured out the Metro.  It was so fun to catch up with them.

About 6 months ago I wrote to our Congressman’s office to arrange for all our tours of Federal buildings.  They did a great job of making these arrangements but there were some early mornings for us.  The earliest was Tuesday morning when we were scheduled for the 8:45am tour of the Bureau of Engraving & Printing where the paper money is printed.  It was fairly easy to get to the park & ride parking next to the Metro station conveniently located just 10-15 minutes from our RV park depending on traffic.  There were plenty of parking spots.  I confidently headed to the SmartTrip card purchasing machine and bought 5 cards loaded with a 7 day pass for short-trips.  We hopped on the subway and headed to the Smithsonian stop, the closest one to the Bureau.  We had to make one transfer and ran from place to place.  We donned ponchos before exiting because it was a very rainy day.  Turns out I shouldn’t have chosen “short trip” passes but we wouldn’t figure that out until later. The barriers at the exit would not let us out but the nice worker let us out  anyway. We ran the two blocks to the Bureau as fast as we could.  They were just closing the 8:45 tour but they let us in anyway.  The tour was mostly about all the security measures.  There are three sections of security for the bills and each worker can only be trained for one section during their 10 year apprenticeship.  Apparently the workers are paid VERY well to discourage theft. It was an introduction to how fancy all the buildings would be in DC! At the end of the tour you could see your height related to the value of that height of $100s! When the tour finished we grabbed some breakfast at a nearby cafe.  We could see the Washington Monument so headed in that direction, still in the pouring rain.  We grabbed tickets to go up in the monument later in the day.  Since I knew the day would be rainy I decided it would be a good day for the Hop On/Hop Off Trolley with the optional tour of Arlington.  We only went a couple of stops before getting on a separate shuttle for Arlington.  We saw the Kennedy graves and the changing of the guard and discovered the area where Pete Miles, Aunt Ruby’s 2nd husband, was buried.  We didn’t head out to find his grave because it was just TOO wet! After Arlington we grabbed a bite of lunch and visited the Lincoln memorial.  Then we hopped back on the trolley and continued the tour.  By this time it was quite late and we were soaked so we skipped our elevator ride up the Washington Monument and headed back to the trailer.  This time when the barrier blocked our exit, the nice worker guy helped us fix the problem.  We just added $10 to each card and that way we were automatically charged for the excess fare over the “short trip” every time we used the cards for our long trips.

Wednesday was our White House Tour. I guess I had been a bit over confident now that we knew how to use the Metro.  On our way to the park & ride there was some event with a police escort that delayed us about 15 minutes, 15 minutes that we didn’t have.  We arrived for our tour right at the time we had to be there.  The only problem was that I had a bag (we didn’t want to go back to our trailer after the tour).  I had decided that I would just skip the tour as I had been there before but the security people said there was a bag drop nearby.  It turned out it was about ¾ of a mile away.  I ran all the way there and then had the brilliant idea to ride a Lime scooter back. When I was just arriving back, David and the kids were at the front of the line! So, I hopped off my scooter and headed to the line.  There was still some waiting time and Zina made a nature design using immediately available materials. The only problem was that I didn’t know I had to end my ride. To make a long story short, I finally got the ride ended after about 75 minutes and it cost me $40 but I did get to do the White House tour with my family.  After the tour I had to go retrieve my bag but I walked all the way, not wanting to have another bad scooter experience (I will try it again some day, it was a great way to get around!)  When I got back the family was having lunch at Old Ebbet Grill.  The food was very good but it took us a while to eat there. The server scolded David for not eating his soup when he was just being polite and waiting for others to get their food!  From there we headed to the Museum of American History, one of my favorites.  It has changed a lot since I was last there.

Thursday was our tour of the Capitol.  We were told to meet at Congressman Baumgartner’s office by 10:30.  As we were waiting, the congressman himself walked in as asked if we wanted a picture, which we did!  One of the aides gave us a good tour.  The building is spectacular.  Apparently if anyone wants to give a gift to Congress it is in the form of a sculpture!  There were many, many sculptures, including one of Brigham Young we saw in a corner.  We had lunch in the capitol cafeteria and then headed to our scheduled Library of Congress tour.  Well, that was a complete disaster.  Zina was expecting to be able to read books in the library. She was so excited. When she found out that really we were just looking at architecture, and that only those 16 and older could get a card to look at books, her disappointment led to a complete meltdown.  We barely made it out of there and tried to go see the Supreme Court but they were in session that day deciding some immigration suit and it was chaos.  It was also hot so we cut our losses and headed back to the trailer to swim.  Kids had a great time at the pool.

Friday we wanted to see the National Archives and Museum of Natural History before going to our FBI tour experience.  In the Archives they had more explanation of the Constitution that really solidified some of the things I realized for the first time on this visit.  For some reason I had it in my mind that we fought the Revolutionary War, won our independence and became a nation.  Through the week of our visit, I think starting in the Presidency exhibit in the American History Museum, I began to realize just how important those who fought to have a nation were.  It was no sure thing that the states would ratify the Constitution and in the end it took a great push and all the Federalist papers written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay that pushed it over the top.  I think the survival of our nation owes a great debt to George Washington who really carefully considered what the office of the President of the United States should be.  He was so careful.  And, he was passionate.  For the 250th anniversary of the Declaration they had a special exhibit about Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.  One of the items on exhibit was a document that George Washington had all his soldiers sign swearing allegiance to the United States of America.  This particular document was the one he signed himself and witnessed by another officer.  Amazing that he thought of this and held himself accountable.  His ledger was also there, most of it written in his own hand.  He refused a salary but was reimbursed for his expenses.  

At the Museum of Natural History we spent most of our time seeing the gems and crystals.  I find those exhibits amazing.  The FBI Experience is now self-guided but they had many FBI personnel assigned to talk to you and answer questions.  There is something about crime fighting that is very intriguing.  It was a bit of a surprise to find out that hundreds of banks are still robbed every year!  One of the agents asked me if I knew which area of crime receives the most attention.  I guessed cyber crime but it is actually violent crime.  That is an emphasis of the administration, to get to the root of violent crime.

We had such a go, go, go week that by Saturday we were all pretty much ready to take it easy.  David and I went to the temple in the morning, such a beautiful, huge temple!  Then I did laundry and a Costco run.  Then, I made a bad decision and took the whole family to a baseball game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.  The game started at 4pm but by the time I finished at Costco (the lines were brutal), we got everyone dry from swimming, drove to the light rail and arrived at the ballpark we were about an hour late and hungry.  And, our seats were in the full sun.  I actually got to see about 2 innings of the game (Orioles went into the 9th inning down by 8 runs and managed to get four back before the game ended.)  When we got back to the trailer I still had to do a regular grocery run and the kids didn’t go to bed while I was gone.  Next time I will repress the urge to go to a game!

We had a nice Sunday.  Myra and I went to the National Museum of Art and Portrait Gallery.  We saw some VERY interesting art but my favorite part was reading the biographies of the portraits we saw.

Our last day in DC we headed out to the Air & Space Museum (you had to have a timed entry for that).  It was disappointing that half of it was being renovated including that part that had the SPAD 13 that David was REALLY looking forward to seeing.  We grabbed a bite from the food trucks.  It is SO hard that Zina just refuses to eat anything as she sees fit.  I would be happy to let her be hungry but then we have to deal with that grouchiness. Sometimes I just get to the end of my rope and I was about there Monday afternoon.  The last thing we wanted to see was Ford’s Theater, which is now part of the National Park system.  We got to look at all the exhibits and then hear a good ranger talk that I dozed through (the kids told me it was good!)  This turned out to be one of the best weeks of the sabbatical so far.