Smithsonian Day One

Saturday, June 20, 2015
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
We woke up today with nothing on the schedule but to walk around and look at the Smithsonian museums. We were struck again by the humidity in stark contrast to the comfort of our room. The air is just thick. Great day to spend inside air-conditioned museums.

We walked past the Washington Monument and over to the Museum of American History to start . We saw the actual flag that inspired the author of the Star Spangled Banner. I was interested to learn that at one point, the family that owned the flag would cut pieces off and give them out as gifts to people, because they knew it was meaningful symbol. Desmond got to feel some cotton, a piece of cannon shell and look at the Count from Sesame Street. That was enough excitement for him, he slept through the rest of the exhibits.

Then we had lunch at the cafeteria there and continued walking down the street to the National Museum of Natural History. There we saw a number of cool exhibits and took pictures next to some dinosaur bones. Desmond was awake for this museum and kept pointing up at the animals hanging above and looking around.

When we were done here and stepped outside it was oppressively hot and humid. I was wearing Desmond on my front and immediately wanted to go back to air conditioning (or the hotel!) We ended up waiting in line to go to the air and space museum to enjoy some AC and refill our water bottle. Once inside Bryan's eyes lit up and he started pointing out and naming all the amazing planes and spaceships they had displayed. It was fun to see him so excited about all the space stuff. And it was pretty neat stuff, to be sure. We saw the first American spaceships to carry people into space, the Wright brothers' plane and a lot more.

Desmond got worn out and started crying so we left the museum without visiting all the exhibits . We grabbed a lemon ice dessert and hopped on a bus instead of walking home because it was hot (in the 90s) and humid and we were tired too. The bus ride took about an hour, because it kept stoping and waiting in order to be on schedule. But it was clean and air-conditioned, only cost us $2 total, and showed us a few places we hadn't been in the city yet.

After we got back to the hotel we rested for just a bit and then decided we were hungry for dinner. We walked to an Italian restaurant. Bryan had a calzone and I had rigatoni with sausage. It was tasty. Desmond has been enjoying little squeeze pouches of food which he can feed himself while we eat. Pretty brilliant.

We ended the night with a walk in the rain. It was really down-pouring and the thunder and lighting was impressive. When we got back to the hotel and wrung ourselves out, there was an alert on my phone warning us of flash flooding. So it is a good thing we didn't walk all the way over to the monuments to see them lit up (which had been our original plan).

Here's hoping that the Onya baby carrier will be dried out in time for tomorrow's adventures. It is kind of like tent material and partly mesh, so I'm optimistic that it might be.

Comments

Leslie
2015-06-21

Great day! Happy 1st Fathers Day, Bryan!

Jaynie
2015-06-21

Fun times! Great idea with the food pouches.
Happy Father's Day to Bryan. What a wonderful thing to be able to say!

2025-02-09

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