Call us crazy, but we thought a trip to Washington, D.C. at New Year's would be just the thing.
Sure, it might be cold and snowy, but the crowds would be lighter
and we could handle anything with enough snacks and souvenir money.
The kids are (for the most part) troopers,
and we could balance our indoor activities with more engaging, hands-on experiences.
With this in mind, we planned for every contingency we could think of.
Except...
a partial government shut-down.
Most people (including ourselves) probably figured we'd just cancel or postpone the trip for another time, preferably when all of the Smithsonians were open for business.
But, we didn't.
Cancel, that is.
We panicked a little. We researched a lot.
And, most importantly, we tried to get our already-paid-for hotel rooms refunded, to no avail.
Since Mike and I are not ones to back down from a challenge, nor are we ever going to let hotel rooms go to waste, we took a big gulp of roll-with-it and did just that.
We drove through the night on December 30th, arriving early in the morning of the 31st. That gave us 2 days to squeeze in the must-see Smithsonian museums before they closed.
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| Teddy and the Sopwith Camel (a.k.a. Snoopy's plane that he flies as the WWI Flying Ace against the Red Baron.) |
The kids slept all night and we pulled in the Air and Space Museum just as they opened.
Next up, we hauled over to the city center, parked the car, and hit up the Mall.
The National Mall, that is.
We came, we saw, we took a picture with the elephant.
From the National Museum of Natural History, we jetted next door and hit up the Museum of American History to check out the Batmobile, Dorothy's ruby slippers, and dresses of the First Ladies.
Cookie Monster was the highlight for Teddy and me, and I miiiight have fan-girled just a smidge.
We also hit up another Air and Space Museum.
Not my cup of tea, but it's the one thing I do remember from my 8th grade trip to D.C.
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| Those 2019 glasses are hiding all kinds of tired. |
FINALLY, it was time to check in to the hotel and change clothes for the first time in 2 days.
We stayed in the heart of the city, within walking distance to the White House.
As a matter of fact, the White House is where we spent our New Year's Eve.
Walking around in varying stages of sleep-deprivation, we chatted with some locals, and discovered just how gracious and kind the Secret Service are. Despite the shutdown, there were only a handful of protesters in front of the White House, and very few people out and about.
It was weird and unexpected, given that it was New Year's Eve, that our family were the hardest partyers in the city. And we were in bed by 11:00.
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| Tourist mode. |
I don't remember what we had originally planned for the following day, but we were still in major hustle-mode to see all-the-things before they closed indefinitely.
As we walked through the Capitol plaza, one of the very kind Capitol police officers stopped the kids and gave them some stickers or something, and recommended going for our tour of the Capitol right away. The lines were short, the wait was minimal,
and we hopped into a tour right as they were leaving.
Something we learned from our guide is that, in order to see the House and Senate chambers, you have to contact your Representative or Senator's office and get some passes.
We hemmed and hawed about this, but we decided to head over to the Library of Congress first.
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| Just checkin' out the selection in the Library of Congress. NBD |
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| Loungin' in the LOC. Like you do. |
If you know me (and I would guess that you do, otherwise, why are you reading this drivel?), you might know that I love libraries. My kids love libraries. We want to live in one, breathe in the books, lounge in the quiet, curled up with a good book or fifteen.
So, we hooked up with a tour of the Library of Congress.
And they didn't talk about books.
They told us about architecture and the horror story of fires that destroyed priceless collections of books. And how only a fraction of Thomas Jefferson's books were saved.
And here is a reading room you're not allowed to read in.
Oh, and here are books you're not allowed to touch.
So, while I'm sure it's very important to learn these things and to see them,
it was overall a very unsatisfactory trip to the library, in my opinion.
Pro Tip: hit up the newly-remodeled children's section and skip the tour.
At this point, the kids had been pushed to the limit. We were out of snacks,
they'd been dragged on tours, talked to death about architecture,
and had spent the entire morning not being allowed to touch ANYTHING.
Time to take a break and get some food, right?
WRONG!
It's time to head back to the Capitol and hang out in security lines!
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| Representative Teddy Brown, at your service. |
But, first, we had to get passes for the fam for the House and Senate chambers from our very gracious Representative Jim Cooper. Now, Mr. Cooper wasn't actually in his office at the time, but his staff was amazing. Not only did they get us passes for the chambers, but they also took us back to see Mr. Cooper's office and even to sit at his desk!
It might be a silly thing that was not a big deal for the staff, but it was a VERY big deal to us.
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| Why can't we just all look at the camera and smile at the same time?! Just once! Ok, so we went on our 10th trip back through security at the Capitol building, and then did some more security. And some more. Finally, when they'd stripped us of our phones, keys, shoelaces, watches, strollers, and 4th child (I'm kidding, Mom!), we got to... wait in line. But then, we visited the Senate chambers, which was not the one you see during the State of the Union. Next up was the House chambers, and there was a bit of a crackle of electricity in the air because the House was in session. Of course, we were in there while they were taking a break, so we only saw Pages and staffers. As usual, Teddy summed up absurd adult behavior in succinct kid-friendly terms with the question, "Are they having a staring contest?" But it was neat to think that we were there while a huge debate was going on and the wheels of government were turning. The kids remained unimpressed. And starving. I guess we fed them. I don't know what. This is not a foodie blog. Real quick, we dashed over to the National Art Museum, which is more Sarah's and my thing than the boys' but everybody found something they liked. |
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| I found a big blue rooster. |
Will found a seat.
Sarah found Warhol.
And Teddy found Mickey.
No one found Mike.
But Mike found this gem right next door to the Capitol: the National Botanic Gardens.
It was an amazing space for the kids to burn off steam, go on a scavenger hunt for different types of plants, and finally, FINALLY interact with their surroundings.
Even though the children's garden was closed (because, January), there was a model trains exhibit and an exhibit of model DC landmarks.
Just before dark, the drill sergeant, ahem, Mike, led his exhausted, cranky troops back to the hotel to rest up for another day in D.C.
Disclosure: This post contains inaccurate names for museums and stuff because I'm too lazy to look up the official names, but you can figure out what to Google.
Part 2: Georgetown, the Holocaust Museum, ____ Cemetary,
and some stuff we will definitely do next time
