Quick vacation updates
Jul. 5th, 2009 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuQuick notes Wifi is spotty so no time for consistent caps or proofreading. Deal. :-)
Thu: Drove down from Baltimore. Stopped off in Wheaton to buy lunch, then went to the Air and Space II in VA. Amazing. Kids had a blast. Then in to DC to check in to our hotel, get in a quick swim; back out to Wheaton for dinner and to buy supplies for the next few days.
Fri: Walked to the botanical garden. Stunning. Then to the Capitol for our tour; I love the new visitors center (the skylights embedded in the fountain are great). Tour itself was decent for what it covered. Then to the LOC which was closed for the federal holiday but we got to see a little of it -- enough to satisfy the kids, who were really psyched about it. After lunch we went to the intl spy museum; pricey but given that everything else is free we figured we could splurge. They had a silk LOP, which for me was the highlight; in general they had some amazing stuff but I found the layout confusing and I think they went too much for the pop-culture whizbang presentation. Then back to the hotel for Shabbat dinner in our room and sleep.
Sat: Made kiddush and motzi in our hotel room, then walked over to the nat'l archives for the recitation of the declaration. Read by three high schoolers and three actors portraying Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin. Still makes me cry. Then we waited on line for almost an hour to get in to the archives to see the charters of freedom; when we realized that at this rate it would be another two hours we bailed. The indepdendence day parade started from in front of the archives, so we hung around for an hour and had lunch. Went through the sculpture garden and then to the museum of natural history. Hope diamond is exquisite; kids loved the gems, dinosaurs, and mammals. Then we wandered around the mall where the smithsonian folk festival was going on. Passed by many exemplars of the first amendment: J4J, Hairy Fishnets, some Mennonite-like sect, and a few that I can't identify. (I kept waiting for someone to sidle up to me and say 'We need a tenth for minyan.') We walked back to the hotel, packed a picnic dinner, and walked over to the West lawn of the Capitol. After waiting an hour to get through security, we found a nice spot with a view through the trees of the top of the washington monument. On the other side of a copse of trees there was a concert with Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, Caroll Spinney, and a few others, then just after shabbat was over there were fireworks. Tani was jumping up and down shouting "Oh my God!" over and over --- we realized that the kids have never seen fireworks in person before. At one point, Tani said "Oh, so this is what awe feels like." :-) Then we walked back to our hotel (we're two blocks from the Capitol) and watched Boston on TV. Boston's fireworks are light-years better than Washington's. Perhaps next year we'll take the kids to the Esplanade.
Sunday: We spent the whole day at the Air and Space Museum. Eight hours. We missed two rooms. Tani was in seventh heaven, Alissa was in fifth. I was thrilled to see SpaceShipOne added to the Hall of Milestones; at first I was upset that the Wright Flyer wasn't there any more but once we saw its new home I was very pleased --- you can walk right up to it now and really see it. Tani would walk into almost any room in the museum and shout "Oh, cool, it's X" and run over and read the placard --- and he was almost always completely correct in his identification. And really, how can any human being not be thrilled and excited to be in the presence of so many "the actual such-and-such." After the museum we took the Metro to a restaurant near dupont circle and on the Metro we ran into our friend Debbie from college, whom we were hoping to see at the NPL con next weekend. She was with her aunt; we made tentative plans to have dinner together tomorrow night.
Thu: Drove down from Baltimore. Stopped off in Wheaton to buy lunch, then went to the Air and Space II in VA. Amazing. Kids had a blast. Then in to DC to check in to our hotel, get in a quick swim; back out to Wheaton for dinner and to buy supplies for the next few days.
Fri: Walked to the botanical garden. Stunning. Then to the Capitol for our tour; I love the new visitors center (the skylights embedded in the fountain are great). Tour itself was decent for what it covered. Then to the LOC which was closed for the federal holiday but we got to see a little of it -- enough to satisfy the kids, who were really psyched about it. After lunch we went to the intl spy museum; pricey but given that everything else is free we figured we could splurge. They had a silk LOP, which for me was the highlight; in general they had some amazing stuff but I found the layout confusing and I think they went too much for the pop-culture whizbang presentation. Then back to the hotel for Shabbat dinner in our room and sleep.
Sat: Made kiddush and motzi in our hotel room, then walked over to the nat'l archives for the recitation of the declaration. Read by three high schoolers and three actors portraying Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin. Still makes me cry. Then we waited on line for almost an hour to get in to the archives to see the charters of freedom; when we realized that at this rate it would be another two hours we bailed. The indepdendence day parade started from in front of the archives, so we hung around for an hour and had lunch. Went through the sculpture garden and then to the museum of natural history. Hope diamond is exquisite; kids loved the gems, dinosaurs, and mammals. Then we wandered around the mall where the smithsonian folk festival was going on. Passed by many exemplars of the first amendment: J4J, Hairy Fishnets, some Mennonite-like sect, and a few that I can't identify. (I kept waiting for someone to sidle up to me and say 'We need a tenth for minyan.') We walked back to the hotel, packed a picnic dinner, and walked over to the West lawn of the Capitol. After waiting an hour to get through security, we found a nice spot with a view through the trees of the top of the washington monument. On the other side of a copse of trees there was a concert with Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, Caroll Spinney, and a few others, then just after shabbat was over there were fireworks. Tani was jumping up and down shouting "Oh my God!" over and over --- we realized that the kids have never seen fireworks in person before. At one point, Tani said "Oh, so this is what awe feels like." :-) Then we walked back to our hotel (we're two blocks from the Capitol) and watched Boston on TV. Boston's fireworks are light-years better than Washington's. Perhaps next year we'll take the kids to the Esplanade.
Sunday: We spent the whole day at the Air and Space Museum. Eight hours. We missed two rooms. Tani was in seventh heaven, Alissa was in fifth. I was thrilled to see SpaceShipOne added to the Hall of Milestones; at first I was upset that the Wright Flyer wasn't there any more but once we saw its new home I was very pleased --- you can walk right up to it now and really see it. Tani would walk into almost any room in the museum and shout "Oh, cool, it's X" and run over and read the placard --- and he was almost always completely correct in his identification. And really, how can any human being not be thrilled and excited to be in the presence of so many "the actual such-and-such." After the museum we took the Metro to a restaurant near dupont circle and on the Metro we ran into our friend Debbie from college, whom we were hoping to see at the NPL con next weekend. She was with her aunt; we made tentative plans to have dinner together tomorrow night.