the nation's capital

We had an inservice day on Wednesday. Now, usually I am the boring Mom who doesn't plan much beyond a trip to the local playground and maybe, if the kids are really good, a trip to the local McDonalds on mid-week days off. After a couple of really good weeks, great report cards, and a huge stack of paperwork on my desk that REALLY NEEDS to get done - I decided to treat everyone to a day away from the house. Until the minute we left home, the kids thought I was joking about going away for the day - "Mom, you are just teasing us, that is not nice!!"

We got up at 5am, packed sandwiches, Gatorade and krimpets, hopped in the car and drove 2.25 hours to the closest Washington DC metro stop, hopped on the metro (don't I sound cosmopolitan) and rode 30 minutes to the Smithsonian stop and spent a WONDERFUL day in the Nation's Capital.

First stop on our tour - the American History Museum where it was the kid's job to find the red ruby slippers - since they are on the top floor, it took us 3 hours of learning, reading, exploring and laughing until we finally found them. A quick stop at the gift shop for a harmonica and our "pet tornado, Chaos" and we were on to our next stop. I love this museum, and the renovation is just amazing!! The new flag exhibit brought tears to my eyes and we all "stood" on Route 66 and sang the entire song - everyone thought we were NUTS!

Next stop - walk to the White House so our 6 year old could see the outside. We stood like fools for about 45 minutes because, I swear, it looked like a presidential motorcade was about to leave any minute .. . but it never did.

On to the Natural History Museum. It was about 2:30, and honestly, everyone was getting a little tired ... plus we had just done this museum last year - so we hit the highlights - the new ocean exhibit (WOW), the mammal room - love love love the giraffes and the dinosaurs. Brief detour downstairs for a hit of ice cream and we we off to our final stop of the day.

The New Visitor's Center at the US Capitol. I didn't really think we would make it to our last stop of the day, so I didn't research it properly, and we only had 25 minutes before they closed. But, it is beautiful and so worth it to go back again!! What an amazing (but brief) history lesson for the kids and we had so much fun going back over all of their civics lessons and teaching Thomas all about the three branches of government.

Hopped back on the metro, back in the car by 6 and home by 8:30. It was a truly awesome day!! Pictures to come soon!