And we're off to....: Without Daddy

Monday, January 17, 2011

Without Daddy - Day 7 (D.C.)

(not edited for typo's I'll do it later, sorry)
You know when the day starts out bad you should just call it a day because things are bound to get worse. I was really excited to show my sister D.C., it is one of my favorite things to do when people come to visit. D.C. is such a unique city and it has such great land marks that everyone knows where you are a history buff or a movie buff. The monuments, memorials, and the White House are cool but the Smithsonian museums (yes there are more than one) are so fascinating that it's impossible to do everything in one day. The plan of action was to get to D.C. around 9 - 9:30 so we could walk around the monuments and see the outside of the White house then we were going to check out the Natural History Museum (it has dinosaurs) and then have lunch at the Air and Space Museum (yes there are two one in Chantilly and one in D.C.) and end the day touring the Air and Space, maybe check out an IMAX. Needless to say that is NOT how the day went. We were running behind in the first place and it was already 9 when we were ready to start loading the car. As we finally get the boys dressed and outside I look at the car and the front tire is flat (great), now I have to bring the kids in and get them all unbundled and call AAA. I must say that AAA got to my house really, really fast and we had a small glimmer of hope that maybe the guy could fix our tire for us but alas it was not meant to be and I was stuck driving with the spare. As this was the only day I could get my sister into D.C., I was determined to get there so we re-bundled the kids and loaded the car and heading into D.C. more than 2 hours later than we wanted. Normally when Kyle and I go to D.C. on a Sunday we can find great street parking a few minutes before the museums open at 10 but by 11 most of the good street parking is taken but at least we did find something. As we start unloading the kids we get our first taste of the nice icy wind that is chilling us to the core (I know I should not be complaining about it being cold when it's -30 C in Edmonton), I must say I'm glad I have the Chariot for my boys but poor Owen got the full brunt of the wind. Because we were so behind schedule we decided to brave the wind and head for the White House. The main viewing area for the White House was blocked off so we were re-directed further away (good thing I brought my zoom lens) because someone was visiting (we did get to see the motorcade unload the people). By this time is was getting near close to lunch time and Callen needed to eat so we heading to the American History Museum as it was the closest and had a restaurant. The food was TERRIBLE. As we were already in the American History Museum we decided to check out the train and boat exhibit. This is such a neat exhibit and it's quite child friendly if only the boys would get along. There is something about Tavish and Owen, that they just seam to drive each other crazy, so Tavish finally got banished to the stroller. Owen really wanted to see the dinosaurs so we trekked to the Natural History Museum. All the Smithsonian museums require a bag check before you enter and for the most part they are pretty quick at it, however we managed to get the world slowest lady. The one line put through about 20 people in the time it took our lady to put through 2 and then she spilled all of Jessie's stuff on the floor. The Natural history museum was really busy and while Owen wanted to see the dinosaurs, Tavish was screaming "NO skeletons, no skeletons", so I took my two boys out to wait while Jessie briefly showed Owen the Dinosaurs. By this time I had enough, enough of people but mainly enough of our boys, it was time to leave so I heading for the closest exit. The security guard at the exit makes eye contact with me and even helps open the door for us but neglects to tell us that this exit has no ramps just two flights of stairs. Great now we are outside and can't get down the stairs and if we want to find a ramp we have to go back inside and back though security (like HELL i'm doing that) and go down a small elevator to the other side of the building. I think by this point I'm ready to scream, cry or both, thankfully a very nice man helped Jess and I carry the strollers down the stairs. Tavish is still screaming because he now wants to see the skeletons, ahh we need to get home and I need quite time.

I felt really bad that our D.C. trip sucked so much. Jess will need to come back and we'll have to go again withOUT the boys.