Jiggity jig.

We are back from our vacation in California.  There was a surprise allergic reaction, an earthquake, 3-eyed fish, a talent show and a lot of Mexican food.  And that was only the first 4 days.  Then there were mariachis, dancing, confetti eggs, a very somber, teary moment and salty sea air.  Great fun was had by all. I’ll tell you all about it.

But today there is luggage to unpack and email and snail mail to sort.

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That’s it. I’ve had enough of the heat, humidity and tornado fake outs. I’m leaving DC.

Don’t worry, I’m coming back. We are actually headed back to the Old Country, the Left Coast, good ol’ Sunny Southern California. We’re on a pilgrimage to see family members we haven’t seen in about 2 years. We hope to stop by Olvera St in Los Angeles for folklorico costume pieces, visit the La Brea Tarpits and then head up to my hometown for Fiesta. Instead of temps already in the 80s at 8 in the morning, we will wear sweaters and peer out of my parents’ windows into the fog and wonder where the house across the street disappeared to. Instead of air conditioning, we will open windows and let the breezes off the Pacific Ocean cool us. We will probably take Bip to the beach for the first time.

When we return it will be August, with Bip’s birthday, school curriculum to order and organize, and a new school year to settle into. Fall will be on the horizon - ballet classes, scouts (Cub and Girl), soccer and possibly even music lessons. It’ll be busy.

But all that can wait. For now, we’re heading out to California. If you have a moment, please say a prayer for safe travel for us. I’ll try to blog a bit while I’m gone, but no promises. I think my parents may still have dial up.

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No matter what kind of personality tests I take, I am always identified as being a loyal friend.  It’s true.  I’m the kind of loyal friend that will actually leave the comfort of my air conditioned house and meet you at the National Zoo.  In the afternoon.  In July.

That’s love, I tell you.

My friend Jen - the one who lives in PA, but not the one who came to help me declutter - was in town over the weekend with her family.  They only had a couple of days here, one of which they wanted to dedicate to going to the National Zoo and seeing the pandas.  Normally, I avoid being outside in DC from May through mid-September, but I’m a loyal friend, so off we went.

My advice for going to the National Zoo during summer is this - don’t.  It’s hot, it’s humid and the zoo is built on a hill.  But seeing as how most people insist anyway, here’s my tips:

1.  The zoo is free but the food is overpriced.  Pack your own lunch and snacks if at all possible.  At least bring your own water so you can avoid buying the combo meals.  If you ignore my advice, plan on spending about $8 per person on lunch. Including children.  There’s five of us - do the math.  Ouch is right.

There are also all sorts of snacks to be had around the zoo, so budget for that, too.  You’ll also need to know that lids and straws are not available for your drinks.  We like to bring a toddler cup for Bip rather than let him try to manage the lidless drink.  We also bring an empty, refillable cup to pour the soda in as we leave the restaurant.

2.  The zoo is built on a hill, so at some point you will be walking up.  Try to plan your visit so that at the end of your day, you are at the top of the hill.  Finer points to consider:  if you’re taking the Metro, you’ll be at the top of the hill at the main entrance.  Go all the way down the hill without stopping.  Then start back up, stopping to see animals along the way.  When you’re done with your day, you’ll be at the top of the hill.  Trust me, you will be be thanking me for this tip later. If you park in one of the upper lots (Lots A-C), same thing.  If you park in the lower lots (Lots D-E), it doesn’t matter how you see the zoo, it’s a downhill walk to your car.

3.  The zoo maps aren’t free.  Oh sure, there are signs with maps on them all over the zoo, but the paper ones are not free.  I’d recommend printing one out and bringing it with you.

OK, enough tips.  I’ll do some generic Washington, DC tips at a later time.  Here’s some pictures from the zoo:

On our way home, we passed under the Chinatown arch.  We were first in line at the red light, so I was able to get this great picture.

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My parents have been here on a visit to see Pumpkin Girl’s ballet recital. Yesterday they suggested we go to Mount Vernon on their last day here. Our family really enjoys Mount Vernon, so of course we were happy to go. As luck would have it, another internet friend - Trish, who lives in Honduras - was also going to be there the same day, so I was hoping to meet up with her and one of my 7 Friends Named Jen there. She had mentioned that the basement area of Mount Vernon was also open and she thought she’d like to see it, too.

We arrived around 9:15 am and asked about the basement tour. Earlier in the year, a short tour of the basement was added to the regular tour of the mansion in response to the interest generated by “National Treasure 2.” We didn’t get a chance to get out there then which I thought was a bummer after we finally saw the movie just last week. What I didn’t know was that the basement was open again.

This time however, it’s not just tagged on to the end of the mansion tour. The “National Treasure Tour” as it’s now called is $5 a person, with a limit of 25 people in each group. It runs about 4 times a day.

The tour starts on the lawn behind the mansion where the presidential birthday party is held during the movie. The tour guide explained how the movie was filmed without damaging the historical property and without detracting from the authenticity with the movie making gear.

Then we moved into the basement through this locked door.

We saw the alcoves and a replica of the cornerstone that were depicted in the movie.

We were also able to see the area that was used as a kitchen and eating area for the white servants.

Then we moved to the ice house that can be seen in the movie when the Nicolas Cage character climbs up from the river. The ice house and its chute that leads to the Potomac River are the inspiration for the underground tunnel in the movie.

From the ice house we went down to the dock. We crossed a “No Visitors Beyond This Point” sign (ha!) and walked along the river. We saw where the ice house chute came out and George Washington’s dairy. Then we caught a great view of the mansion from below.

As a special non-related-to-the-movie treat, our guide showed us this 1936 Ford Fire Engine stored in a whiskey storage cave. Apparently, Henry Ford didn’t think Mount Vernon had enough fire engines in case of an emergency and donated this brand new fire truck.

The “National Treasure Tour” is running until October 31, 2008. If you have a chance to get there I highly recommend it! But see the movie before you go. The tour is about an hour and a half long. My 7 and 9 year olds both enjoyed it, but they are also really into history, especially the American Revolution. So much so that they took it upon themselves to memorize the whole paragraph of Thomas Paine’s letter about “these are the times that try men’s souls.” Our 2 year old wasn’t too into it. He was actually being kind of a pain. Not distracting to the others on the tour, just hard to manage. We had a stroller for him, but for about half of the tour, we couldn’t use. Thankfully it is light weight and has a strap to carry it over a shoulder. He would have been better in a backpack. The tour did not backtrack at all, so leaving the stroller somewhere was not a real option. Just something to note.

Also, it gets very hot and humid in DC during the summer. Bring lots of water, wear sunscreen and hats. A shuttle is available at the dock where the tour ends that returns you to the education center if you’ve had enough walking. We took the first tour of the day, then had an early lunch at the restaurant. After lunch we finished with the rest of our sightseeing.

Oh, I totally forgot to mention…we didn’t manage to meet up with my friend Trish as planned. We did find her and Jen right as they were leaving. Here’s a picture, just to prove that we were all there. Love the Giant Washington Head. Trish’s daughter got a great picture looking up his nose. Maybe she’ll put it on her blog.

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I’m back from vacation.  Did you miss me?

We were on a week long Disney Cruise.  It was wonderful.  Not too relaxing, but wonderful all the same.  Did you enjoy all the snow that I caused?  Remember how much I dislike the heat of summer?  Remember how where ever I have lived in the last 15 years has had record warm winters?  And when I move, those same places break snowfall records in the very next winter? Well, the day before we left, that big storm that was coming across the US was still predicted to go north of DC.  Then as I boarded a plane to Florida, the storm grew and headed south.  I hear Washington got 2-3 inches snow while I was sunning it up in the Caribbean.   Of course the cruise director said that the week we were there was the best weather they’d had in 2 months.  He thanked “who ever brought the great weather with them.”  That would be me.

So now we’re back.  The bags are mostly unpacked.  We are all sporting a lovely tan.  We’ve added several Disney related items to our collection.  We’ve booked another cruise for 2009.  We even joined the Disney Vacation Club.

Sadly, now it’s back to cooking our own food and making our own beds.  No more Charlie and Ivan bringing Mickey ice cream bars or cheese cake or baked Alaska after dinner.  No more towel animals on our bed after dinner.  I just printed out this week’s school schedule (we took an extra day off to recooperate) and planned out our dinner menu.  I’ve got Brownie meeting plans to make and a stack of mail to answer.  Sigh.

Is it too early to start a 2009 Cruise Countdown?

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Since moving to Washington, DC, we’ve made it a habit of using national holidays to go visit various museums and monuments. Most are open everyday except Christmas, traffic is light and parking is plentiful. Once you get past Labor Day, the museums are less crowded, too.

We’ve enjoyed all of our adventures in and around town. Except yesterday. Yesterday we chose the National Museum of the American Indian. We were looking forward to seeing it. We haven’t gotten to American history yet, but I thought it would be fun.

Boy, were we disappointed. The museum is really cool looking from the outside. They’ve got a small wetlands display, complete with ducks. Bip really liked those. “Daddy! Quack! More Quack!” Add a really great view of the Capitol dome through the autumn foilage and we were all revved up for a good time.

The atrium was awsome and soared four stories high. However, the rest of that level had very, very little in the way of displays.

We tried the second level. Nothing to see there either.

On the third level we found a display of beadwork. That was pretty cool, but the only way to tell what you were looking at was by using the interactive computers, one per display case. There were some pull out drawers with additional items, but again, you needed to be using the computer to be able to read about the items. The children became completely distracted by the computers and the drawers. They didn’t so much care about what was in the drawers as they like yanking them open. Plus, they started bickering over who got to control the computers.

The fourth floor had a little bit more to see. Most memorable was a big display of the weapons used against the native peoples - swords, rifles and bibles.

An hour after getting started, we were Done. The children had lost interest and the grown ups were disappointed.

We tried eating at the cafeteria, which we’d heard was excellent. It might have been, if you were interested in trying buffalo or frogs legs.

What we had hoped, no expected to see at the National Museum of the American Indian were signifcant displays on the various tribes of North America. I wanted the children to see how the various tribes lived - the kinds of houses they constructed, the kind of art they specialized in, how they made clothing. I wanted to see exhibits on their spiritual beliefs (admittedly, there was an spirituality exhibit, but by that time we were more than ready to leave) and on their rich tradition of story telling. We got none of that. Only a few tribes were represented in the “history” displays and those exhibits were very small. Sadly, I’m not sure what the point of the museum is. If you’re town, this is one museum to skip.

Fortunately, we were across the Mall from the National Gallery of Art. We enjoy eating at the Cascade Cafe there, watching the indoor waterfall. If you’re going to spend a small fortune on food, it might as well be something you’re not afraid to eat. As a bonus, we could go visit the Mary Cassatt paintings which were part of last month’s artist studies.

On the way we took this fun picture next to what looks like a free standing wall. How does it stay standing? I don’t know, it just does. It’s a mystery.

After lunch and visiting the Cassatts, we headed home. Not before hitting the children’s book store, of course. Once outside, we stopped to peer down at the people in the cafe through these triangle things.

Bip liked seeing the “awa-fall” from the outside.

A day of hits and misses. Not too thrilled with the American Indian museum, but we got some fun books. And that’s always a good thing.

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The theme for Cub Scouts this month is railroads, and wouldn’t you know it, the B&O Railroad Museum was having a Kids Fest this weekend! So we loaded up the kiddos and away we went.

Our day included a free train ride and jump tents that were so much fun that Pumpkin and Boo went in them 7 times in a row! Bip was more than happy to run around, pointing to choo-choos. Any day he gets to see trains is a good day. He and I particularly enjoyed the miniature train set-up that was outside. I loved the detail of the landscape!

Back in the roundhouse, some of the trains were available to climb aboard and explore. I let the others do that while I took way too many pictures of the Lego train display. Apparently, there is a Washington DC Metro Area Lego Train Club and they were more than happy to share their talents. Wow! Legos and trains, what an amazingly fun combination. Pumpkin Girl said, “I wish this could be our hobby!” LOL, me too! Here are just a few of the highlights:

Isn’t this a cool diner? Do you see R2D2 in the door?  How about Hagrid and Spiderman?  Click on the picture to enlarge.

Pumpkin Girl figured out that this cornfield next to the farm house was actually a maze.  See the skeleton of a guy that couldn’t find his way out?  The guy helping with the exhibit really enjoyed watching us discovering that.

The detail in these Lego-scapes was astounding.  Surprises were everywhere. Make sure you click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Working Lego trains were running around the whole thing.  I tried to catch a picture of Thomas, but he was too fast.

We could have stayed at the Kids Fest for longer, but we needed to get Bip home for a nap and the other two off to their Mexican folk dance class.  What, I didn’t tell you about that?  Some other time, perhaps.  For now, we’re thinking about heading back to the B&O Railroad Museum another day to see all the regular displays that we missed.  A great time was had by all.

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We just started studying space travel and the planets. And here we are, living in DC, with none other than the National Air and Space Museum just down the street. Figuratively, of course.

We like to use national holidays to go visit the free museums on the Mall. Parking is free on holidays and if you get there by 9:30 or so, you can park right in front of your museum of choice.

We’d been studying the Apollo space program and the missions to the moon, so we were really happy to find the Apollo 11 command module right there in the main lobby of the museum. Boo and Pumpkin Girl were amazed at how small the space for the astronauts really was. Other exhibits showed us the development of the space program, from Mercury to Apollo 17. They enjoyed seeing the real pieces of the space suits we’d talked about and how the space shuttle crew had special contraptions to help them drink their sodas from cans. Bip enjoyed this rotating model of Mars:

“Moon! Me! More moon! Wo-ow!”

We also got a chance to see a small sampling of the National Museum of American History,which is closed for renovation. A few of the exhibits are at the Air and Space Museum, including the ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz movie, Kermit the Frog, and the hat Lincolm was wearing when he was shot. The highlight of that gallery was when Bip spotted one of his favorites, R2D2. He was sitting in his stroller and couldn’t see him at first, but as soon as the crowd cleared and he spied him, he cried out, “D2!! Me!!” It really made his day.

We got off easy at the gift shop, with another key chain for Boo’s collection, another set of Presidential family paper dolls for Pumpkin Girl (she loves this series of paper dolls!), a couple of small toy planes, and of course, astronaut ice cream. Can’t forget the astronaut ice cream.

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Part 1 of our Philadelphia adventure is here: Philadelphia

So we were off to a decent start after a rough night. We arrived at the Franklin Institute with enough time to get parking in their lot, pick up our tickets at Will Call and get in line. I am so glad that we got such early tickets because there was absolutely no wait to get in to either the museum or the King Tut exhibit.

The exhibit was amazing! We just wrapped up a year long study of ancient Egypt, which included studying King Tut specificially and watching several documetaries from NetFlix on the discovery of his tomb. Our studies more than prepared us for what we were seeing, and helped me to explain and paraphrase things for Boo and Pumpkin Girl. I was very disappointed that taking pictures was not allowed - we even had to turn off our cell phones and beepers. The ambience of exhibit was carefully constructed with lighting and subtle music. We started off in well lit rooms with treasures of some of Tutankhamun’s ancestors. Displays on the walls helped to establish the political climate that exhisted prior to Tut’s rule and how it effected his reign. This was all familiar to us already which made it even more exciting.

One of my favorite pieces was the coffin of his great-grandmother and her funeral mask. I like her little smile, like she’s just happy to be here.

The next few exhibit rooms were devoted to Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Their treasures were equally beautiful, but then it was time for Tut. The excitement grew as the rooms darkened and the music became more mysterious. We climbed a ramp that led to rooms filled with Tut’s treasures.

It would take me all day to describe everything we saw. Articles that were found on the mummy itself, statues, toys, every day items were all on display. This coffinette, only about 14 inches tall was just exquisite. I could have stayed and looked at it all day. It is inscribed (in hieroglyphics, of course) all over the inside and it once held Tut’s mummified internal organs. Tutankhamun’s famous funeral mask was not included in the exhibit because it is no longer allowed to leave Egypt. I knew this before hand, so we weren’t too disappointed.

Don’t worry, I didn’t take any of these pictures myself.

Two hours later, we were finished with the exhibit. We were all glad that we saw it, all except poor Bip. He was in such a foul mood from having not slept well. He whined through about half the exhibit, not wanting to be in the stroller or in either my sling or Philip’s. He even starting crying until we threatened to stick him in a corner by himself while we finished walking around. Fortunately he didn’t realize we couldn’t actually do that and he quieted down. Eventually he fell asleep in Philip’s sling.

The exhibited conveniently deposited us right into the Tut gift shop. We spent a small fortune, mostly because I couldn’t leave without a hardcover copy of the exhibit catalog. By then Bip was awake and hungry, so we went down to the museum cafeteria, where we spent another small fortune. Actually, it wasn’t that bad and I was able to find something non-fried, yet tasty for myself.

After spending a little more time in the rest of the museum, we took off for New Jersey to see my friend Carol. There we were in NJ and I didn’t make one Sopranos joke.  Nope, I made three.  Just couldn’t help it. We had a great time and Carol made us her famous chicken parmesan for dinner. Yum! Our children had fun playing together and somehow Boo got attacked by a sprinkler and ended up soaking wet. Fortunately, this was after dinner and we had already planned to put the kids in their pajamas for the ride home.

Our ride home was uneventful, which is always a good thing!

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We headed up to Philadelphia the other day to see the King Tut exhibition. We got ourselves 9 am timed-entry tickets, so we decided to take the 3 hour trip the night before. The original plan was to meet up with my friend Carol, spend the afternoon with her family, let her feed us, then go to our cheap airport hotel for the night. Except I didn’t bother telling Carol until like 3 days before and she was way too busy to have us over. Hmph. So we came up with the alternate plan of going to the Academy of Natural Sciences for the afternoon.

It was a great plan, but we failed to account for not knowing our way around Philadelphia and needing to find parking. We located the museum ok, thanks mostly to our GPS. Finding parking was an entirely different story. Parking lots wanted $5 for the first 20 minutes and almost $15 for 2 hours. Ouch. Then as we were wandering around, someone pulled out of a metered space on the street! Yay us! We took our time unloading the children and stroller from the car and then we realized that our meter was out of order! Sweet! The meter maid that was walking along let us know that we still had to comply with the 2 hour limit, which was just fine with us. So off to the museum!

It was a great museum with lots of hands on stuff for the kids and a live animal demonstration. Boo and Pumpkin even got to participate in an archaeological dig for dinosaurs.

The highlight for me was the live butterfly exhibit. I got lots of good pictures.

I liked this Owl Eye butterfly having a snack on a banana.(above)

They were very proud of this Queen Alexandra Bird Wing butterfly which had just come out of the cocoon the day before. These butterflies can have a wingspan of up to 1 foot. I happened to get this picture before I even knew what kind of butterfly it was.

One landed on me!

We got back to our car just as our 2 hours of free parking were up. My stomach was rebelling against the Taco Bell we’d eaten for lunch en route, so we decided to head for our hotel earlier than planned. I was a bit hesitant about our hotel. It was cheap and near the airport, which made it pretty close to where we needed to be in the morning. It had the usual free continental breakfast, but no pool. Reviews for it and other hotels near it said that the neighborhood wasn’t the best, but the hotel fine. I just didn’t want to be stuck in the hotel with 3 active kids with nothing to do so we had planned on eating an early dinner downtown. But with the parking what it was and having to move the car anyway, plus my touchy stomach, we thought we’d just go to the hotel. We hoped we’d spot some family friendly place to eat along the way.

Well, like the free parking spot earlier, the hotel was a great surprise. The area was far from questionable, in fact there was nothing at all down this particular street but other hotels. Well, that and a Ruby Tuesdays! Our hotel was big, bright and clean and had interior hallways. Our room had two queen size beds and a window seat. We were very pleased. Dinner at Ruby Tuesdays was nice, then we came back, watched a couple of episodes of the Brady Bunch on our portable DVD player, then we all went to bed early. It was a good thing, too, because Bip didn’t sleep well at all. He was up all night. Ug. It was a l-o-n-g night and I was just praying I wouldn’t wake up with a sleep deprivation headache. The only cure for those is more sleep. I woke up fine, if just a little groggy and we managed to get our crew out the door by 8:15 to make it to the Franklin Institute by 9.

Next time: King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs

Did we spend more money at the museum cafeteria or the gift store? Did we get kicked out of the exhibit for taking pictures? Who started to cry? Did my friend Carol ever manage to make time to see us? Who ended up soaking wet from head to foot by the end of the day? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Standing at the top of the stairs in front of the Franklin Institute

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