Category - Adventures

Would you believe that we had two separate Scout events at the Washington Monument on Saturday?

Our day started off with a ride on the Metro. Any adventure that involves the Metro is a good one for our children. Not having to find parking in downtown DC is good thing for mom and dad. For our train obsessed toddler, seeing the Metro trains zoom in and out of the station was almost too good to be true. That we actually boarded one of these “choo-choos” was heavenly.

The Washington monument is about 3 blocks from the closest Metro station. Not bad for an adult or the one in the stroller, a little harder on the 6 year old who is prone to complaining anyway. Still, we made it to the base of the monument with 5 minutes to spare.

Our first event was a tour of the inside of the Washington Monument with Boo’s Cub Scout pack. They do have public tours, but it’s a hit or miss thing. You have to be inside the monument, looking through the windows and hear them announce a tour to get in on it. Or you can pre-arrange one for a group, like we did. Be warned though, this is not for the faint of knee. There are 897 steps inside, and we walked down every single one. So what’s the point of taking a tour down the stairs? Well for one, you can’t just walk down by yourself, you have to be escorted by a Park Ranger. Second, the inside is lined with memorial stones donated by all 50 states, many foreign countries and other private organizations. Some are very elaborate :

(from the Sultan of Turkey)

and some are very simple.

Actually, this one isn’t as simple as it appears. It is made of jade and is worth a 3 million dollars. It is the only memorial stone that you are allowed to touch. Because of vandalism like people carving their names into the stones or breaking off pieces of marble, you may not touch any of the other stones. Not even if you ask nicely.

My legs were getting a little quivery by the end of the tour, but I survived. This morning, though, my calves are quite sore.

By now the whole area was crawling with Girl Scouts arriving for the annual Sing-Along on the Mall. I was a little hesitant about attending this event. I don’t like crowds and I don’t like heat and humidity. I have about zero sense of adventure. But Pumpkin Girl wanted to go, plus this is Sing-Along was celebrating 95 years of Girl Scouts. And it was right here in Washington, DC. How could we pass up this opportunity? Plus, Pumpkin got a patch for her new Brownie uniform. And if you know any Girl Scouts, then you know it’s all about the patches!

We found ourselves a shady place to eat lunch. In the shade and with the wind, being outside was actually pleasant. Pumpkin got a chance to exchange swaps with the other Girl Scouts from around the country. I helped her choose a simple but cute little swap to make. I suspected that she would be hesitant to go up to girls and offer to swap, so we limited ourselves to making just 10 swaps. I thought that would be what she could handle and I didn’t want to end up with a whole bag of unused swaps. Turns out that other girls will happy to make the initial swap offer and we probably could have used another 10 or 20 more of our swaps. It was OK, though. Lots of the older girls offered her one of their swaps, even though she had run out of her own. I thought that really spoke well of the Girl Scouts as a group.

When the festivities got started we couldn’t hear from where we were sitting, so we moved out of the shade to be closer to the stage. We ended up sitting directly in front of the White House. I heard that they were expecting over 100,000 people that day. Seeing all the girls moving in groups toward the stage reminded me a little of Moses and the Exodus, without the unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

Boo and Phil were still in their Boy Scout uniforms from the earlier tour. They got a lot of notice and waves from the Girl Scouts. Boo, being at that age where he’s not really sure about the whole girl thing, didn’t know what to do with all the attention. Once when he waved back, he set the whole gaggle of Girl Scouts giggling (say that three times fast). I overheard one of the moms say “He’s one in a million here today.”

The sun was intense and we only lasted about an hour until we needed to go home. Pumpkin was ok with that, being quite tired and hot herself. She got her patch, did the swap thing and sang for an hour – it was a good day. We only made it halfway back to the Metro station before we needed to buy some ice cold liquid refreshments. I was getting a headache and by the time we got home, I was also feeling nauseated. Doesn’t Philip know better than to let me go outside during the summer? No matter how much water I drink, I’m destined to become a heat casualty. If God had wanted me to be outside, he wouldn’t have provided me with all this indoor air conditioned goodness.

I’m doing better today, but my legs need motrin!

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We took a somewhat impromptu trip to Mount Vernon on Thursday.  It was tentatively on the schedule, depending on what the weather did, then off again when the children misbehaved, then back on again when I decided to show them mercy because it was really my bad mood that caused me to cancel the trip.  Thursday morning dawned cool and clear, with chance of rain in the afternoon, and good moods and behavior all around, so we hit the road.

Here’s the children waiting with George and Martha. They are in their scout uniforms because I thought scouts are free during the school year.  Turns out that it was just in February.  They got a lot of attention wearing them.

On our way up to the mansion we met another homeschooling family that also uses Sonlight!  Phil was wearing our Sonlight backpack, so the other mom started talking to us.  They were visiting from Idaho. 

This is the mansion and the bowling green right in front.  Ol’ George sure knew how to live!   Below is his view of the Potomac from his back porch.  Very nice. 

Here are the children sitting on the back porch, enjoying the view.  They’re having a good time, really.

Washington added a cupola on the roof.  He would open the cupola’s windows in the summer to let the heat out.  I can’t imagine living here without air conditioning!  On top of the cupola is a weather vane made to look like a dove with a twig in it’s mouth.

To keep all the animals at Mount Vernon from getting too close to the mansion, Washington built a low wall into a hill.  It was better than a fence, because you couldn’t see it!  If you were playing on the lawn and didn’t know the wall was there, you might fall off of it and everyone would laugh.  This may be why these walls were called Ha-Ha walls.  Here are Pumpkin Girl and Boo about to fall off a Ha-Ha wall.

Here’s  Pumpkin Girl laying a flower on Washington’s grave.  She didn’t attract nearly as large of a crowd as President Bush did.

We stayed until lunch time and still didn’t get a chance to see everything.  We bought annual passes so we can go back as often as we like.

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Living in Washington, DC has given us such wonderful opportunities for family adventures. We have tried to take advantage of Federal holidays by visiting some of the sites. Our original plan for President’s Day this year was to go to the National Gallery of Art to look at the Renoir paintings. We’ve been studying Renoir, especially his works that are at the National Gallery. However, we heard that Mount Vernon was having free admission today, so we headed there instead.

Our plan was to arrive at about the time they opened at 9 am. We were just a little behind schedule and arrived about 9:20. Already the parking lots were full and we were being directed to overflow parking half a mile down the road where we could board a shuttle. We could see that there was a long line to get in. We do not like crowds and the thought of standing in line all day just didn’t fit with our idea of fun. Plus, it was about 20 degrees and a good portion of Mount Vernon is outside. So we kept driving by the overflow lots and back to DC.

We decided to return to our original plan of visiting the National Gallery. We decided to take a risk and not stop at our house for our GPS or directions. We had a general idea of where we wanted to be so drove on. We found great parking right across the street from the Gallery. Even with that short walk we were practically frozen and very, very glad to have chosen an indoor activity for the day.

The National Gallery is a true gem and is very beautiful inside. Lots of fountains and gardens and places to sit and enjoy life. We were really happy to find these Renoirs, copies of which are hanging in our dining room.

I was also excited to get a preview of the Monets and Mary Cassatts and even a Raphael that we’ll be studying in upcoming months. I deliberately chose these artists and their works knowing we could see them in person at the National Gallery.

We had lunch at the Cascade Cafe, right there in the museum, with a view of their indoor waterfall. We’ve eaten there before, at Pumpkin Girl’s request. After lunch I had wanted to see an exhibit on Paris, but the museum had been overheated and stuffy and I was developing a migraine. I really wanted fresh air, so we left and went to look for the outdoor skating rink.

A part of the outdoor sculpture garden at the National Gallery is turned into skating rink during the winter. None of us skate, but the children enjoyed watching everyone skating.

We also enjoyed the sculptures.

This one, called “Typewriter Eraser” needed a bit of explanation that started with, “Back in Grandpa’s day…”

We arrived home to the dripping of the snow and ice melting. Bip had fallen asleep and my headache was terrible. He and I slept for 2 hours, then I slept another hour and by 5:30 my headache had subsided. I think it’s time that I go see a doctor for these headaches. I’m pretty sure they are migraines.

But we had a great day overall. We have rain in the forecast which will hopefully get rid of this dangerous ice.

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So what do you suppose is right in the center of one of the world’s most secure building?

A secret entrance to a tunnel? An ultra secure briefing facility? A fall out shelter? Jimmy Hoffa?

Would it surprise you to know that right in the center of the Pentagon, the worldwide command and control center for the United States Armed Forces is…a hot dog stand?

It’s true!

From a DefenseLink News Article:

“Rumor has it that
during the Cold War the Russians never had any less than two missiles
aimed at this hot dog stand,” Brett Eaton, an information and
communications officer for Washington Headquarters Services, said while
standing in front of the building. “They thought this was the
Pentagon’s most top secret meeting room, and the entire Pentagon was a
large fortress built around this hot dog stand.”

Reportedly, by using satellite imagery, the Soviets could see groups of
U.S. military officers entering and exiting the hot dog stand at about
the same time every day. They concluded that the stand was the entrance
to an underground bunker. “They (Soviets) thought the officers were
going to get their top secret briefings in a protected area, but really
they were just going to get lunch,” Eaton said with a chuckle.

Well, this hot dog stand has not been used for a few years and it’s days are numbered. It’s being replaced with a new eatery that will have indoor seating and restrooms and serve breakfast and lunch. It’s scheduled to open in September. (I’m hoping I can finally get my husband to give me a tour of the Pentagon and we can have lunch there.)

You’ll be happy to know that the owl that perches atop the hot dog stand to ward off birds will be placed on the new building.

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If you are in the Washington, DC area, let me give 10 thumbs up to the Festival of Lights at Watkins Regional Park in Maryland.  For $5 a car, the entire family is treated to a wonderful display of holiday lights.  Everyone in our car enjoyed it, thus the 10 thumbs up, even Nicholas, who squealed in delight the whole time.  It took us about 30 minutes to drive through the whole thing and about another 30 minutes to get home, just inside the District.  The Festival goes through January 1st and is free on Christmas Day.  If you’re up for a drive, this is a don’t miss!  Looks like this is going to become an family tradion while we live here.

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We were able to take advantage of Labor Day by going to visit the Museum of American History’s last day of being open. They are closing for 2 years to do some extensive renovation. We live about 15 minutes from the National Mall, and on government holidays, we can usually find parking right in front of the Smithsonian museum that we are visiting. We got there good and early, and were able to walk around the grounds a bit before the museum opened.

One of the first things that we saw was the flag that hung on the Pentagon after September 11.

Here it is at the museum: We also saw the flag that flew over Ft. McHenry, which inspired Francis Scott Key to write the “Star Spangled Banner.” Pictures were not allowed in that exhibit. But this link has a picture, as well as being a really great site to learn more about the flag. You can hover over the flag and learn interesting facts about the flag and its history. There are links about the renovation of the American History Musuem and the new gallery they are building for this flag.

I was impressed at how large the flag was and was surprised to learn that the big hole in it was not from the battle. Apparently, the owners of the flag allowed people to cut pieces from it as souvenirs, including one of the stars.

The museum had a neat display of model ships and this fun masthead.

In the section about American Pop Culture, we saw some of the original Muppets and Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz.”

They aren’t as bright red as I’d imagined they’d be. The ruby slippers are moving to the National Air and Space museum, just across the Mall, for the duration of the renovation.

We saw these chairs from “All in the Family.”

I immediately got the theme song in my head, and I bet you do now, too…”Boy, the way Glen Miller played. Songs that made the Hit Parade. Guys like us, we had it made. Those were the days.”

Boo and Pumpkin Girl were completely unimpressed by the Bunkers’ chairs. I figured the other pop culture displays would be lost on them, too. They were getting hungry anyway, so we headed downstairs for lunch at the Subway sandwich place in the musuem. Next to Taco Bell, Subway is Boo’s absolute favorite place to eat. We haven’t found one close enough in a good neighborhood, so this was an extra special treat. The restaurant was decorated like a 1930’s era soda shop.

After lunch, we let the kids play at the hands-on science center, wandered around a bit more, then went to the gift shop. Boo bought a key chain for his collection and Pumpkin got George Washington and Abe Lincoln’s families as paper dolls. Paper dolls always frustrated me as a child, those tabs never kept the clothes on, so I turned her paper dolls into magnets. They live on her metal closet door.

Another good day and great fun was had by all.

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