Day 5: DC part 2

Today was a long, long day. Full of seeing wonderful historical sites—but long, nonetheless!  With the grandparents still not feeling 100%, we left them at the campground and headed off on foot toward the nearest Metro station around 8 am. Our 1 ¼ mile walk began in the woods of the campground and we saw several deer having breakfast (and probably wondering why the heck we were disturbing them so early!!).  We arrived at the College Park Metro station and figured out how to calculate and purchase our SmarTrip cards and then waited about 15 minutes for the train to arrive. (Note: there are multiple announcements that the trains are running every 16 minutes due to maintenance—what kind of arbitrary number is every 16 minutes??  I am CERTAIN no Type A person came up with this schedule!)  The girls were thrilled to ride the train, having only ever been on public transit once before in their lives (this summer at the Peachtree).  We managed to change trains and find our exit at the Smithsonian station. (Side note #2: Heather—all the workers we encountered in the Metro booths were SUPER nice and helpful—don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it!).  First public transportation of the day successfully navigated—check.

Our first stop of the day was the Holocaust Museum.  Security here would be the strictest of anywhere we went today.  Bags and bodies were scanned... then I had to drink a sip out of every water bottle (five!) to show I wasn't hauling explosives... although, as Michael pointed out, if I was a terrorist intent on harm-- wouldn't I accomplish the same goal if I exploded myself?  Thoughts to ponder about security check points... some in the day seemed more about the appearance of security rather than actually looking for anything... interesting. Anyhoo... The Holocaust Museum does not allow photography so only a picture from the outside.

They do an amazing job of presenting the history of this event-- from it's subtle beginnings to it's ultimate horror... they address Hitler's rise to power and the lack of action from countries around the world as well as the Jewish responses at the beginning.  No one seemed to think it would EVER end the way it did.  This was not really a surprise since we had just studied this pretty extensively in history last year-- but it does leave you thinking as you watch the political landscape of today unfolding.  The museum is so well done.  It is very quiet and reverent.  The two places that really got me were the memorial hall-- a place of quiet reflection and lit candles... and a display of shoes of some of the victims-- hundreds and hundreds of them... that represent only a fraction of those murdered. It's a very sobering place... but so good to see.  

 

Next, we walked toward the Smithsonian Museums.  On our way, we were stopped by some nice representatives from Sabra Hummus-- giving large free samples of hummus and pretzels!  A nice treat!  I admit we were initially skeptical (another guy had tried to offer us a 'free' trip on his pedicab) but it was legit-- with coupons even!  We already had 2 hummus lovers in the family-- we now have one more who isn't opposed to it... and one who wouldn't even taste it.  I will leave it to your imagination to figure out who is who... the answers might surprise you!!

 

Despite our free snack, we were still pretty hungry, so our first stop at the Smithsonian Museum of American History was the Stars and Stripes Cafe in the basement.  The food here was actually pretty good (although overpriced, as typical of tourist attractions).  About half of this museum is under renovation-- which was good and bad.  It allowed us to see most of the exhibits-- but some of them felt like they weren't really as in-depth as I remembered.  Some of our favorites were Dorothy's slippers from the Wizard of Oz, the first ladies' dresses and china, Kermit the Frog, the history of transportation and the Stars and Stripes that inspired the National Anthem.

 

We moved on from here to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. The girls enjoyed seeing the dinosaur from the "Night at the Museum" movies as well as the display of gems and minerals.  Abbie liked the Egyptian mummy exhibit as she has been studying that period of history this fall.  I enjoyed the Hope Diamond :)

Next on the agenda was the National Archives (via the National Sculpture Gallery/Display/?? I don't remember exactly what it was called-- it was outside and we walked through it on the way to Archives!  Abbie just informed me it was the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden... so there you go!) There were some pretty cool sculptures... and some that were just, umm... interesting.  At Archives, the girls were excited to use the gold elevators from the "National Treasure" movie as we made our way up to the Rotunda to view the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights.  The crowd was not large here (sadly?!)-- though it was getting later in the day... Even though these documents are faded and worn, it was still moving to see them in person and realize just what they represent.

After Archives we made the decision to do the other two 'must do's' on our list just in case our day on Monday needed to be cut short.  Turns out that would be an inspired decision.  We set out on foot for the White House (via a Turkish street festival.. that was kind of neat as its not something we see everyday!  Or ANY day for that matter!!).  Got pictures by the back gate of the White House and then set off to see if we could master the second round of public transportation for the day: the DC Circulator bus!  On the way to the bus stop, Michael realized that we were going by the front of the White House and he wanted pics of it--- the girls and I had very tired feet (Abbie described it as "like your feet were on fire and you were walking on rocks barefoot"!).  Even though he had run 14 miles in the past 2 days and walked all around the Mall, he walked over for the pictures.  We waited on a street corner.  When he got back, he informed us that he had chatted up one of the Secret Service guys (can you see that the police are quickly becoming a theme of this trip??!)-- I asked what in the world they talked about... the answer?  The weather!!!  LOL!!

Michael's picture!

The bus stop was a few blocks from the White House and we felt a little relieved to see that there were other people waiting for it, too!  Clearly we were tourists because I was clutching my Circulator Bus map and counting stops the ENTIRE trip.  But, hey, we made it!!  Our final destination?  Georgetown Cupcake (from the show "DC Cupcakes").  That was one of the first spots to make our list of 'must do's' in DC... I'm not sure if that's a reflection on our patriotism... or just our love of a good desert!!  Anyway, we were here.  The line was long-ish (probably a 40 minute wait) but we chose our favorites from their paper menus while we waited in line. 

 

By this time, it was beginning to get dark and we still had a long trek back to the campground (walking, bus, train and taxi-- I think that covers almost every mode of city transportation except bike and car!!).  It was dark by the time we arrived back to the Greenbelt Metro station and we knew we were going to need to call a cab.  Thankfully, there were some waiting there already so we were spared that step.  The next few minutes I felt like I had stepped into "The Amazing Race" where they are trying to tell not-very-good-English-speaking cab drivers where they need to go.  Our campground was only 2.5 miles from the Metro but our guy had never heard of it!  Surprising!  I would imagine cab drivers would be fairly familiar with the city they drive in??!  Fortunately he had a working GPS so he plugged in the address and we were good to go.  I think Michael and I were just a TAD uncomfortable with this whole process since its not something I think we've ever done before... it felt a little creepy to trust a stranger to take you and your family in his car... However, once we got into the campground, I'm fairly certain that our cabdriver was the one who was creeped out by us!  Did I mention before that the drive into this campground is about 2 miles into the woods and there are NO lights out there??!  And that the park is LOADED with deer?!  Our poor guy was hunched up over his steering wheel going about 5 miles an hour and I could almost hear the regret he had in agreeing to drive us there!!!  It all ended well (for us at least!) and we arrived safely back at the RV.  Grandma had made dinner for us and we were hungry as it was now after 8 pm!  We finished off our meal with cupcakes-- which were VERY good.  Totally worth the bus ride and wait in line!

After a quick shower (which was shared with a daddy long-legs, a dead spider and a cricket... did I mention this is a very rustic campground??!), we all fell into bed exhausted.