The plan for today was to try and run to a few places in DC quickly (National Museum of American History and the National Archives) and then grab a bite and get on the road to Philly. We got a bit of a late start in the morning, so by the time we got the car, loaded it up and got on our way towards the museums it was after 11:00. A few notes on the hotel first. We have stayed at a lot of hotels, and a lot of Embassy Suites, but this Embassy Suites in DC had the nicest staff we have encountered. The first full day we were there the housekeeping people not only made the regular beds, but they also made the sheets on the air beds. They were also always friendly and helpful, and when we got to the car this morning the valet told me that he left a few bottles of water in the car for the drive. There happened to be a manager outside, so Debbie got out to compliment the staff to the manager. There was another valet standing there, and he then asked how many people we had in the car, and went off to get more water. He came back with 4 more bottles and then we were off.
After driving around the museums about 327 times looking for a parking spot, and missing by seconds approximately 529 spots, we decided to put the car in a parking lot in the Ronald Reagan Building. When I pulled into the driveway of the lot, I inadvertantly straddled two lanes. This was evidently paramount to an act of war, since the menacing guard then walked right in front of my car and stopped me. Clearly this was a woman who had gotten bullied or ignored while younger, since she used her role as a guard to use her "mean, tough guy" look. She clearly ate up the power (and obviously ate up a lot of other things as well), and started by asking me for my ID, and to take off my glasses, which were clearly meant to disguise myself of throw her off my trail. She then asked me to open the trunk and gave the car a colonoscopy. After the trunk got a clean bill of health, she asked us to roll down each of the windows to look in, because clearly in her job as parking lot security guard she has been given the powers of X-Ray vision, because simply by looking into the windows she determined that we were not a threat.
We parked the car in the lot, then took the elevator up to the lobby of the building. It was here that we began to question the security of the government buildings, despite the efforts of tough parking lot guard. It may be hard to explain, but did you ever see the part in Blazing Saddles where the bad guys are riding through the plains and come to a random toll booth in the middle of the plains and have to go back to get a ____-load of dimes? That was what going on here. We came up in the elevator and could have simply gone into the office building unchecked. To the left was a security checkpoint with a metal detector. But where we came up the elevator was PAST the metal detector. So what was the point of the security there? Made no sense.
Anyway, we didn't try and infiltrate the offices, and instead walked a short way to the National Museum of American History. The initial plan was to check out a few "highlights" and move on. But soon it became clear that this was not going to happen. We looked through almost all of the exhibits, and saw things like Dorothy's Red Slippers (thanks Al for the tip - two shout outs in a row, you are hot), the original and a later version of Kermit the Frog, Howdy Doody (who none of the kids knew), an exhibit on the presidents and First Ladies and the flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner. Two hours after we arrived we were done with the museum.
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| "Where can I get a pair of shoes like these?" |
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| Two Icons Meeting |
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| The boys once again riveted by a museum |
It was lunch time, and we walked across the street to find a little food court area between the Reagan and Wilson buildings. Nothing exciting for lunch, but it was better, and cheaper than the crappy museum cafe food we had the two previous days.
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| Lunch by the Ronald Reagan Building |
After lunch we walked a few blocks to the National Archives. There we saw the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta. That was pretty cool, although I wasn't quite sure why the US has a copy of the Magna Carta. They had other rooms with other well-known documents, or so I assume, but by now it was almost 3:00 and the kids were done. We headed to the gift shop (I think the only gift shop we missed was the gift shop for the parking garage), then headed back to the car to drive to Philly, for what should have been a 3 hour drive.
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| National Archives |
Unfortunately, by the time we actually started out of town it was a little after 3:30 and the traffic was awful. We crawled along for quite some time and probably lost at least 30 minutes. We finally started moving and were doing much better until we went through the tunnel near Baltimore on 895 (I think that was the road, may have been 95 at that point). There we were met with signs that read "Major Delays." Not good signs. After again crawling for a few miles, I studied the GPS and noticed that there was a road that seemed to parallel the highway. It wasn't a major road, but it seemed big enough to be worth the risk. I got off the highway and headed there. Not to pat myself on the back (OK, to pat myself on the back) but after staying on this road for maybe 10 miles I re-entered 95 and voila, no traffic! Genius, I say.
All day Derek and I were texting to check on each other's schedule to see if we could maybe meet for dinner. They also hit a ton of traffic so they didn't arrive in the Philly area until 5ish, I think. My GPS said that we would be in Philly at 7:50, so we made plans to meet for dinner near where they were staying (near Mariah's college in Wayne, PA at Danielle's house). As the GPS predicted, we arrived a little before 8:00 and Derek's family arrived a little after 8:00. We had a very nice meal (thanks for the suggestion Danielle) and as always the cousins got along like they see each other all the time. After dinner we took the obligatory family photo of the kids, and said goodbye.
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| The Two Monkeys |
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| Must be a Middle Child thing |
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| Too Cool for School |
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| 70% of the Volk Grandchildren |
We might go back there tomorrow to see Mariah's college room and campus, depending on their schedule and ours. As for our morning plans, we aren't quite sure yet. We may try and go to the US Mint, but it will depend on how energetic the gang is in the morning. Based on the moaning of "I'm so tired" that was the common theme tonight, I'm not all that optimistic. We'll see.
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