Day 38

We had a little extra time this morning so once I saw my early riser up we started on some pancakes. The griddle can be a bit tempermental in letting pancakes go at times, but this girl has just about figured it out.

Our first stop today was the Ford's Theater. The kids have just about always been interested in Abraham Lincoln. It does seem most years we have been able to stop at some kind of historic area related to his life.

We grabbed junior ranger books first thing so the kids could get started. The first part of the museum was dedicated to his political life and the struggles Lincoln had bringing the nation together. The kids' favorite part of this section was a quilt made by ladies of what is a modern day Red Cross supporting the efforts of peace. It was signed by all kinds of fascinating people including Ben Franklin, Henry Longfellow, and of course Abraham Lincoln.

The part they were most interested in was the assassination of Lincoln. They had tons of artifacts on exhibit related to the event including the gun John Wilkes Booth used as well as the boot that had to be cut off his broken leg. We learned so much about the events leading up to the assassination and the people involved.

    

Once the kids finished their activities they were once again sworn in as junior rangers. This ceremony was a bit special as it was situated right in front of the original ticket booth to the theater. Unfortunately the theater was closed as they were in rehearsals for a show but since they'd finished their activities the park ranger allowed them to peek inside from the sound booth.

Next door was the Petersen house where Lincoln was taken and later died. The living room was still arranged as it was when his wife Mary sat and waited for him to awake.

Next we learned all about the search for Booth and his accomplices. Apparently Booth thought when he was able to return to Virginia he would be praised as a hero for his acts, but he soon discovered he was that was not quite the case. The kids were all spooked once they peeked into a replica of the barn where he was eventually shot.

The remained of the floors of the house were come of my favorite with lessons and exhibits on the character and ideals a person should live up to. There were five sections, each of which we were asked to write what the word meant to us or what we would do in a situation: equality, courage, creativity and innovation, integrity, and empathy and tolerance. I was surprised by some answers and thrilled with some answers the kids gave. And I'm thinking we need to delve a little further into Lincoln's teachings.

During our evening tour days before our tour guide mentioned Abraham Lincoln was one of the most written about people in history. There were more books about him than any other person except Jesus. I'd believe it too once we saw this stack that reached the fourth floor!

Our next stop was a place all the kids were excited about once I'd mentioned it to them. In any children's museum with a television news area, my kids go wild to see themselves on television and pretend to be news anchors. The Newseum was offering kids free summer so we made sure to hit this museum too. We had the misfortune to visit Washington D.C. when the Washington Monument's only elevator was broken and the other high observation area, the Old Postal Museum, has been purchased by Donald Trump for luxury apartments. We found out the next best place was the terrace here!

Once we got oriented inside and planned our attack on the six floors we got started. After seeing a chunk of the Berlin Wall earlier in the week and learning a little bit about it from Dave and me, the kids were in awe of pieces they could stand in front of.

  

So our family has lived without cable for a few years now and I don't believe the kids have ever seen the news except at relatives homes possibly. I don't watch the news and simply skim the newspaper. This place was overwhelming with the artifacts and exhibits on the role the media has played in all kind of historical events.  There was a very interesting area that had real time statistics on social media. There were screens especially related to Clinton and Trump that were all over the place each few seconds.

We learned about the media in World War II, Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement, the Women's Rights movement, and September 11th and that was about all I could handle in one day. I was overwhelmed and shocked and sad. It didn't help we ended with first hand journalism accounts of September 11th. This is the lower portion of the broadcast tower that was on top of Tower One.

We decided to grab some dinner to wait out rush hour on the train and return for the interactive exhibits the next day. We ended up eating a delicious pizza a few blocks away and talking about all the events they'd seen. The kids were obviously not as affected as I was but we'd all seen images we definitely weren't prepared for and the time we had for conversation was perfect. We would be learning much of what we'd seen this year for history so they were glad they had a little bit of a preview.

We made it back to the campsite full and happy so we played games until dark and read until all our eyelids would need to be held open. Tomorrow would be an early day and what Ryan was probably most excited about!

Day 37

Today began a little differently than every other because we had a birthday to celebrate! We've missed bunches of summer birthdays of friends and family, but always have been home for Brayden's big day. Since we schedule our trip so late this year he had it on the road this time. We started out the morning with his breakfast choice - donuts, fruit, and yogurt. He was pleasantly awoken by his sisters and sung to by all of us. We didn't have candles so he blew out our fingers with mine counting for ten years and each of the girl's counting for one year.








We made it into the city to try to finish seeing the exhibits of the American History museum and possibly move on to something else. Boy were we wrong! The invention stations were open this day so we spent the better part of the first two hours solving the world's problems. They invented tools to scoop plastic out of the ocean, energy efficient houses, and learned how to optimize solar panels for the most energy.

   

After we examined the mansion of a dollhouse, we headed to the Food exhibit. The kids didn't want to spend too much time here as there were a ton of facts to absorb, but they did enjoy seeing Julia Child's full kitchen all set up.  I was fascinated by the graph of the rise in snack food since the 1970s. Weird to think people actually used to eat real food!!

By far their favorite section of the museum this day was the transportation wing. There were trains, cars, buses, subways, tractor trailers and so much more. This was possibly the spot that I was able to read the most as the kids had a blast "riding" on the subway over and over. As if we hadn't already done that all summer!!

I

 thought of my friend Lydia as I listened to the interviews from "Car Talk" as I was standing next to the cars they were calling in about. For those of you that have had the unfortunate experience of getting microwave popcorn kernels in your air vents, rest assured they will not pop when you turn the heat on.

The last wing we visited contained the American Stories exhibits. We saw the lunch counter from the 1960  sit-in in Greensboro.

We saw a pair of Dorothy's shoes and Muhammad Ali's gloves. And so so much more!

    

We even saw some things from Breaking Bad, a show Dave and I are currently still trying to finish!

After a visit to the gift shop we were almost on our way out of the museum when I remembered the entire reason I wanted to go there - the Star Spangled Banner exhibit! Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures, but what we saw was awesome. In very low light mounted in front of us was the flag Francis Scott Key was looking at when he wrote the "Star Spangled Banner" during the Battle of Ft. McHenry. There were many holes and souvenir cuts from the flag, but it was very inspiring to stand in front of it.  Across from it there was a blown up image of the flag on a screen you could drag around with your hand and learn more about its construction and history.  

Now that we all felt very patriotic, we decided to go outside and
play on the National Mall grass. We couldn't stand it very long with the heat, but we did have a fun time while it lasted.  Once we were all sweaty, Ryan reminded me for the 47th time we needed to go back to Gordon Biersch to get Brayden some birthday cake since it was his actual birthday.

When we got back to the campground we played a little camp ball until I couldn't stand the thought of bare feet and ticks anymore.  We had a new audience this time - a large family of deer.

Ryan couldn't wait to get home to test out her new robot that could walk up glass. He needs a little motivation sometimes, but for the most part it was a good purchase. 

Once we'd finished dinner we read a few chapters and said goodnight. We had yet another busy day tomorrow!

Day 36

Even though today wasn't the actual day, we were planning on celebrating Brayden's birthday today since Dave would be flying home this evening. After a quick breakfast once the kids finally got up, we were on the train headed for the International Spy Museum. This was the one place Brayden had asked to go earlier in the year when we were planning the trip so we saved it for this day.

We were so glad we did because the kids had an absolute blast! As with most museums I didn't get to read as much as I wanted, but I did learn a lot of interesting things. We were all given a secret identity at the beginning which we were to commit to memory for later questioning. Ryan was an 18 year old art student from Britain, Laney was a 25 year old fashion designer, and Brayden was a 13 year old boy from Canada.

    

This museum was a mix of James Bond paraphernalia (lipstick pistol) and historical spy artifacts (trojan horse miniature replica). The history of spying was especially intriguing to me, especially the Russian and German spy rings, the Navajo code talkers, and all the double agents. I'm going to have to assign myself a project to learn more!

  

The kids were also given a mission scavenger hunt of things to be sure to find on all the floors of the museum so they were practically obsessed with that the majority of the time. There were a few favorites - the girls loved climing through the air ducts to see how little noise they could make and listen to the voices below. They even dragged me along once!



They all also loved the hang test from one of the James Bond movies. I believe it was an attempt to simulate hanging from a building with wind blowing in their faces. Ryan was the only one to make it to the one minute target and a believe she did it twice!

At the end of the museum the kids were all quizzed on their identities and their secret missions. Ryan was the only one who successfully completed her mission and maintained her identity. I guess she has another job possibility in the future. Of course, we will never know about it.

After the final clue was found outside, we headed next door to the Shake Shack for birthday milkshakes. The line was just about out the door so we knew these were going to be good. There was even a separate line for shake-only orders! We made sure to sing "Happy Fake Birthday to yoooouuuuuu...." to Brayden all day which received a lot of "Mooooooooommm...." and rolled eyes. I guess that's 12 for you. What he doesn't seem to get is it just makes us embarass him more!

Next we went to the White House Visitors Center. We figured if we couldn't just walk into the White House like citizens could do when Abraham Lincoln was president, this might be the next best thing. Plus we were hot and it was nice a cool in there!

We all learned so much about the White House! The kids especially loved learning about the families that lived there and how they lived their every day lives. There were great photos of Betty Ford, The Eisenhowers and all their grandchildren, The Carters, and The Reagans just living like regular people. The kids also loved reading about the different additions to the White House the different presidents made. We all enjoyed watching the movie which simply had photos and voice overs of different presidents and first ladies talking about their awe and appreciation of the building and their place in it.






Next we found a park for lunch and presents. We laughed at all the funny cards and Brayden loved the legos the girls picked out for him. Instantly they all made plans to put them together as soon as we got back to the campsite.

On our previous trip to Washington D.C. Dave and I were unable to figure out how to get to Arlington Cemetary before our flight. On another trip with his parents as a kid, they were unable to as well. This time we decided to go by Metro and finally get him there!

After grabbing a map we headed toward the Kennedy's grave first. Within minutes we were completely surrounded by white headstones in every direction. It was beautiful and sad and shocking and humbling all at the same time. The peaceful spot where The Kennedys were buried was on a hill overlooking much of the cemetery.

Then we made the trek up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. Dave seems to remember some of the remains being identified through DNA so it might not be plural anymore. We were treated to a somber display of the changing of the guard as we walked up.

Since we weren't sure how busy the airport would be at this hour we decided to head back to the visitor's center and say our goodbyes to Dave. We'd all gotten so used to him being with us it was hard for the kids, but we knew he'd be back in a week. We all still wished he'd been able to stay the original 17 days.


After a quick trip to the gift shop Laney and I talked the other two into walking to the Iwo Jima Marine Corps Memorial. It was about a 15-minute walk around the outside edge of the cemetary the kids most enjoyed because of the shock of bicycles whizzing by us. Ryan said she was glad she came once we heard the bells of the Netherlands Carillon next door. The giant tower full of bells at the top was given to the U.S. for our assistance in World War II.

And they were both glad they came once we saw the enormous monument.

The Marine's involvement in each war was inscribed around the monument. Perhaps I'd purposely forgotten some of my history class lessons, but there were wars I didn't even know happened on there!  The memorial was immensely larger than I'd ever imagined.







After a very hot walk back we hopped back on the Metro to our car and off to stock up on groceries and such. The night before when I'd been ready to cook dinner there was an issue with my last propane tank for the grill so everyone had to settle for crackers, cheese, and fruit for dinner. Brayden was also wanting to pick out something fun for his birthday breakfast in the morning!

It was dark by the time we made it home so I cooked some pasta by headlamp and we all collapsed in our tents for the night. Tomorrow we would explore again and celebrate one kid being 12 already!