DC Trip, Part 2

Catch up on part 1 here.

After visiting Mount Vernon, we spent the night with my sister Beth and brother Ben at their apartment, which is very close to DC.  We anticipated an early morning getting up to spectate as my brothers both ran the Marine Corps Marathon!

 

Riding the DC metro was half the fun!!  N and C loved holding on to the poles and L had her face glued to the window the entire time, pointing out every landmark we passed and squealing with glee whenever we went through a "magic tunnel".

 

N was an expert high-fiver to all the runners.  She made this sign the night before (it says "go runners go")

 

B and Z comin' in for high-fives around mile 16

We hung out around the Mall and the monuments as we waited for the bros to run by and circle back on the course.  We picnicked and enjoyed the beautiful day.  L was really intent on visiting the Lincoln Memorial, but N was so focused on her high-fiving duties that she insisted on staying on the race course with Aunt Beth and Piper while the rest of us saw the memorial.

 

L insisted on taking my pic with the memorial after I took hers, but, well... she was too small to get all of Lincoln in the shot!  At least it gives you some perspective. :)

My bros finished the race around 1 PM (an amazing effort on both of their parts... it was my brother Zach's first marathon! Way to go Z!!!) and we hung around in the shade for a bit while they stretched out and cooled down.  (It was quite a warm day for running by my New England standards-- mid-70's!)  The girls were thrilled with the whole race experience despite the fact that it was another day with a LOT of walking.  We had purchased an umbrella stroller, and the girls took turns, but I'd estimate that the older two girls did at least 3 miles of walking that day.  For their already exhausted little legs, that was like a mini-marathon for them, but they complained very little!

I had an amazing time sharing such a great accomplishment with my brothers.  A super day!

The next day we had planned on either another Smithsonian or the zoo, but with everyone feeling so tired we decided to scale back our plans a bit.  My brother Ben had the day off and he suggested the National Geographic Museum--a smaller museum that would only take a few hours. Boy am I glad he did... this was one of the highlights of our trip.

 

The girls spent a LONG time at this table.  It was part of an exhibit on food and sustainability-- basically a table with interactive meal-making.  The girls were fascinated and got to "cook" a poached egg, grilled salmon, and groundnut soup (actually on our menu for this week... it looked so good!).  It was all right at kid level too so they could see everything really well.  Super cool.

The spinosaurus exhibit was, of course, really impressive... and right up the girls' alley.

 

C was only slightly frightened of the life-size skeleton.

 

She had been a trooper and we were approaching nap time, so I went ahead and skipped over most of the spinosaurus exhibit to take her to the cafe for a little pick-me-up, leaving Daddy and Uncle Ben and the older girls to enjoy the dinosaurs as long as they wanted.

 

After seeing the Global Kitchen exhibit, it was really neat to find so many healthy and... well... "global" options at the cafe.  We were sitting near a gentleman who said that lots of employees from the surrounding businesses come on their lunch breaks to the museum cafe-- it's that good.  We enjoyed yummy salads and vegetable soups, curry and noodles, and I had me some delish salmon avocado rolls.  I would def go here again just for the food.

 

Miss C was a trooper despite being soooooo tired from the previous days' activities, and being on missed nap number four.  We really intended to get home in time to get her a good rest that day, but the museum was so fascinating that we of course ended up spending way longer than we intended.  She was fast asleep on the metro in her stroller seconds after we took this picture.

Okay, I must move on to other things now... last post coming shortly with a wrap up of our two-day stint in Williamsburg.

{hop on over to part 3 here}