First Family Visit to Washington, D.C. -- Day 1

After being with us for about 10 days, last Saturday my dad had to head back to Minnesota (he is the only one of us who is working right now, and he had to get back to work ).  He flew out from Washington, D.C. early Saturday morning, so we decided to go up Friday after Anja's performance and see some sights, then stay overnight at a hotel and see some more sights Saturday after we dropped dad at the airport.  This was the first time my mom and dad, and Elise and Anja had been to Washington, D.C.  It was pretty exciting!

My mom and dad really wanted to see some of the memorials and monuments around the Mall, but it was REALLY hot Friday and Saturday so we decided  to see those on a cooler day and spend this time in air conditioned museums.

First, we had to get there!  Rather than drive all the way into the city and have to fight with traffic and parking, we drove to a Metro (D.C.'s subway) park-and-ride in one of the suburbs then took the Metro in. 

This was the fist time Elise and Anja had ridden on any kind of train, and they were pretty excited.

Before we went into the museum we grabbed some lunch from a street vendor.  Hot dogs for all of us except Anja, who does not eat hot dogs unless they are in a corn dog.  So, Anja had a big pretzel.

After our lunch, on to the National Museum of American History,

one of the Smithsonian museums.  The first thing we checked out there was the exhibit for the Star Spangled Banner.  On display is the flag that was flying during a battle of the War of 1812, which inspired Francis Scott Key to write The Star Spangled Banner.  I was expecting a regular-sized flag, but this thing is HUGE.  The flag originally measured 30 x 42 feet, though it is now smaller because in the 1800s people snipped off parts of the flag for souvenirs.

We saw some other really cool stuff, too...

A man dressed in period costume bowed to the girls then asked them if they knew the appropriate response, and when they didn't, he told them it was a curtsey, which they performed beautifully.

Lunch counter from the Greensboro Student sit-in.

Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.

 

Kermit the Frog

 

Bob Dylan's leather jacket (I love any connections to Minnesota!).

 

Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves, autographed.

 

 

Jackie Kennedy's dress, in the exhibit of the First Lady's dresses, one of the most popular exhibits in this museum.  The whole exhibit was VERY cool, and quite large, with dresses and other items from all the First Ladies.

 

 

Michelle Obama's first dress from the first inauguration.

 

Elise practiced being President.

 

And so did Anja (she needed a boost to get high enough for the camera.  I crouched down below the podium and held her up for the picture).

 

We came out of the exhibits, ready to leave, to find rain-soaked people all over the place.  While we had been going through the exhibits, it had started to POUR.  We hung out in the museum entrance for a while, waiting for the rain to stop, then decided we really needed to get going because we were getting HUNGRY.  So, mom and dad went to the museum gift shop and bought us all rain ponchos. 

They were one-size-fits-all, which really didn't apply to children (Anja's dragged on the ground and Jason carried her all the way to the Metro so she wouldn't trip on the dragging ends).

 

By the time we started walking back, the rain had let up and had pretty much quit by the time we got to the Metro stop.  A very fun day, filled with first experiences and adventures!