Month: August 2018

It was definitely a very full day. We drove to the train station and took the metro into the station and then found a McDonald’s for breakfast. The. We started walking and basically didn’t stop walking for the next 8 hours.

We walked by the New and Old Executive Office Buildings , where the executive branch workers that don’t have an office inside the White House work. “AKA – the Deep State”.

We made it to the White House but we couldn’t get as close as the last time I was here. There was a ton more security and fences beyond the White House fence. A white nationalist rally is supposed to be going on here over the weekend and they were expecting lots of white nationalist protestors for the rally and lots of protestors of the white nationalist protestors. So Secret Service police were everywhere.

We then walked to Ford’s Theater but decided not to go in. The kids didn’t seem all that interested to learn about Lincoln’s death and we wanted to spend more time at the Smithsonian, so we just snapped a couple photos and moved on.

I couldn’t help but show my displeasure as I walked by Trump’s Hotel.

We went to the National Museum Of American History and saw a lot of pop culture items including Bill Nye the Science Guy’s lab coat, Grover and Captain Kangaroo’s coat, Emeril Lagasse’s chef coat, and a replica of Julia Child’s kitchen.

We then moved into the transportation and invention areas and saw a Tucker car, the first Macintosh computer, early sewing machines, Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves, the Swedish Chef muppet and the Speak n’ Spell, which how most people my age learned how to spell. We saw a lot of other cool items too!

Unfortunately we couldn’t stay in this museum any longer or we wouldn’t get to all the other places on our wishlist. So we promised ourselves we would be back again in some future roadtrip and then moved on, walking across the Mall.

We spent some time in the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum. Jeff really loves this museum but I like the Kennedy Space Center that we saw last year and Oshkosh’s EAA Museum better. Seeing the Wright Brother’s plane and Lindbergh’s Spirit Of St. Louis plane was very cool though. And I loved the jewelry made from authentic meteorites too!

Lots of food trucks all over the area so we stopped and got lunch. Then we walked to the Washington Monument end of the Mall.

We spent some time at each Memorial, explaining background info to the kids to help them understand the purpose. I know, very teacher-like of us. But we are ok with that! Each Memorial is so powerful and moving and the kids were so well behaved and respectful. We saw the World War II Memorial, then took a break in the shade near the Korean Memorial. We moved on to the Lincoln Memorial and then finished with the Vietnam Memorial.

We were all hitting our limit of steps (I was at 24,000 steps) and getting sick of the heat, so it was perfect timing to head back to the subway and get out of town. We met up with Jeff’s roommate from college, Andrew, and his family and had a pizza party and swimming time. It was great to catch up and their boys and our boys played great together. It was a wonderful way to close out the day!

We started off with a delicious breakfast and a little more visiting. I’m so glad that the boys got to meet and hangout out with all of their 2nd cousins. Thank you Bill and Amy for hosting us!

Our first stop was Valley Forge, which was just a couple miles away. We talked to the ranger at Washington’s Headquarters and Carson again was super excited to touch the same places that Washington, Hamilton, and many of the founding father’s (DNA) had also touched like this railing.

Next we drove through Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. We stopped in Intercourse and the boys all hung out in the air conditioned truck while I went to a few shops. Beautiful quilts and beautiful furniture!

We also had to stop and take photos at a cool train hotel. Looks like the hotel rooms are actually train cars! Jeff says that next time we come out here, we have to stay there. As long as I get to go to some quilt stores in the area, I’m good with that.

Jeff finally got a something at a Wa Wa and we also saw Tesla chargers at a Service/Rest stop. Kind of cool!

Once we got to the campground and got all settled, we had a chance to sit and relax by the camper. It was thundering so we set it up in about 10 minutes, but the storm never materialized. It turned out to be a nice night.

We took our time packing up and leaving the campground. We let Spencer sleep until 10:30. We only had a couple hours of driving to do. We pulled in to take a photo or Orange County Choppers (from the TV show where they make really amazingly artistic motorcycles), and then dropped the camper off at Bill and Amy’s house (Jeff’s cousin) and drove into Philadelphia for a few hours.

We found a parking spot and Went to get in line at Independence Hall after stopping in the visitor’s center and taking a photo with Rocky Balboa. We had to wait about 45 minutes for the guided tour that was only about 10 minutes long. It was informative though! Carson was pretty impressed that the actual chair “that had George Washington’s DNA” was in the same room as he was.

Next we went through the exhibit to see the Liberty Bell. I’ve seen it before, but reading about it again makes me appreciate how symbolic it has been for so many groups of people.

Then we walked back to the car, stopping to take a picture of Philly’s Chinatown entrance.

We stopped next at Geno’s for Philly cheesesteaks (wit without) and they did not disappoint! Their reputation is well deserved. It was finally getting cooler out and there were lots of pickup b-ball games going on at every park we passed (and we passed a ton as we looked for a place to park).

When we got back to Bill and Amy’s, the boys went downstairs to play video games and the adults stayed up and visited. A great end to a great day!