Friday
We left home by 9am and got to Mt. Vernon (George Washington's family home) by around noon. Our first stop was lunch at the Mt Vernon Inn. Z. had that famous dish ye olde chicken fingers and fries. A. and I shared a mug of peanut chestnut soup (yum, the creamy peanut soup with the crunch of the chestnuts was really nice). A. ordered a duck cassoulet for his entree and I had the turkey pot pye (sp.) (the inside was good but the "biscuit" on top was horrible, dry, chewy, and pretty much inedible so I left it, but they brought out a couple of corn muffins that were good). We told Z. that later in the afternoon we'd get some ice cream at the food court so no dessert for now.
Off to the Education center where we saw wax models of Washington at different ages (made from using a bust that was supposed to be a very good likeness and computer programs to vary the age). Kind of wax museum like but cool. We saw a short film about George and Martha's relationship and a multimedia presentation on the Battles of Boston and Trenton that was pretty informative. Lots of stuff to look at but we decided time was getting short and we wanted to move along and see the mansion.
We "stole" a Southern Magnolia leaf from a tree outside the mansion. Z.'s doing a leaf identification project in science and needed a couple more leaves to finish it. She thought it would be pretty cool to have a leaf from Mt. Vernon in her collection.
The line for the mansion tour was very long (I think an entire high school was ahead of us), but we went all the way down there to see it so we waited. After the tour and some pictures on the back lawn (which looks out over the Potomac) and touring most of the outbuildings we headed over to the food court for ice cream. We stopped in the museum for a quick spin before heading out to our hotel in Crystal City (Arlington VA).
The hotel was nice, one of those big convention hotels, and was attached to an underground walkway that connected to underground shops and restaurants and the Metro stop. We had a little snafu as I had gotten the AAA rate online but hadn't brought my AAA card. I had asked A. as we were leaving the house if he had his and he said yes. Well, at the check-in counter he discovered that what he had was his American Red Cross card not his AAA card. The rack rate was $86 more per night than the AAA rate, but she gave us a discount rate that was $46 more per night. Needless to say I was not happy, but A. made some calls and ended up getting the Roadside Assistance person (the only number that he could get through to since it wasn't business hours) to give the hotel clerk our number so we got our discount.
The line for the mansion tour was very long (I think an entire high school was ahead of us), but we went all the way down there to see it so we waited. After the tour and some pictures on the back lawn (which looks out over the Potomac) and touring most of the outbuildings we headed over to the food court for ice cream. We stopped in the museum for a quick spin before heading out to our hotel in Crystal City (Arlington VA).
The hotel was nice, one of those big convention hotels, and was attached to an underground walkway that connected to underground shops and restaurants and the Metro stop. We had a little snafu as I had gotten the AAA rate online but hadn't brought my AAA card. I had asked A. as we were leaving the house if he had his and he said yes. Well, at the check-in counter he discovered that what he had was his American Red Cross card not his AAA card. The rack rate was $86 more per night than the AAA rate, but she gave us a discount rate that was $46 more per night. Needless to say I was not happy, but A. made some calls and ended up getting the Roadside Assistance person (the only number that he could get through to since it wasn't business hours) to give the hotel clerk our number so we got our discount.
After getting our bags into the room and getting the room rate settled we went to the underground mall and had dinner at the Hamburger Hamlet restaurant. We went back to the room afterwards and watched some show about not forgetting lyrics and the weather on tv and then went to sleep.
Saturday
We got up around 7:30am, got ourselves together and headed back to the underground mall for breakfast. Not much was open (it being the weekend and early) so we ended up with egg sandwiches (and a bagel for Z.) at Dunkin Donuts (whoopee! but A. and I wanted some protein and there were no other choices). Then we took the Metro to the Smithsonian stop in DC.
First we headed into the Smithsonian Castle (which is the information center). I had joined the Smithsonian online a couple weeks earlier but didn't have a card yet (and there were 10% discounts at the shops and restaurants) so I got a temporary card. Then we went next door to the Ripley Center to see an exhibit called Green Light: A Juried Exhibition of Artists with Disabilities. It was interesting as many of the disabilities were learning types, ADHD, Crohn's Disease, hearing, etc. Z. was interested in both the work and finding out what each person's disability was (I did have to explain what some of they where). From there we left to walk across the mall to the Natural History museum, our main destination for the day.
We went right to the new Sant Ocean Hall exhibit which had opened maybe a week or two before. We spent a long time in there as there was a whole lot to look at (but we still didn't see it all). After a while Z. and I were like, hey, this is kind of weird because everything here is dead! Going to a Natural History museum is a different experience than going to an aquarium or zoo obviously, but for some reason the ocean thing just made it stand out more for us. There was a great movie about taking this special pressurized contraption down to the bottom of the sea where they photographed the sea life down there. Really cool stuff like an octupus they dubbed Dumbo because it had these two fins that looked like Dumbo ears flapping when it swam, and some rainbow light and neon light creatures.
This trip Z. took my camera a lot and took a lot of pictures. In fact much of the trip she was the one wearing the camera case. I think I will have to dig out my old digital next trip for her. It was a little frustrating for me at times not being able to photograph when I wanted, but I want her to have that same freedom. I could always take my digital slr, but when trudging all day it's often too heavy for me. (My back was bothering me as it was and A. spent much of the day carrying around my backpack purse- in his hands, he didn't wear it- as it made the pain worse when I wore it. It seemed to ease up a bit by mid afternoon most days though, but mornings were rough.)
So it was lunch time and we were all hungry but we wanted to wait and have lunch somewhere else so we went outside and got a bag of popcorn from a vendor and shared it on the steps to the museum. Afterwards we went back in to the places Z. wanted to see most. First was the Hope diamond. Then we went to the early Western Cultures section that had some Egyptian stuff (including a mummy). Then it was off to lunch.
We walked maybe 5 blocks or so to Rosa Mexicano, a restaurant my SIL had been to in NYC recently and enjoyed. We had a fabulous lunch! Z. had a kid's cheese quesadilla plate which didn't have enough quesadillas but it was okay as it left more room for her three scoops of ice cream for dessert. We skipped the chips and guacamole (which was made fresh at each table when ordered) and went right to the meal. I had a chicken taco that was so good. It came separated so you made it yourself and each part of the fixings was excellent, including the somewhat mini corn tortillas. A. had a mole dish that I can't remember (and the menu portion of their website is not working at the moment) which he said was really good. For dessert A. and Z. had the three scoops of ice cream, Z. had 2 vanilla's and 1 peanut crunch. A. had 1 raspberry rosa (which tasted like it had rose in it- really good), Mexican chocolate (oh my, yum!) and vanilla mole. I had apple empanadas which had two small apple filled empanadas with a scoop of vanilla mole ice cream and and a small dish with the most incredible chocolate sauce in it (it must have been Ibarra chocolate- cinnamon, sugar, chocolate- plus maybe a smidge of chile? but not enough to make it hot). I practically licked the little bowl to get every last drop of sauce LOL.
They had individually wrapped small circles of Ibarra chocolate near the door so as we left Z. made sure that we all got some. I didn't think she'd like it (although these circles are sweeter, meant for eating not baking or making hot chocolate with like the table chocolate, it's grainy in texture) and sure enough, one bite and she handed it back to us. I put them all in my purse and we went across the street to the National Portrait Gallery.
There were two shows there that I was interested in seeing. One was a Georgia O'Keefe & Ansel Adams show which we went to first. It was really wonderful, I saw a number of O'Keefe's that I have never seen before (and some Adams for that matter). We bought the expensive hardcover book from the show (with my temporary Smithsonian member card discount of course) as I really want to spend some time looking at the paintings (and photographs) again. I think the show has since closed, so our timing was good.
Then we went upstairs to see Women of Our Time- 20th Century photographs (that one had just opened on Friday, so again we had good timing). I wanted Z. to see this, and it struck me as we went through it how A. and I knew who pretty much every woman photographed was but Z. probably knew less than 25% of them. She did spend time reading the info cards next to the photographs (not every one, but a lot of them, she loves reading the info cards next to any kind of museum exhibit) and I noticed her spending some extra time at some (Rosa Parks and the nurse who developed the Apgar score system for newborns- later we told her how even though she was born 11 weeks early she actually had good Apgar scores). As we made our way through the museum towards the exit we found an interesting piece. It took us a while to figure it out (eventually A. read the info card, always helps). It was a big wall piece that had license plates from all 50 states. At first it made no sense as each plate had what seemed like a random assortment of letters and numbers. But then when A. read the info card we realized that it was the preamble to the Constitution. Very cool!
At this point all of us had sore feet, in fact I was having some kind of weird cramping thing in one heel (which bothered me on and off for the rest of the trip). We walked what seemed like a long walk back to the Natural History museum as we promised Z. a trip to the museum store. What she decided she wanted was a small replica of the Rosetta Stone so we got that and then went across the hall for a small shared snack and a drink in the museum cafe. Then we walked back to the Metro and went back to our hotel where we all collapsed on the beds, happy to put our feet up.
Eventually hunger won out and we got ourselves off the beds and walked through a maze of underground hallways to another underground mall looking for a decent restaurant that was open. It ended up being a very long walk but eventually we found ourselves at Ted's Montana Grill (we'd never eaten at one before) and even though it was a 45 minute wait we sat ourselves down and waited as we were too tired to move. The place was packed and noisy but we got a booth in the back that made us feel a bit removed from the activity so that was nice. A. had a steak, I had a Cobb salad with grilled chicken and Z. had chicken fingers (again, seems like that is what she always orders- although the night before she did have a burger, mainly at my urging since we were at a burger restaurant). Z. had a big snickerdoodle cookie for dessert, which we had to wait 10 minutes for because they baked it to order. We trudged back to the hotel (somehow it seemed a little bit easier going back, maybe because we were fed).
We went to bed pretty quickly once we got back. The beds were so comfy, down pillows and comforters, comfortable mattresses, so it felt really good to get in them. Not quite as good as home, but close!
(I'll post about Sunday & Monday in a separate post.)
Saturday
We got up around 7:30am, got ourselves together and headed back to the underground mall for breakfast. Not much was open (it being the weekend and early) so we ended up with egg sandwiches (and a bagel for Z.) at Dunkin Donuts (whoopee! but A. and I wanted some protein and there were no other choices). Then we took the Metro to the Smithsonian stop in DC.
First we headed into the Smithsonian Castle (which is the information center). I had joined the Smithsonian online a couple weeks earlier but didn't have a card yet (and there were 10% discounts at the shops and restaurants) so I got a temporary card. Then we went next door to the Ripley Center to see an exhibit called Green Light: A Juried Exhibition of Artists with Disabilities. It was interesting as many of the disabilities were learning types, ADHD, Crohn's Disease, hearing, etc. Z. was interested in both the work and finding out what each person's disability was (I did have to explain what some of they where). From there we left to walk across the mall to the Natural History museum, our main destination for the day.
We went right to the new Sant Ocean Hall exhibit which had opened maybe a week or two before. We spent a long time in there as there was a whole lot to look at (but we still didn't see it all). After a while Z. and I were like, hey, this is kind of weird because everything here is dead! Going to a Natural History museum is a different experience than going to an aquarium or zoo obviously, but for some reason the ocean thing just made it stand out more for us. There was a great movie about taking this special pressurized contraption down to the bottom of the sea where they photographed the sea life down there. Really cool stuff like an octupus they dubbed Dumbo because it had these two fins that looked like Dumbo ears flapping when it swam, and some rainbow light and neon light creatures.
This trip Z. took my camera a lot and took a lot of pictures. In fact much of the trip she was the one wearing the camera case. I think I will have to dig out my old digital next trip for her. It was a little frustrating for me at times not being able to photograph when I wanted, but I want her to have that same freedom. I could always take my digital slr, but when trudging all day it's often too heavy for me. (My back was bothering me as it was and A. spent much of the day carrying around my backpack purse- in his hands, he didn't wear it- as it made the pain worse when I wore it. It seemed to ease up a bit by mid afternoon most days though, but mornings were rough.)
So it was lunch time and we were all hungry but we wanted to wait and have lunch somewhere else so we went outside and got a bag of popcorn from a vendor and shared it on the steps to the museum. Afterwards we went back in to the places Z. wanted to see most. First was the Hope diamond. Then we went to the early Western Cultures section that had some Egyptian stuff (including a mummy). Then it was off to lunch.
We walked maybe 5 blocks or so to Rosa Mexicano, a restaurant my SIL had been to in NYC recently and enjoyed. We had a fabulous lunch! Z. had a kid's cheese quesadilla plate which didn't have enough quesadillas but it was okay as it left more room for her three scoops of ice cream for dessert. We skipped the chips and guacamole (which was made fresh at each table when ordered) and went right to the meal. I had a chicken taco that was so good. It came separated so you made it yourself and each part of the fixings was excellent, including the somewhat mini corn tortillas. A. had a mole dish that I can't remember (and the menu portion of their website is not working at the moment) which he said was really good. For dessert A. and Z. had the three scoops of ice cream, Z. had 2 vanilla's and 1 peanut crunch. A. had 1 raspberry rosa (which tasted like it had rose in it- really good), Mexican chocolate (oh my, yum!) and vanilla mole. I had apple empanadas which had two small apple filled empanadas with a scoop of vanilla mole ice cream and and a small dish with the most incredible chocolate sauce in it (it must have been Ibarra chocolate- cinnamon, sugar, chocolate- plus maybe a smidge of chile? but not enough to make it hot). I practically licked the little bowl to get every last drop of sauce LOL.
They had individually wrapped small circles of Ibarra chocolate near the door so as we left Z. made sure that we all got some. I didn't think she'd like it (although these circles are sweeter, meant for eating not baking or making hot chocolate with like the table chocolate, it's grainy in texture) and sure enough, one bite and she handed it back to us. I put them all in my purse and we went across the street to the National Portrait Gallery.
There were two shows there that I was interested in seeing. One was a Georgia O'Keefe & Ansel Adams show which we went to first. It was really wonderful, I saw a number of O'Keefe's that I have never seen before (and some Adams for that matter). We bought the expensive hardcover book from the show (with my temporary Smithsonian member card discount of course) as I really want to spend some time looking at the paintings (and photographs) again. I think the show has since closed, so our timing was good.
Then we went upstairs to see Women of Our Time- 20th Century photographs (that one had just opened on Friday, so again we had good timing). I wanted Z. to see this, and it struck me as we went through it how A. and I knew who pretty much every woman photographed was but Z. probably knew less than 25% of them. She did spend time reading the info cards next to the photographs (not every one, but a lot of them, she loves reading the info cards next to any kind of museum exhibit) and I noticed her spending some extra time at some (Rosa Parks and the nurse who developed the Apgar score system for newborns- later we told her how even though she was born 11 weeks early she actually had good Apgar scores). As we made our way through the museum towards the exit we found an interesting piece. It took us a while to figure it out (eventually A. read the info card, always helps). It was a big wall piece that had license plates from all 50 states. At first it made no sense as each plate had what seemed like a random assortment of letters and numbers. But then when A. read the info card we realized that it was the preamble to the Constitution. Very cool!
At this point all of us had sore feet, in fact I was having some kind of weird cramping thing in one heel (which bothered me on and off for the rest of the trip). We walked what seemed like a long walk back to the Natural History museum as we promised Z. a trip to the museum store. What she decided she wanted was a small replica of the Rosetta Stone so we got that and then went across the hall for a small shared snack and a drink in the museum cafe. Then we walked back to the Metro and went back to our hotel where we all collapsed on the beds, happy to put our feet up.
Eventually hunger won out and we got ourselves off the beds and walked through a maze of underground hallways to another underground mall looking for a decent restaurant that was open. It ended up being a very long walk but eventually we found ourselves at Ted's Montana Grill (we'd never eaten at one before) and even though it was a 45 minute wait we sat ourselves down and waited as we were too tired to move. The place was packed and noisy but we got a booth in the back that made us feel a bit removed from the activity so that was nice. A. had a steak, I had a Cobb salad with grilled chicken and Z. had chicken fingers (again, seems like that is what she always orders- although the night before she did have a burger, mainly at my urging since we were at a burger restaurant). Z. had a big snickerdoodle cookie for dessert, which we had to wait 10 minutes for because they baked it to order. We trudged back to the hotel (somehow it seemed a little bit easier going back, maybe because we were fed).
We went to bed pretty quickly once we got back. The beds were so comfy, down pillows and comforters, comfortable mattresses, so it felt really good to get in them. Not quite as good as home, but close!
(I'll post about Sunday & Monday in a separate post.)
3 comments:
So what exactly is vanilla mole ice cream? I can't figure it out.
The woman who invented the Apgar score was Dr Apgar - she was an anesthesiologist, if I remember correctly. Back then, the medical team was all focused on the mom, not the baby - so just by forcing people to pay attention to the baby, it made a dramatic improvement in their care. I was especially interested to read her history because a relative of hers (niece, maybe?) was the doctor on call about 5 hours after my Z was born. If he'd waited, he could have been caught by Dr Apgar!
Speaking of my Z (and connecting it to your trip), he changed his mind and no longer wants to be General George Washington for Halloween. Of course he decided this after I bought the fabric for the jacket! (but luckily before I went to all the trouble of making it!)
Sounds like an enjoyable trip, although I'm tired just from reading it! :^)
p.s. I'd love to go to a museum with your Z - my kids don't like to read info cards, so I never get to!
Tricia, it was vanilla ice cream with swirls of that chocolate chile sauce. Mine was covered in the chocolate sauce that I dumped all over everything so I wasn't able to get a distinct taste, but A. said his (which was unadorned) was really good.
I remember the first time we went to the zoo after Z. learned to read. It took us forever just to get through the rare mammal house as she read every single word in the building. That was the beginning and it hasn't changed much.
Post a Comment