What a day we had today!
Started this morning with a lovely breakfast at the hotel. Free breakfast and what a spread: Oatmeal and assorted cereals, toast / bagels / english muffins, a make-your-own waffle station, eggs, home fries, sausage, fruit, yogurt, coffee, juice. It was good and filling (no, I didn't try everything. I had a bowl of cereal, some fruit, a piece of sausage and english muffin. Delicious)
We were on our way into downtown around 9:30 am (we had been advised not to bother starting until then because of rush hour.) We did hit some traffic, a major traffic jam caused by an accident blocking 2 lanes of the road. But let me just say, GPS is awesome. Boy did it make it easy to navigate and not have to worry.
Our first stop was the Natural History Museum. We found an amazing parking spot right out front. Dad and I both got memberships to the Smithsonian for a year. Comes with a year subscription to the magazine (worth the price of the membership right there) as well as discounts in their stores and cafes.
Some of the museum I remembered, some I found brand new, all of it I found interesting. I think one of my favorites was seeing the giraffe posed to take a drink of water. How awkward but beautiful. The museum had everything from fossils and dinosaurs, to mammals, to gems including the hope diamond. All of it impressive.
Next stop was the Portrait Gallery. Again, we were lucky enough to find parking right outside of the museum.
I wanted to go because they had a special Katherine Hepburn exhibit (in honor of her 100th birthday.) A very cool exhibit, one of my favorites was getting to see her 4 Oscars. Unfortunately, couldn't take photos in that particular exhibit. Also went through the "hall of presidents" with all their portraits. Some very amazing pictures. I was particularly fascinated with a life mask of Lincoln's face (used to create a bust.) It was an actual mask taken a couple months before he passed away. He looks so worn down and tired. Made me want to cry.
I also liked a room called "A Thousand Kisses: Love Letters from the Archives of American Art." It was filled with display cases of love letters along with photos of the writers / recipients. Some were funny, some sexy, some with drawings. One pic I liked was Alberto Vargas surrounded by his pin-up pics.
Across the street from the Portrait Gallery was the International Spy Museum. We only took time to browse the gift shop for a few minutes, but this is definitely on my list of things to see the next time.
Our final destination downtown was Arlington cemetery.
What a sad place. It's hard to look at all those grave stones and realize how many people have served and given their lives for this country. Takes your breath away.
Then, as dad said, "From the sublime to the ridiculous..." we headed out to Medieval Times for dinner (this was mom's choice for birthday dinner, celebrated a day early.)
It was fun and silly. We were seated in the Blue Knight section. Our night was handsome (mom thought he looked like Chuck Norris). He won some of the initial trials (for every win, the Princess gave out carnations for the nights to give to special ladies in the audience. Mom got thrown a beautiful red one!) but lost his joust. Alas, the good guys still won. The food was good (soup, chicken and ribs, a potato, and an apple pastry for dessert) and we had some good laughs. All in all, a good end for the night.
So, off at 9:30 this morning, we got back at 10:30 tonight.
I've tried to include a few photos from each place we visited. Check out Flickr if you want to see more.
Off to bed now. We've got tickets to the Holocaust Museum for tomorrow. Then we head home. Won't be posting again until Sunday. It's been a great vacation, everyone has had wonderful times. Memories memories memories.
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