WASHINGTON DC: Rest Day

It might seem, since I decided to return home on the day of the Race for Hope and allowed myself to be duped by a “non spicy” quesadilla at the Potomac again, that I learned nothing from the 2010 trip to Washington DC. This is actually not true; the one lesson I hung onto was the important of resting the night before the Race. That meant, no matter what happened (or what we would miss doing as a result) Saturday absolutely had to be semi relaxing. We set an alarm for 10:30, which compared to the 6:55 alarms we are used to, was like sleeping the day away.

We managed to wake up 15 minutes early, dress, eat, not forget the list of addresses we might want to hit, and get into Washington by, I believe, noon. The one thing we could agree we both absolutely wanted to visit was the SHAKESPEARE GALLERY so we stopped at the Smithsonian castle for directions and a pee and were given a map to help us in case we got confused. It was a bit of a long walk and, much like last year, directions were a tad unclear which led to Lauren and I getting a bit off track and bickering through the streets of DC. If you know us, this probably doesn’t come as a surprise but we did figure out our way and ended up with a more scenic rout, even if it wasn’t the fastest. After Shakespeare, our next intended stop to visit was Constitution Gardens, which were a decent distance away so in the meantime we stopped at two Smithsonians.

Smithsonian American Art Museum

This is actually divided into two buildings, and we choose to view the older pieces to view. We wandered around looking at Renaissance sculptures, Italian period pieces, and split (because we are cheap) an amazing roasted turkey Lunch, with mash potatoes and orzo sides and chocolate milks (because we are apparently five year olds.) However, the best part of the visit had to be the conversation we had with a guard in the photography section. First I must say that every worker in the museum has an attitude problem; not just with us, but we over heard them sassing with other visitors as well. Anyway, so when you enter the Photography Section (which I wouldn’t recommend- it was small and boring) there are big signs that say, “Please no use of phones of cameras in this section.” So I enter, camera in hand, and Good Sir Hates-his-job Von Bitchy says, “Notice the sign,” Lauren reads out loud that there is no use of phones, I don’t look at all, and then we say, “Oh cool but we can take pictures.” The look on his face was priceless as he said, “No ma’ams.”

When we were done we headed over to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, which we visited last year but they update the pop culture section regularly and currently is doing a display on the year 1939 that is plastered with huge headlines, artifacts (like the Ruby Red Slippers from Wizard of Oz,) and every Time Magazine cover from the year. Pretty cool if you ask me.

By late afternoon we made it to the gardens and then headed homeward to eat dinner and get some time in the hot tub. It is easy to call it an early day when you have that to go home to.