“Where’s all the Dinosaurs Papa?”
“Uh…
Beats me.
“There’s
gotta be some more.”
“Yup,
Let’s look over there.”
Wait…
that dialogue comes a lot later in the day, first let’s get outta Virginia.
Another
slow start at Casa McGlynn, but another great breakfast from our hostess.
In the
middle of all this, Abuela decides it was time for a little homework before we
could get on the road.
Yeah
Homework. It seems that the sadistic
teachers at Avant Garde Academy thought it would be fun to saddle their classes
with homework over spring break. Hey it’s
called Spring BREAK for a reason dammit! And it’s not a light packet.
Sooo, our young squires begin the groaning and procrastination until SHE
puts her foot down, which of course also delays our romp through the various
museums scheduled for the day.
As it
turns out, we don’t get to our Parking spot until almost noon. So much for getting an early start on what
will come to be a long day.
With not enough
time to do both Natural History and American History in one day with lunch in
the middle, an on the fly change in agenda has us heading to the National
Archives first, for a view of our 3 most
important documents, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the
Bill of Rights. Now Chucky and DL are
excited about this. Daniel, who has joined us sans his mother and little brother, and David are mildly enthused, Jon on the other hand could care
less. He’s walked more in the last few
days than he has all year and is not shy about telling us ALL about it.
While this all seemed like a good idea at
first, after cruising around the archives building we finally find our goal,
the precious documents, only to run into a VERY LONG LINE, 5 switchback-Disney
Style. Seems that half the school,
church, clan, Whatevah groups in D.C. are all here today. One look at the line and the first vote is
that this will have to wait for another time.
The second
vote is between Lincoln’s Hat at the American History Museum, and Dinosaurs at
Natural History. Dinosaurs win 3-2, this
is REALLY what Jonathan came along for, old hats just couldn’t compete.
And of
course now comes the most important question of all: “What’s for Lunch?”
Fortunately
Chucky spots a line of Food Trucks on 7th Street and Wham Bam… Hot
Dogs and Chicken Sandwiches save the day.
Now we’re
off to journey back in time amongst the critters etc, and after wandering through
the Mammal gallery, filled with loads of interesting critters, whales, and whatnot,
we find ourselves in the Neanderthal section and the boys start to take interest,
seeing evolution up close. Interestingly
all the Heads are placed at the presumed heights of the various species and as
we read the attached descriptions the boys, particularly David, are really
warming to the subject. But… the main
goal here is: Dinosaurs.
We finally
head upstairs to wander through the geological sections, David our budding Geologist
is in Heaven, Daniel is mildly interested, Jon is bored, “Where’s the Dinosaurs!?!” The stones and gems section was becoming too lengthy
and we never made it to the HOPE Diamond.
Oh wellll.
Passing through
more Creature exhibits, we finally get to the Dinosaurs, only to spark the
opening Dialogue above.
It seems
that there are only 2 Dinosaurs in the whole damn museum, not counting the
supposed T-Rex head in the lobby which we found on the way out. A hokey mockup of a baby Triceratops and a T-Rex
that did not meet expectations.
At least
the Bug section on the way out got a little better reception but not much.
Minor, or
major disappointments, depending on which boy you polled were quickly assuaged by
a trip to the gift stand where T-Rex heads on the end of Grab-it-Sticks
placated our young explorers and all was well in their world. Well, at least after a stop at an ice-cream
truck on the way back to the car.
Lincoln’s
hat and Julia Childs Kitchen amongst the other treasures at the Smithsonian
Museum of American History will just have to wait for another time.
The usual
running dialogue between Chucky and ROADUH with the obligatory “Re-Calculating”,
got us out of D.C. in record time.
Danny had
made it home early and we all headed into Quaint Downtown Clifton, complete with a Real Ole Time General store and one traffic light, for a picnic
at this cute little park behind the church. A call to the
local pizzeria, where we picked up some Great Pizza and Wine and the adults got
to watch the boys wear themselves out on all the contraptions. And of course batting practice for Daniel,
with Dave and Jon shagging the pop flys.
A Stop at
Petersons Ice Cream Shop, [REAL Home Made Stuff and whose sign indicated that it may, or may not be open depending on the weather or mood of the owner] topped off a lovely night out
and we headed back for showers, 30 minutes of video games [hey, what did you
expect] and off to bed with our little guys.
As the adults
put a pretty good dent in the wine supply, Chucky was able to dash off the
first D.C. NOWAT post.
Thursday
will be a fun day but you'll just have to come back later to see how that went. He's fried and the wine just kicked in...
Ciao 4 Now
Uncle
Chuck & The already snoozing,
Dragon
Lady
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