Washington DC

This weekend, we took the kids to DC for the first time and had an awesome Morrison vacation!

It was a long drive, but with the help of a portable DVD player, we all survived. Late Thursday we arrived at the Air and Space Museum Annex (adjacent to Dulles airport), which MJ and I had never visited. Little Man was thrilled to see a real SR-71 Blackbird (he has a toy one and recognized the display aircraft immediately). I was extremely impressed that the Space Shuttle Discovery was there in its entirety. And we all had fun learning how to fly in the Cessna.

It's an awesome facility -- massive, with tons of aircraft on display. There's also a tower from which you can see for miles, including all the runways at Dulles. We watched planes take off and land for a while, including a massive, double-decker Airbus A380.

Then we went to our home away from home, a condo we rented near Logan Circle. It was a pretty cool area, with plenty of close restaurants and even some funky street art, like a series of art-themed sculptures mounted on a wall.

Friday morning we had a nice lazy morning, followed by taking the Metro down to the National Mall to all the museums. First stop: the Air and Space Museum, where we saw a planetarium show, all kinds of spacecraft, plus the first Wright Brothers plane.

Next: the American Indian Museum for lunch and a quick search for arrowheads (shocking fact: the American Indian Museum does not have any arrowheads. I'm serious). Then we were off to the Museum of Natural History, where we spent the most time, surprisingly, at the Human Origins exhibit. The kids were fascinated by all the images and information about Early Humans, Neanderthals, etc.

After such a full day of museum-ing, we relaxed out on the Mall with ice cream and a ride on the carousel. "Mommy! You're being so nice letting us have these treats!!" gushed CC.

Saturday morning we drove out to Arlington National Cemetery. MJ's grandfather is buried there, as is a good friend of MJ's from West Point. Fortunately both graves are close to each other, so the walk wasn't too far. I was taken aback at how emotional I felt, looking at all those gravesites and noticing how young many of them were, including MJ's friend.

Afterwards we had lunch and discussed our plans to go to the zoo later that afternoon. "So we have two exciting things later!" said Little Man. "No," I corrected him, "just one more: the zoo." He gave me a huge smile and said, "No, Mommy -- the zoo and the Metro!" Ha! I think riding the Metro was our kids' favorite part of DC.

We had a great time at the zoo, despite not getting to see the pandas. They were not out, due to the heat. To say that Sweet Pea and I were devastated is not an understatement. Fortunately we did see the newborn gorilla, Moke. And MJ located the statue of Uncle Beazley that CC was dying to see (Uncle Beazley is the name of a triceratops in the book The Enormous Egg, which CC's teacher read aloud to them earlier this school year).

Happily, after we were done at the zoo, MJ's Aunt Sharon was able to join us for dinner. We haven't seen her since last summer, and it was great to catch up and re-introduce her to the children. CC was in her element, soaking up all the attention she could get.

The best thing about DC is that there's so much for every age. We can go back again and again as the kids get older, and see different museums, monuments and buildings each time. My good friend Kelly lives there, and I was able to sneak out one night to meet her for drinks. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before the Morrisons do DC again!