The plan was to go to Mass at the Basilica but Daddy discovered a church (St. Stephen Martyr) 2 doors down from our hotel the night after we got here. Mass was at 9:00 which was really cool since we were technically attending Mass the same time as usual. The absolutely best part was the priest...he was ordained for the Diocese of Baton Rouge (cool, right?) and had actually heard of Thibodaux since he was a priest for Napolonville, Vacherie, etc.!! and it was his first weekend in this parish. I thought it was so amazing...it was totally meant to be.
Breakfast at the hotel: 10:15am
Metro: 11:20am
Today's an inside day...
First stop (and i thought it would be the last too): the Smithsonian American History Museum.
Time inside: 11:45am - 5:45pm (totally not kidding and that rounding was only by a couple minutes either way)
It took Dad and Evan 2 hours to do the 1st level (it does have the most stuff) and it took just over an hour to do the second level (and it has the least stuff) and then we decided it was break time so we headed down to the ground floor to go to the same place we had lunch yesterday (the stars and stripes cafe) but it was closed so we headed back up to the first level to the consitution cafe and had soft drinks (Evan and me) and really bad coffee (Mom and Dad) and snacks.
Break's over. 3rd level...
The Documents Gallery was Jazz and there were a couple hundred people in the "Thanks for the Memories" section, [Oh, I forgot to mention that at some point between when we came in around noon and about 2pm several hundred people decided that they wanted to see the American History Museum too.] so we passed through those rather quickly to get away from people. The next part was all about the Presidents...all about the Presidents...oh and the Wars (which still has something to do with the Presidents). It was a good display, lots of information, not very well set up to accomodate as many people as were going through though. Oops, almost forgot to mention...we met some really cool Smithsonian staff. They were doing one of the touchy-feely exhibits with wartime shoes and hats from the Civil War and the WWs. We stood around and joked with them for a while (btw, the Confederate hats were used to scoop up fish and their shoes had "forks" on them, to eat the fish of course! :P) and had probably the most fun we'd had all day. At 5:45pm we were finished! (and people who like history probably would have been able to spend another 6 hours times 4 in there, but we had had enough) so we headed out. It was still to early to head back to the hotel and crash so we decided to check out the National Archives. It closes at 7 but we were hoping there wouldn't be a line that late in the day and we'd be able to get in and out fairly quickly. Success!! There were only 15 people ahead of us so we got in quickly. The Rotunda had a line that stretched all the way around it to see all the documents and what-not but it moved fairly quickly and we had finished in there by 6:30 and moved on to the Public Vaults which would have been interesting if we had had more time. They had touch screens (they're EVERYWHERE in this city) so that you could explore documents from major cases of the US Courts (Watergate, etc.) which would have been cool to explore further but we didn't really have the time. The Public Vaults is a fairly kid-friendly part of the National Archives because it has so many interactive things but it also has a lot of history and background that adults would find interesting; I was impressed that they succeeded in combining the two so well and so effectively.
Metro: 7:00pm
...but wait, there's the US Navy Memorial...
It wasn't a planned "go-see" but we did kind of stumble upon it. This Memorial, I found, was a lot like the FDR Memorial...lots of water but it was in a more peaceful part of the city and formed a circle with benches on the inside and the water features on the outer edges so it made it seem more secluded (and there were restaurants nearly surrounding it - at none of which we ate).
Ok, done with that we headed to the Metro stop nearby and back toward the hotel. Mom and I stopped at the 7-11 between the Metro stop and our hotel to get drinks and snacks which Evan and Dad went ahead (past the hotel) to the Papa John's to get us pizza for dinner.
Dinner: 8:15pm
Bed: 10:00pm - boy, was I tired!!
Arlington tomorrow...
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