Doin' the District

Easter weekend found us on a bus, headed down the Jersey Turnpike for a quick trip to Washington, D.C. The trip down was pretty uneventful, thanks to a nap-time departure and the sleep-inducing vibrations of the road. The trip back was a bit more ... um ... disastrous. A four-plus hour bus trip (darn tunnel traffic!), plus a toddler who had not napped was enough to test any one's patience. Nonetheless, the trip was definitely worth it.

We headed south on Friday and spent one night in D.C. with a friend of our friend, Melissa's, and followed that up with a Saturday-night stay at her mother's house in Bethesda, Maryland. Sandwiched between was one crazy day as we attempted to see as much of the city as we could. Granted, it's not large, but we only brushed the surface of what we would have liked to see. Don't worry D.C. friends, we'll be back ...

Our Saturday started with a trip aboard a DC Duck -- ours bore the moniker "Duck Soup," which we much preferred to the "Sitting Duck" (below) we passed as we began the Potomac River portion of our trip. The Ducks are WWII era vehicles which have been restored to guide tourists around the city -- including a half-hour cruise in the river.



Among the sites we saw the Capitol, the various monuments, a very distant glimpse of the White House and the Pentagon as we exited the highway. It was a fun -- albeit cold (open-air vehicle + speeding down the highway) -- way to see a lot of sites at once.




After recharging with some lunch at Union Station, we headed back out with two goals: to give our sleepy toddler a nap and see the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Constitution at the National Archives. Meeting up with our DC buddies Jess and Becca was a great bonus. Having Jess' Blackberry and educator's nature in line was us was even more of a bonus as she entertained us by looking up fun facts about the documents and exhibits. For example, who knew that they're housed under bullet-proof glass and lowered into a vault that can withstand a nuclear bomb at night? We also caught a glimpse of the Magna Carta as it was the last weekend of a special exhibition of it at the museum.

Our next stop was the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (which the Garrison sisters informed us was a major part of their childhood!) It will probably be our first stop next time, however, as we arrived just a half hour before closing time. We still saw some cool stuff -- including the Lunar Lander -- and Mason woke up in time to proclaim one of the airplanes looked like Jay Jay.



We finished off the day by wandering along the National Mall toward the Capitol. This was probably my favorite part of the day as we entertained ourselves by feeding the ducks in the pond out front. They cleaned out our snack supply: donuts from breakfast, a chocolate-chip scone and a cereal bar. The last didn't work too well. They're too sticky to launch...


We'll leave you with a couple more pictures of Mason Doin' the District to keep you entertained until next time. Enjoy!