Four More Museums and a Battlefield

I dropped Mark off on Saturday afternoon. We, my mom, grandmother, Lon and I, stayed in at Karen's house, watching Miss Ing. Karen and Kent and Matt had to be out of town. Miss Ing is a great baby. She laughs and coos and has a grand time no matter where she is. She talks up a storm! She and Lon played a game that Lon enjoyed. I am not so sure Ing enjoyed it as much. Miss Ing likes a pacifier every now and again. Lon thinks that is interesting. Ing would be relaxing on the play mat, Lon would be moving around until he spied Ing with her pacifier. AHA! He must figure out what that thing is! So over he motors, and pulls it out of Ing's mouth and then chews on the edges of it. Ing is just incredulous that he would actually do that! How could he? That was MINE!

He looks sweet, doesn't he Ing? The pacifier is in his other hand, just out of camera range. Ing does not look pleased, for good reason!

Saturday night was spent just watching those cute babies! On Sunday, we went over to Great Grandmother Yetka's and visited her for a bit. The Biggest news of all for that day is LON CRAWLED. No more Marine Corps pulling himself along by his arms! He got up on all fours and motored across the room!! We were all very excited. I had to call Mark and tell him. He was sad he was not there. Me too, I wish he would have been there too.

Then Lon and I got into a cab and went to the American History Museum.

Lon with the First Ladies.

Lon had a good time at the museum. He saw Julia Child's Kitchen. He saw transportation, he saw all sorts of really wonderful things! I like spending time there.

Lon is having a delightful time looking at American History. He really liked the Disneyland 50 years exhibit. They had a dumbo and a teacup, also some memorabilia from the first years. Lon was not too interested in the ephemeria. He liked the dumbo though. When Disneyland has it's 57th anniversary I think we will go there.

OH! I almost forgot, we had to get out of our cab a block early. They were filming a fake motorcade. Lon got to see his first movie or tv shoot.

It was interesting. Over and over again they would film this motorcade going up the street. They were still doing it when we left the museum at closing time. Which is 5pm. The Smithsonians are open 10am to 5pm.

Lon is playing in my shopping bag from the American History Museum. Grandma helps him into the bag. It looks like a big bag, but I don't think I got that much! I got Lon some books. He really needs books. He only has three bookcases full of books. We got some new books on the Civil War (oops, sorry, we were in Virginia, The War of Northern Agression), the Revolutionary War and a kid's cookbook. I like children's cookbooks.

On Monday, Lon and I got in another Red Top cab, and we went to see the new Native American Musuem.

I enjoyed the museum. I had heard mixed reviews. It still feels cavernous. Lots of empty space. My three complaints about it were it is very dark. The second complaint is that Nathan Jackson's beautiful Totem is in the GIFT SHOP. the GIFT SHOP. That was really weird. The third is that no where did I see that you could open the drawers under some of the displays to see even more. I saw someone else do that so I figured I could too. That was cool, once I figured it out.

One of the best parts of the museum was the food court. They have FRY BREAD (love love love fry bread) and indian tacos! YUMMY. Seaweed salad. Salmon, Lobster rolls. The food was great! I got Lon some real sweet potatoes and mushed them up for him. He liked those. The best part of the food court was an employee named Delores. What a great person. She saw me pushing the stroller, trying to carry the tray of food, she helped with that and not only that, she found us a much nicer table near windows so we could watch the waterfalls outside. She was the nicest person! Made my whole day.

Tuesday Lon and I were in yet another cab and we went to the Zoo! It's all happening at the zoo!

The zoo was so cold! The wind was really cold. Lon and I saw the cheetas, the baby panda, and the elephants.

The baby panda out on a limb.

MMM. Lon is eating his new shoes. They have elephants on the toes. Very nice for the zoo. He got so cold I got him a hat. The smallest one, and it still did not fit him very well.

Then we got so cold we left the zoo and went to the Air and Space Musuem.

Air and Space was much warmer. We had a grand time in the museum.

Looking at airplanes. They had a carrier exhibit, Lon was not too impressed with feeling like he was in a Navy Carrier. But he liked the other exhibits. He thought the planes were really interesting. We wanted to go out to the Udvar-Hazy but we ran out of time. Maybe next time.

On Wednesday we went back to Fredericksburg. I made Grandmother Presken some chicken soup. She had a doctor's appointment on Thursday, so we went back to DC and got in another cab and went to the doctors. Took 10 minutes at the office. Took longer in the cab. But it was good to hear she is doing great with her eyes. The best part of the visit came at the end. My mom, grandmother and I were about to leave the building, and elderly gentleman and his wife were also leaving. The Gentleman (in every sense of the word) looks down at Lon and looks up at us and tells us, "He is simply magnificant" HOW COOL IS THAT? All I could say was Thank you. Magnificant. A complete stranger thinks my son is magnificant. What a great word that is, magnificant. I like to say it. Lon the magnificant.

On Friday Lon and I went to Chancelorsville Battlefield.

That was very interesting. They have a wonderful interprative center. Miles of trails, maps and walking tours. The only real downside is that the trails are real trails. Not stroller friendly in any way, so we had to skip those. Next time we go we will be able to walk/run around and see more. We saw the exact spot where Stonewall Jackson was killed by his own troops. They have a big hunk of marble there. Then about 30 feet away they have a monument to him.

Jackson's Momument. It is right on the highway, cars whiz by so that is why we did not get a photo from the front.

That was the only trail we could go on. Lon enjoyed being outside. That was nice. The center had some driving tour tapes, a little over an hour each. The tapes were on Fredericksburg, Spotslyvania and Chancelorsville. They came with maps and looked as if they would be very interesting. I got them, left them at my mom's house, so we can use them the next time we are out in Virginia.

Lon has now mastered pulling himself up on furniture, or whatever else is handy and walking around the perimeter. He is only 8.5 months old.

Lon is in the pack n' play. Portable crib/play yard. Apparently they are no longer called playpens. Lon enjoys spending some time in there, not all day, but sometimes he wants to play with his toys an be left more or less alone. He likes to see me, but hovering is another story. He is getting some independence. Heavy sigh.

That ended our adventure in Virginia. Saturday afternoon we got on a flight and went back to Seattle. The flight was great. No problems. The lady sitting in front of me, remembered me from the zoo. I talked to her in line. She was nice. She remembered Lon, the beautiful baby boy getting a lunch at the zoo. Remember the line from Desiderata? if at all possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. I try to live by that, so far it seems to work.