Before we got on the airplane to come back home

It was a super busy day, last tuesday (may 10)! We spent a fun evening with Aunt Karen. We got up to say goodbye to the kids, as we would be at the airport when they got home from school. We had to be at the airport by 3:15pm.  Karen could not get out of a meeting, and she would be gone most of the day. That part was sad, but since I did not say I was coming...
Karen dropped us off down near the Vietnam Memorial. I walked by, I did not want to stop, did not want my day to start with that kind of sadness. We kept walking toward the Natural History Museum. Our destination.

Lon was getting his morning excersize chasing ducks!

The ducks were not as amused as Lon.

Not sure why the pond was almost empty. I told Lon they were waiting for the tourists. Or they were cleaning it. I am still not sure.

There was some pretty wildlife in the almost empty pond. There were ducklings too. Lon wanted to go into the pond enclosure and pet the ducklings. I talked him out of it.

We stopped at the World War II memorial. It is something I have not seen yet, we spent just a little time there. We had a destination, and a short amount of time to see what we wanted to see!  I did talk to Lon a little bit about World War II, but not too much.

Iconic

We heard a helicopter go over head a little while earlier. When we got to the Washington Momument, I had Lon turn around to see the White House. Marine One had just loaded the President and was taking off. I do not care what you think of the President, that was SUPER cool. They flew right over our heads. 

Even though Lon had breakfast before we left, Lon was SOOOO hungry by the time we got to the Natural History Museum, he was getting cranky. Our first order of business was getting something to eat! Lon ate all his pizza, and we saved the brownie for the airplane. The chips, Lon did save them to eat on the plane, but by the time we opened them, they were dust.  Lon did say the pizza was not as good as the pizza on saturday.

Back up on the main floor, under the giant elephant, there was a fox den. Lon thought it was very cool. Mainly because on the other side they have a fox going into the den and all you can see of that fox is fox butt.

DINOSAURS!

Dinosaurs RULE. Lon was so excited and so happy to be there!

Look at the little teeny tiny skull! Mommy, this is so cool. Thank you for bringing me!

Diorama, with dinosaurs. Oh! How Lon loves dioramas!

After our trip through Dinosaur land, we went to the Rocks, Gems and Minerals Hall. I just kept hearing my Dad talk to me about rocks in my head. He loved rocks. The jewelery section was very crowded but the minerals were not so crowded. Seems most people don't like the rocks as much as the finished, set jewelery.  Lon pointed out the ones he liked. Which was alot of them!

Inside the earth and moon. There are lots and lots of lessons on that subject I think Lon will enjoy. Right now we are just looking and thinking it is cool.

This rock is magnetized. There are lots of paperclips to put on the rock and see if they stick. They all stick. Lon was having fun making chains out of them. After a while, I made him move on. We had other things to see

We did go see the Hope Diamond. I could not pass it up. Lon thought it was pretty and maybe Daddy should get that for me.  I bought it for me. Okay, so I bought a tiny replica for my charm bracelet.

There is a ramp down to the dinosaur exhibit from the Hope Diamond room. I did not want to go back through the crowded jewelery section.  Dinosaurs are way cooler!

Then we were done with the Natural History Museum. Lon did not think that the taxidermy animals were any fun. He would rather see them alive at the zoo.

In front of Grandma's old office building.

We walked over to the carousel. And we waited. It was hard for Lon. They gave the group ahead of us a second turn. It was a band group who was happy, clapping and having lots of fun. I like it when people are rewarded for positive attitudes.  Our turn was one ride. There were not enough of us on that ride to be that excited.

Finally on board!

Fun Fun Fun

Lon thought the mechanism up top was really cool. He liked how is moved to move the horse.

After the ride, we found a reasonable cart selling popsicles. The National Park service cart, which just opened, did not have the variety of some of the other vendors but they were about 1/3 of the price for what they did have. I was happy to let him have a popsicle! I ate some too. We had a little over an hour left before we had to start looking for a cab back to Karens.  Hmmm, what should we do?

This man was very fun, playing his flute. I had a dollar bill in my pocket and I gave it to Lon to put in the case. The man played Stars and Stripes Forever. He was fun and he was very good with his flute.  I enjoyed listening to him

Okay, where else were we going to go? American History Museum. My favorite.  Lon liked looking at the toys. We had to do a quick tour since we only had an hour!

I wanted to have him stand in front of the train and pretend it was coming at him, but he thought that was a pretty dumb idea. So he stood beside the train. 

In a much earlier blog, I have Lon in his stroller in front of this statue.  I had to get one of him standing on his own two feet in front of George Washington

I made Lon come with me (where else was he going to go?) to see the First Lady's Dresses.  I love looking at historical clothing.  Then it was time to get out of the museum. It was 2:05 when we left the front doors. We got a taxi very quickly and were on our way. We got our souvenirs packed, our bags ready. The cab came and we were at the airport on time. We had a nice lunch, then boarded the plane for a very boring flight back home. I love boring flights. Lon played with all of his toys and had a good time.  I was very happy I went out. It was a very fun time.