Day 2 of DC attractions

We decided we would get up early and head to DC as we wanted to see the Bureau of Engraving where they make paper money. The tours are free but you have to get tickets by 9AM if you want to get on a tour (or so we read). With a bit of grumpiness on some parts of the family, we got out the door and made it to the metro station. We were much smoother this time getting through the ticketing and boarding procedure and we arrived at the closest green line station to the Bureau around 8:30AM. When we came above ground we found it was pouring rain. We made the best use of our umbrellas but still managed to get soaked from head to toe by the time we had walked the 4 to 5 blocks to the ticket booth. When we arrived there was no line for ticket and about 10 tours with space still available! I guess better safe than sorry!

At this point it was 9AM, we were soaked and the museums do not open until 10AM. We decided the best route was to get some cocoa at the cafe that was right by where we were at. When we ordered we were handed 6 packs of cocoa and some empty cups and pointed to the hot water. A little steep for $3.75 each but we were at a tourist cafe so we made the most of the dry table and drinks and in my mind counted it as "rent" for the hour. Once we had finished we found the rain had stopped and so we headed on the walking route to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

The walk was another 4 to 5 blocks but took us right by the Washington Memorial. It is all framed up with scaffolding so it does not look as impressive as it normally would but was nice to see none the less. We found alot of trucks and equipment going into the mall area as tomorrow is the fourth with alot of activity going on so they are getting all ready for it.

We arrived at the Museum about 5 minutes before opening time to find a gentleman dressed in period garb discussing the Start Spangled Banner which is celebrating 200 years next year. Just before opening the song was played and respects to the flag paid. We then entered along with another large group of tourists and made our way through security.

Once in, we decided to start at a point a little different from the rest of the crowd. We saw some great history items like Dorothy's shoes from the Wizard of Oz and one of the original Kermit muppets. At this point we split into two groups as I knew the little boys would not stay interested long in many of the exhibit items. I took them and did a "power tour" of the museum while Stacey took the older kids and did a slower tour. We finished our tour much earlier but felt like we got to see the main items of the museum including Abraham Lincoln's top hat he wore the night he was shot, the Star Spangaled banner flag that flew over Fort McHenry and the camp kit George Washington used on some military campaigns.

Bronze cast of Abraham Lincoln's life mask and his pocket watch

Kermit circa 1970

Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves

Archie Bunker's chair

They had these really cool interactive monitors that were like something out of Ironman with how
you could manipulate the objects and get more information on MANY topics.

Pieces of THE Star-Spangled Banner - We got to see the whole thing (minus the souvenir scraps which had been cut out long ago) and it was impressively huge. I think it was 30X40'. We weren't allowed to take any pictures of it and the light was very, very low.

General Sherman's Hat

Damage to the USS Maine due to a mysterious explosion that was a trigger to start of WWI.

Spencer testing his riveting skills. Unfortunately, his results said he'd have to go back to pushing a broom.

Philadelphia, oldest American fighting vessel in existence, built in 1776 and sunk in 1776.
Salvaged in 1935, along with the 24 lb. ball that sunk it, from under just 15 feet of water in Lake Champlain.

Conestoga Wagon

Old Schoolbus, circa 1939

Nice to see blue sky after our rainy start, but that sun was hot!

Brynna joined up with the little boys and I while we where just about at the end of the tour. I decided the boys would enjoy being outside now that it was sunny so Brynna said she would go tell Stace and Brighton. We waited outside until Stace and Brighton came but Brynna was not with them. I went back through security and looked for her and luckily she was coming up the stairs as I was going down. I think it scared her pretty well to not know where we were so we decided we would stick together in at most two groups.

We had some snacks outside and then Brynna, Skylar and Spencer decided they would like some DC souvenirs. Brynna chose a pink umbrella which made Skylar want a green umbrella. Spencer decided on a blue DC-Minecraft shirt.

We then headed to the Holocaust Museum which is located right next to the Bureau of Engraving. We got tickets for the free tour for later in the day and explored an exhibit about a Jewish boy growing up in Germany during the war and the changes in his life from the Nazi actions. It was hard to read how Spence and Sky felt about it but I think it was a great way to present the picture of the holocaust to kids their age. We explored some more of the exhibits before our time for the Engraving tour came up.

The tour organization was not overly good at the Bureau of Engraving. We were told to wait outside as we were a bit early for the tour which we were happy to do as it meant we could sit down. We were about 30 feet from the door. Then a couple of minutes before 2:15PM, we went back to the door and were told we were late and the tour started on time.  Hmm, most efficient I have seen things run as both my watch and phone said 2:14PM and they had never come out to tell us it was OK to come in. Anyhow we made the tail end of the intro video and then went through the tour.

No pictures were allowed but they take you up on overhead walkways above the printing presses so you can see the operation clearly. They had big stacks of paper ready to print and explained how the printing starts and goes through progressive stages to turn into the paper money that we use everyday. They were careful to explain they are not a MINT as that is for coins not paper money. They and a location in Texas are the only paper money printers in the US. It was an interesting process to see and have explained. Turns out they also print invitations to the white house events which I guess is a good multiuse of the equipment for documents that need to be extra secure.

One of the highlights of the tour was that we got to see the new $100 bill which is not due to be released to production until October. It is pretty unique looking and they are already gearing up on all the printing. The other highlight that the kids were most excited about is that while we were watching part of the process in action a VIP tour entered the production room on the lower level. One of the tour looked familiar and it turns out it was Scotty McCreery from American Idol and his team. Signs all over the tour said no pictures could be taken or they would take your camera, but somehow their VIP tour was snapping pictures left and right. Guess we know where us commoners rate in the scheme of things. After the tour it dumped us into the gift shop like all great tours do. There was some fun displays on money printing over the years and even a live demonstration of how they used to do the printing using a hand press before the days of automation. Overall it was very interesting to see the whole process and I was surprised by how few people it takes to run the actual printing operation. The guide said 95% of the money printed goes to replacing money being taken out of circulation.

Skylar is $1,141,700 tall in $100s. Didn't need that to tell me how valuable he is. :O)

We went back to the Holocaust museum and checked in with the lost and found as somewhere along the route today Brighton lost his newsboy hat. They had not seen it but took down our information in case it gets turned in. We then took the elevators upstairs at our appointed tour time and walked through three levels of displays on the holocaust. The displays were really well done but it was incredibly crowded which by this time of the day really got on my "don't like crowds" nerve. Most displays you could not read as it was so crowded and at many times you could not walk ahead. Sounds pretty trivial based on the subject being covered. :-(

Again we split into two groups with Brighton and Brynna coming with me and the little boys going with Stace. There were many sobering displays and I believe everyone came out of the museum with a better understanding of why it is so important for us to be aware of what happened so that it never happens again.  Even so, certain parts of the world are still experiencing much the same sort of issues today so that part I believe felt more real to the kids.

At this point pretty much everyone was exhausted. We started the trek back to the subway and decided to divert into the Smithsonian "castle" which was the original museum back in the day. It was a neat building to see but most of the family was wiped out. We made our way back onto the train and even found seats for the whole trip.

When we got back to the station we had some auto traffic on the way home and stopped at the store to get some meal items. We barbequed hamburgers for dinner and had fresh corn which was a nice meal compared to granola bars and jerky (our meal for the rest of the day)!

It turns out our friends from the previous park ended up in a site just two doors down. The kids played together until bed time and everyone fell asleep quickly after a long day full of alot of sights and experiences.

Quiet Day

Today was our rest up day. We got to just relax around the trailer in the morning. I made a real breakfast (not cereal) and we ate that and then Brock and I worked on some planning for New York and beyond for the next week or two.

Around noon, we started cycling through the shower and getting the kids' cleaning chores done. We ate some sandwiches. Then, we all drove to Costco and filled up the Yukon's gas tank and picked up a few groceries.

We kind of had to hurry back because Brock had a phone call appointment that he needed to do and he needed to do the payroll transfers for work. It was very close to the appointment time when we got to the trailer so the kids stayed in the car (it was raining) to ensure quiet for Brock's call and I put the groceries away as quietly as I could and gathered up our laundry to take to the park's facilities.

The kids and I drove there just so we wouldn't have to cart the laundry baskets. The laundry room is pretty big and the machines were average-priced. The kids lounged in the "rec room" and used their devices and/or watched some cartoons that someone turned on the tv. Spencer was begging to try the Ms. Pacman old-school table-type game, but I made him wait until I finished the laundry to be sure that I would have enough quarters to finish what I'd started. Turned out I did and so at the end of laundry time, he and Skylar were rewarded with one Ms. Pacman round. That was about the quickest 50 cents they ever spent. I think Spencer said, "Pacman is harder than I thought." Hee hee hee. This from the kid who gets so frustrated at me that I can't keep up in Super Mario?

We came back to the trailer and I made dinner. It was a bit of a strange combination meal, but one where each individual component sounded good to me. Brock wasn't too sure, but he was a good sport and went along. We had pot roast (from Costco) and egg rolls and asparagus prepared the way Gwen made it when we visited her and Tim in Missouri (baked in olive oil drizzle and then splashed with balsamic vinegar before eating). Yummy.

After dinner, it was pretty much bedtime for Spence and Sky. For the last couple of hours, I worked on gathering information for the places we want to be sure and see over the next few days and tried to lay out a bit of a game plan so we can make the most of our time.

D.C. - Archives & Capitol Tour

We started our day waking up before 6 am to the sound of water running somewhere in the trailer...oh wait...that's Heidi peeing on the floor again! Argh. Thankfully, she finished the last of her prednisone dosage from her infection around her eye last night. I really hope that is why this is happening right now and that this is not a bad behavior cropping up after three and a half years. She hadn't whined or barked or anything. I took her out for a walk right away and it made us thankful that we'd made the decision to hire a dog walker for midday today since our plan was to be gone all day. Now we just have to wonder how Heidi will react to a stranger coming and opening up the trailer to take her out.

With our early start to the day, Brock had time to head over to the store and see about buying the Smartrip cards for fare paying. When you use them you save a little on your fare everytime and don't have to worry about finding cash and buying paper tickets. We purchased 6 of the cards and they cost $5 and come preloaded with $5 on them. We were able to get to the metro station by right around 9 am. We decided to drive to the station instead of taking the bus from the rv park because the station is only a little over 2 miles away and we'd save a little bus fare by not riding both ways. When we got to the parking lot, it seemed that the anticipated parking fee was free today. Bonus! In the parking lot, we discovered that either someone stole or we lost one of our hub caps off one of our tires. They do have several screw on caps that hold them on so it doesn't seem like it would just fall off. Boo!

We got inside the station and could NOT figure out how to use the machines to charge up our fare cards. We asked the booth attendant and she "cheerlessly" came out of her booth and helped us. She was very matter of fact and repeated her instructions in a tone that was a little less than friendly, not quite harsh, but close, but she did help us and we were able to get the cards loaded with some money so that we should be good for most of the week. We went first to the gates and tapped our cards on the reader and nothing happened. We tried again. Nothing. Then a nice man with a smile on his face, coming the other way, told us to look for the green lights and use those gates and it worked. I guess there are ins and outs. We are such country bumpkins, but oh well.

The train ride was pretty uneventful, not too crowded at that time, and we arrived at the Archives stop in not too long. We came out of the station at that end and we're not sure, but we think, one of us may have gotten a free gate because the little door stayed open and so one of the little kids followed the big kid through.

We emerged into daylight, but it was actually a pretty dark sky for 9:40 in the morning. Almost immediately it started to rain at a pretty good clip and we were trying to figure out on which side of the building was the entrance. Of course, we were on the exact opposite side and had to walk all the way around. We tried to huddle under our one umbrella, but eventually some of us gave up and just tried to stay under the trees and walk fast. At the front of the building, there was a pretty long line forming to enter. It turned out that we were there just about 15 minutes before the building opened which was perfect. I felt really bad for the people with no umbrella because it rained most of the 15 minutes that we would have to wait before the doors opened. We could at least cluster very tightly under our one. I should've had someone take our picture, huh?

The security station here ended up taking quite a long time and it was probably another 30 minutes before we got through it and had the freedom to enter the building and walk around a couple corridors and then get in another line to go to the rotunda where you can see the actual Declaration of Independence, the actual Constitution, and the actual Bill of Rights. That line took awhile too because security would allow 15 or so people into the rotunda at a time and it seemed like some of the other people viewing weren't out yet and so there was a backlog of people. The little boys were tired of the lines already and began to act up so we didn't get to spend as much time there as I would've liked. However, it was amazing to get to see the parchments (in the very limited light and however briefly) and we even got to see the Magna Carta from 1297!! I can't think of a better way to spend Independence week.

Brock had ended up taking the boys out and they found a hands on room where the kids could hold copies of the documents and look at them with magnifying glasses and write up their family tree and do puzzles, computer research, even see some Oregon state history via some pictures in a file that we were free to peruse.

When we left the archives, we came out and it wasn't raining anymore, but the skies were still very gray and so we went to the first street vendor we saw and bought two more $5 umbrellas. :O)

From there, we walked through the sculpture garden on the mall.

We then came out into the open grassy area of the mall, but it was surprising how much is actually going on there. There were several booths being set up for a festival and there are a LOT of buildings undergoing some kind of construction. We didn't get close yet, but the Washington Memorial is all covered with what looked like some kind of scaffolding. We headed towards the Capitol building, thinking that we might hit a museum on our way to our Capitol tour appointment. We ended up stopping for a little snack right there in the mall. It felt a little surreal to actually be seeing what we were seeing.

Moving towards the Capitol, it started to rain pretty hard again and we moved into the Botanic Garden building to escape the drops. It was a really impressive building with tons of variety and blooms and different types of gardens. My favorite was the Orchid Room. There were so many really exotic and beautiful and heavenly smelling blooms.

Brighton thought this was Brock's namesake.

Once we left the Botanic Garden, we decided we'd better try to figure out how to find our tour because it was a little before 1 pm and our tour started at 1:30 and we were supposed to be there 15 minutes early to go through security. We ended up walking right to the Rayburn House where our congressman, Rep. Greg Walden, has his office. We made it through security pretty quickly; there was no line. We hit the restrooms and then went up a floor to the office. We again felt like country hicks as the door was closed and we weren't sure if we knocked or just went in. LOL Spencer gave a little knock and then Brock opened the door and we were greeted by a friendly face of an intern who was on his way to open the door for us. He knew we were there for the tour and he made a little small talk with us. Turns out he is from Bend too! He showed us Rep. Walden's office. Mr. Walden, after a busy voting week last week, is back in district meeting with constituents this week so we didn't get to meet him, but if he were there, we were assured, he would have met with us. We got the impression not too many Oregon constituents make it out to D.C. for a visit.

Then our tour guide, another intern, Christian, came out and greeted us. He is from Portland and just graduated from University of Portland and is headed to Notre Dame to study law this fall. Our tour ended up being just us and Christian which was really unexpected, but so nice! Christian said their office might give at most 4-5 tours a day and usually take turns doing them. The interns answer phone calls and read emails from constituents and in general help to make things happen. It sounds like they work long hours, but not as long as staffers especially when congress is in session.

The first thing we did was go down to a long tunnel-like route to traverse underground from the Rayburn building, learning there are three separate buildings housing offices for the 435 different representatives, under the road through the Cannon tunnel and into the Capitol building itself. We were so grateful to have a guide to explain and direct us. I think if we were just wandering around on our own we wouldn't have gotten nearly as much out of our visit. (not even a hint of all that we learned from Christian). Everywhere was very crowded and full so I didn't get as many good pictures as I would have liked.

Here are just a couple of highlights...

Lady Freedom in the Capitol Rotunda. A sculptor's model for the statue on the top of the building. She is beautiful!

The cornerstone of the original Capitol building, laid by George Washington in 1793. Now enclosed in the addition and under glass to preserve it.

 We went through the crypt which was intended to be memorial over the tomb of George Washington, but didn't end up that way since he left specific instructions that he wanted to be buried at Mount Vernon. It is an impressive circular room filled with 40 big columns and has a marble tile in the middle that marks the exact center of D.C. and is supposed to bring a person luck if they rub their foot on it. Christian also showed us one of I guess several cat pawprints in the 200 year old cement of the floor from when they were constructing. We got to see Statuary Hall where there are statues of several prominent Americans. Evidently each state can have two statues of people of their choice up in the Capitol. Ours, for Oregon, in Statuary Hall was Rev. Jason Lee who was the first Oregon missionary. He worked to promote education and his plans resulted in the founding of Willamette University, the first university west of the Mississippi. We saw another Oregon statue in the Hall of Columns, this one of John McLoughlin who was given the title "Father of Oregon".

This amazing chandelier was purchased from a wrecking company for about $1500 in 1965 and
is now estimated to have a value of over $20 million.

We got to go into the Old Senate Chamber which was used up until 1859 by the Senate and then later for the Supreme Court, but is now restored to look as it would've for the Senate. The porthole portrait of George Washington on the wall behind the eagle is supposed to be one of the most accurate representations since it was commissioned while he was still alive. The golden eagle, which is solid wood with a good paint job, and the vice president's chair, and the portrait are all original.

We also had a pretty long wait of it, like about an hour, but we got to go into the gallery seating and look down on the house floor. It was very cool to see it in person. We saw the c-span camera that would be broadcasting 24 hours a day when anything is happening on the floor. The room definitely looks smaller in person than it does on TV. Christian pointed out a lot of interesting things in the room like LCD panels that are disguised to look just like the other fabric covered panels that cover the rest of the upper part of the room, bullet holes from an event in the 50's, busts of different lawgivers that go around the top of the room and include a bust of Moses looking directly down on the floor.

Outside Rep. Walden's office

Our beloved guide, Christian, who gave us a great day full of wonderful Capitol memories.

We were all pretty hungry and had walked at least a few miles so we said goodbye to Christian and headed out to the street and walked a couple of blocks to Tortilla Coast to eat a wonderful Mexican lunch/dinner. (Thank you, Grams for the extra experience funds!)

Here we enjoy our warm, crispy thin chips and yummy salsa while we wait for our food.

After our delicious meal we walked around a little more. The sun, and the humidity, were out and we enjoyed seeing the buildings in that light versus the rain. It was right around 5 pm so we didn't really have enough time to see any full museum or anything, but the mall is really beautiful to just enjoy.

Library of Congress - still hoping to tour inside later in the week. 

Walking a big cement curb balance beam right in front of the Capitol 

Supreme Court Building is undergoing some repairs evidently, so there is a facade out front and we were approached by a nice older lady who was protesting the death penalty. She asked us to read her pamphlet and if we would, she would take our picture. LOL 

Loving the lighting at this time of the day - front of the Capitol Reflection Pool 

The Senate Side of the Capitol. Couldn't believe how "uncrowded" the area was at this time of day,
but the two people you can see in the pic are strangers.

Tomorrow is a little bit of a relaxing day since Brock has to do payroll and we have a little bit of "housekeeping" type business to do. I think our feet would like a little break anyways and we'll be raring to head back into the city on Wednesday.