DAY 84 : September 29/22 Thursday. Big Day out in Washington DC (camping in Cherry Hills, Maryland)

 This morning we got up and at 'em at a decent time so that we could catch the bus from Cherry Hill RV Park (it has its own transit stop right here in the entrance to the complex). I walked up ahead and got our SmartTrip cards from Barbara ($12 x 4 cards) which she said should do us to get into DC and back. We left around 9:10am on the #83 bus to College Park where we could then transfer over to the Greenbelt line metro train into DC (getting off at the Archives station).  While on the train, I booked us a time slot for 11:30am at the Smithsonian African American History Museum, so we'd have time to get into DC, have a look around and go into the museum while energy was still good for the kiddos. 

Transit went smoothly, not busy and the Archives Station was very cool looking inside with the coffered ceiling. We popped out amongst the big buildings ... very different views from NYC. The landscape in DC is very wide and short, where NYC was taaaaalll and narrow. Beautiful sunny but cool day. We had a wander and decided that our timing was tight (arrived into DC around 10:30am) so we looked for food and found District Tacos for some super yummy "design your own tacos". 

It's a running joke with our family now that in every city I'm looking for a post office so I can buy stamps. Imagine my delight when I found the official massive post office department of DC. Unfortunately, when I went inside, they didn't have any global stamps available until the next day! boooo!

District Taco face:

After our tacos, we walked over to the African American History Museum for our 11:30am booking. All the Smithsonian Museums (10 or more of them!) are free entry here. We had heard great things about this one and were keen to experience it, even though we new it wasn't a great fit for the kids. They did very well in trying to engage with the exhibits as much as they could muster. It's a lot to take in. We did the basement floors C1-3 with the early history. From 11:30am to 2pm, they had had enough and we didn't continue on with the top floors which the kids probably would have liked better. The museum was very well laid out and Jonathan and I learned a lot. If we were here on our own, we'd have spent a lot more time here and also exploring other museums. 

After the AAHM, we walked around the Washington Monument (it's so tall!) and enjoyed the grounds playing pizza-frisbee for a bit. Ollie was in a low mood after the museum... probably a combo of being in a museum, and also the dark content.  Took him awhile to get out of his funk, but he managed. 

View of the Reflecting Pond towards the Lincoln Memorial from the Washington Monument.

Hopped on the Circulator Bus (free for 2hrs) to the Capitol Buildings. Much of it was hidden behind scaffolding, but neat to see. We talked with the kids about the attack that had happened there. 

Wandered over to the National Art Gallery (I'd have loved to have gone inside. I've decided that I need to make a trip out here for a week with a girlfriend and check out all the museums and galleries!). Found Ollie in a tree and took some slo-motion videos of him. The parkour videos by the Capitol Buildings helped get him feeling more like himself. We saw a few people walk over to the wall of the art gallery and pose by it, and also noticed that part of the wall was worn away a bit from people touching it. I convinced Oliver to walk over and check it out with me. We were quite delighted when we got there to see that it was not a normal 90degree corner of a wall as it appeared... it was a VERY sharp angled wall. Pretty cool. 

While we were over there investigating the sharp wall, I saw the sculpture out front and bet Oliver that it was a Henry Moore sculpture "Knife's Edge"... we walked over and I was right! My art history degree emerged for a brief moment, haha.  Very neat to see how large it is in real life. I reminded him of the Henry Moore bronze at the Bloedel Conservatory back home in Vancouver. 

The circulator bus finally rolled by, and we hopped on to ride over across the National Mall to the Lincoln Memorial. This was one that I really was excited to see in person... moreso than any of the other monuments. It did not disappoint. It had quite the impression on both Jonathan and me. Before we went up to the monument we walked over to the concession for a pretzel and "pick me up"... While kids and I were eating, Jonathan snuck off and rented a Lime Electric Scooter (found all over the city) and zipped up on it. Kids could not have had wider smiles when they saw him! Very fun and certainly lifted weary little spirits. 

Lincoln Memorial 

Around the side of the Lincoln Memorial building, we followed a walkway along to catch the circulator bus again. It was here that Oliver discovered a very camouflaged Praying Mantis! Very cool... it's the first one we have ever seen "in the wild" (not at an insect display). This also perked up a weary little boy!

Caught the free circulator bus over to the White House but we couldn't have access for at least another 45 minutes according to one of many secret service officers surrounding the area all gated off. When Jonathan had walked over and asked a friendly looking officer about how to maybe get a glimpse of the White House, he suggested we walk up a block and about half way there might be an opening to it from a distance. Jonathan thanked him and said, "I'm apologize for my moustache" in a jovial way, and the office smiled and said, "I'm sorry for my beard!"   Funny. 

We walked along further until we found the spot where you could see glimpses of the White House from across the vast lawn. Secret Service everywhere (more were densely situated at the other side where we just were). You could see officers with scopes (or rifles?) up on the roof. After awhile there were 3 black cars leaving the driveway beside us, and a Korean tour group of young tourists taking videos with their cell phones. We have no idea who was leaving, but it was interesting to see the procedure, even if we didn't get up close to the actual White House. 

After that excitement, we walked several wide blocks to the Art Gallery's sculpture garden that I was excited to check out. We were getting tired by then, but I really wanted a  quick wander before we hopped back on the train to Cherry Hill. Jonathan rented an other Lime scooter for a few blocks to keep the kiddos going, and when we got to the park, it was closed!! bah.  Disappointing for sure. 

Got the the Archives metro station around 6:15pm and hopped on the greenbelt line towards College Park. We just missed on train by seconds. The next one was in 6min. Unfortunately, this one meant that it arrived at 6:41pm and our bus leaving College Park depot also was timed to leave at 6:41pm. 

We arrived, sure enough, at 6:41pm on the dot and watched across the parking lot/construction and platforms to the bus depot as our #83 pulled away on time. Ah well. Ended up waiting at the bus stop until 7:10pm and enjoyed a beautiful sunset sky of pinks and purples. Kids were good but giddy and overtired.  It was a quiet 30min ride back to the Cherry Hill stop. Just about had the bus to ourselves. 

Back at the ranch, we had dinner and I put on two loads of laundry. Kids liked the fish tanks in the lounge. Jonathan and I watched the grim news on the big TV about Hurricane Ian devastating Florida. We are very wary of our next moves as our original plans took us down the North Carolina coast and into Florida. Seems we will need to pivot accordingly. It's expensive to "camp" here at Cherry Hills (USD$87/night), but it is comfortable and friendly and has a pool and hot tub and free hot showers.