The planning of our mini-vacation started last week. The five of us were sitting at dinner and I said, “You know you have 3 days off school next week?” We hadn’t really talked about it. I guess October had been so busy for us that we had not looked ahead to November.
The New Jersey Teacher’s Convention is a 2-day event held every year in Atlantic City and public schools are closed so teachers can attend. Last year we went to Disney World. It’s unofficially Jersey Week down there. It was the first time for my younger kids and second for Smart Jr. We’ll go again in a few years. Not this year. But I was up for suggestions on a close-by, relatively cheap vacation and it didn’t take long for us to come up with Washington, DC. Call me stupid, but I had no idea that all the museums, and the zoo, were FREE. I also didn’t know that they were all called the Smithsonian. So okay, I don’t get out much. But I’m always willing to learn. This is a great place to start… a list of current kid favorite Smithsonian exhibits.
Hubby booked the Courtyard Marriott Capitol Hill/Navy Yard with his travel points so that was free except for $29 a day for parking. Boo! Street parking was no better at $2 for 1st hour, $8 for the 2nd hour, $8 for 3rd hour, $2 thereafter. Crazy, huh!?
We woke up early on Thursday morning and left the house at 8am to drive directly to The Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. This is the bigger of the two Smithsonian National Air and Space Museums. It was opened in 2003 and has two huge hangars. It is the companion facility to the Museum on the National Mall in Washington. FREE admission, but parking was a ridiculous $15!
We mainly went because I thought my 4-year-old guy would love it. Unfortunately, he was completely UNDERwhelmed. There were tons and tons of planes to look at but he was super aggravated that he couldn’t go in any of them. He couldn’t even touch them! He wanted to leave after 5 minutes. We did all the things available for kids. There are two different flight simulators, but only one he was tall enough for. At $6/person for a 5 minute ride, we decided we didn’t all need to go, so he went on the ride simulator with daddy. The girls were not interested anyway. And I get claustrophobic.
The kids had a great time learning to fly a Cessna. They learned about pitch, yaw, and roll. (Best explained here.) Thank goodness this “exhibit” was open while we were there. Apparently, it’s only open when they have volunteers to run it. There were two men volunteering when we were there, but neither were pilots and could not answer basic questions we had. Bummer.
Click below to read the rest…
We saw IMAX movie The Dream is Alive, which is all about the Space Shuttle Discovery. Especially cool because the Discovery is on display here! It’s actually a lot smaller than I would have thought. Smart Jr was fascinated by the individual tiles. She said it looked like paper mache.
We took a quick look from the observation tower (which was hardly worth the wait for the elevator) then got out of there.
Next stop was the American Girl Bistro. It’s located in Tysons Corner Center, a very nice mall in McLean, VA. There is a bistro at the store and we were going to go for afternoon tea and a craft, but I cancelled that as a punishment for my daughter throwing a major fit earlier that morning.
Honestly, she’s lucky I took her at all. I’m glad I did though, because she was amazed! She doesn’t own an American Girl Doll yet. She has the Our Generation doll named Lily Anna and she loves her! We were very happy when a woman who works at the American Girl store asked her if she was going to take Lily out of her carrier so she could make some new friends. She asked if Lily wanted to go for a ride in the hot air balloon. She sure did!
She tried a hot air balloon, made some new friends, learned to ride a bike, drove in VW bug, and posed for a picture by the Christmas tree.
We had a great time and best of all… we got out of there without spending a cent! Good thing, check out this little comparison.
To balance out all the girly-ness, we stopped by the Lego Store which was also in the mall. We ended up making and buying 3 mini-figures for $9.99. And I also snagged these little sets {Decorating the Christmas Tree and Santa’s Sleigh} as stocking stuffers without any little people noticing. Too bad that as I type this, my husband just retrieved the Lego, which I carefully hid under the front seat of the car, and opened it for them. WTF?? I probably would have bought the Advent Calendar too, but they didn’t have any. I guess it’s meant to be because hubby would probably just open all the doors the first day anyway. My son cried hysterically while we were in the store because we refused to buy him this train set. Sheesh!
Our last stop in Virginia, before heading to the hotel, was at Arlington National Cemetery. We wanted to see the Changing of the Guard, which happens on the hour, but we arrived a few minutes after 4pm. Instead of consulting a map or asking for directions, we wandered aimlessly, meandering our way past Kennedy’s grave and the Eternal Flame, into Arlington House, around the Old Amphitheater, then over to Memorial Amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We saw the changing of the guard at 5pm. The kids were blown away at the sheer number of tombstones. Smart Jr. and I talked about a friend who is buried at Arlington and how she attended the funereal when she was 3, but doesn’t remember. We should have brought the stroller!
We basically crashed when we got to the hotel. Hubby took the kids to Subway next door and I got an hour of time all to myself! Yay!! At this point we’re still getting by with 5 of us in one hotel room, but only because it was for two nights.
We, well not hubby, totally slept in thanks to the awesome blackout shades. Then we were off on what turned out to be a really REALLY long day of walking. We walked a very UN-scenic mile over to the National Mall and came to the U.S. Botanic Gardens first. We didn’t go in, but the kids loved to wonder around outside. Smart Jr took lots of pictures until the battery died on the good camera. It was all up to the iPhone after that. We pointed out plants we had at home and made mental notes about ones we’d like to add to our garden.
.jpg "Outside tour of the United States Botanic Gardens")
We were starving. Yeah, it was like 11:30am and I hadn’t fed my kids yet. Whaat?? We didn’t pass anything on the walk over. Good thing, because we ate at the Mitsitam Cafe in the National Museum of the American Indian.
OMG was it good. I’m not one to photograph my food, but I couldn’t resist. I had the Pumpkin Cinnamon Dumpling with Lingon Berry Cream and it was quit possibly the best $5.50 I ever spent! The Wild Rice and Watercress Salad was to die for as well! If I was smart I would have purchased the Mitsitam Cafe Cookbook. But how many cookbooks do you have sitting on your shelf that never get opened. Right? Well this one was voted Best in the World, so maybe I’d open it. It was $23.95 at the museum, but only $16.88 at Walmart.
We spent about an hour in the museum as well because there’s a really nice children’s section on the 3rd floor. I was fascinated with the thatched roofing, which of course made me think about the unfinished surf shack bed project I have going on at home. And the tipi made us all think about the wedding we went to in Nova Scotia last summer (read that post here).
Hubby had to get a pic with the outrigger canoe. Of course. He longs for the day we move to Hawaii and he can once again be on an outrigger canoe team.
Then we hit up the other Air and Space Museum and this one was soooooo much more crowded than the one we went to yesterday in Virginia, but you know what? There was more to do! Interactive exhibits, things for my 4 year old to go IN. I took the girls to a show in the planetarium and my younger one was A.M.A.Z.E.D. She had never been in a planetarium. Totally worth the $6 just to see her face. {We held on to our ticket stubs from the IMAX the day before, which brought the price down from $9.50!} I enjoyed it, but it was so darn comfy I had a hard time keeping my eyes open.
We hit up the carousel in front of the {CLOSED} Arts and Industries Building. It was $3.50 and standing adults had to pay too. Hubby went on with the kids, who were getting very cranky by this point. Cranky and COLD.
I figured I could squeeze about one more museum out of them and for some reason we ended up in the National Museum of Natural History. It was not my top pick. We toured the mammals and the dinosaurs and boy was it crowded. I can’t imagine what any of these places are like in the summer! I could barely handle November. We saw the Hope Diamond and saw the super tiny exhibit on mummies, which was top on Smart Jr’s list. The Butterfly Pavilion cost $$ so we didn’t go in.
I was melting along with the kids at this point, but hubby really wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial. So we took the trek past the Washington Monument {which is fenced off and undergoing refurbishment right now} and walked along the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial. Looking at google maps now, I realize that was a 1.5 mile walk. In the opposite direction from our hotel. But I’m glad we went. The view was awesome and none of us had been there before, which seemed totally crazy given that both hubby’s and my dad are total history buffs.
.jpg "Whole Foods at Foggy Bottom, Washington, DC")
We watched Jetsons: The Movie on the iPad because there was nothing for them on TV. My kids had never heard of The Jetsons and hubby and I wondered where we had gone wrong as parents! I looked up The Jetsons to give the kids a little history lesson, that was, of course, why we came to DC, and learned that The Jetsons was the first program EVER to be broadcast in color on ABC-TV. The voices also erked me in the movie version, until I read that the actors who played the voices of George Jetson and Mr. Spacely both died DURING production of the movie. You’re welcome for the education.
We checked out of the hotel Saturday morning and drove to the National Zoo. I had read that parking was $22 so we looked for a spot on the street and found one a few blocks away. It was a really nice walk through a really nice neighborhood with houses like this.
Smart Jr treated herself to a Starbucks and shared with her bro when we went in at about 11am. We stayed until 5pm!
Even thought the zoo closes at 4:30pm in November, they’re not to quick with kicking people out. The kids LOVED the zoo. I thought it was great too. Everything except for the kids area. The kids areas at the Philadelphia Zoo and The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore are way better!
We brought the stroller for my lazy boy and the girls brought their Razor scooters. It worked out well.
The kids reported that their favorite things at the zoo were… watching the orangutangs swing overhead,
pretending they were prairie dogs,
and playing with a giant pizza.
We pushed our exhausted selves to the car and bid farewell to DC. Until we meet again. But… we weren’t going home yet. I scored a deal on Living Social the day before we left, for tickets to Medieval Times outside Baltimore, so we stopped there on the way back to Jersey. Tickets are regularly ADULT: $56.95 (+ tax & processing fee) and CHILD 12 YEARS & UNDER: $35.95 (+ tax & processing fee). With the deal adult was $39 and child $29. Smart Jr has been to the one in North Jersey and I have been probably 3 times, but not at all within the last 18 years.
The weirdest part was where the Medieval Times is located. It’s at a mall called Arundel Mills in Hanover, Maryland, but it’s a freaking mecca. Traffic was insane! There was no parking anywhere. This mall has 17 anchor stores and a 24-screen megaplex movie theater, which is the highest-attended in the United States. WTF?? It was crazy cakes around there. Oh and did I mention there’s a casino too? And we went on a Saturday night which was super insane. We arrived at the mall at 6pm and the show started at 7pm. We shopped around a little, buying two pairs of shoes for my daughter. I was panicked when we weren’t back at Medieval Times until 6:45pm, but here’s a TIP: Be the last one to arrive for the show. It was a big hurry up and wait game and the show didn’t start until 7:30pm. We were super tired, but it was definitely worth it. The kids {and hubby} had a blast! After the show, we had to wait on a huge line to get an elevator to the 7th floor of the parking garage. This place is so crowded.
…And that’s it. We put the little ones in their PJs before we pulled out and I fell asleep as soon as I directed hubby to the highway. We got home just after midnight. And no, nobody slept in this morning, much to my dismay.
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