A Day Downtown

A couple of weeks ago, the kids had the day off of school. It was November 1st- if I recall correctly- the day after Halloween and teachers needed to do report cards. I'm sure they were very happy that that day happened to fall on the day after kids stay up late and eat lots of sugar. Not much learning takes place after Halloween. I know. I was a teacher.

We decided to make a day of it and hit D.C. Specifically, I wanted to visit Baked and Wired (a fun cupcake store) and then go to the National History Museum- a favorite of my kiddos. What became of those plans was another thing.

After finding the cupcake store and seeing it's way blocked by construction, I realized that I had almost no quarters to park. I had two and I knew that would buy me about 15 minutes there with none left for the museum. You have to pay the meter or pay $15 for a parking garage and I did not want to do that. I called Josh and he said that he had two more. I figured I could find some more in the car somewhere, so we stopped off at Josh's work and picked his 2 quarters up.

After that, I figured I could make my way downtown. Nope. One wrong turn and I was in China Town- on the other side of the city. I had my GPS, but had no idea what the address of the museum was (although Josh later informed me I could go to places of interest on my GPS and find it there- which I probably didn't want to do while driving a car full of noisy kids in D.C. traffic).

I rolled down my window and asked a cab driver where the Mall was. He looked at me like I was crazy! "Turn left, lady" he replied and kept driving. I turned left and lo and behold, the beautiful sight of the Washington Monument was before me. Eager to get out of the car, I stopped in the closest parking spot I could find and we trekked it up to the Monument. Nearby there was a big headed George Washington which Asher was completely terrified of. He kept saying "His eyes are staring at me!" I tried to tell him it was a mask, but he continued to cling and cry to me. The Monument was beautiful and the kids wanted to touch it, like they touch the temple. They say "Touch the temple and the temple touches you." I guess for us it was "Touch the monument and the history of it all, and the monument and the history will touch you." I'm so excited for family to see it next week!

Later, we met Josh for a packed lunch for the kids and Potbelly for me and him. It was delish and worth all the effort. The monument was gorgeous and I was actually able to finally see the whole layout of the Mall: the Abraham Lincoln Memorial to the North (?), the White House to the East, the Capital to the South and nothing to the west.

It was a great D.C. day.

This is my blog. My name is Megan Abbott.