DC ~ The Good, the Bad and the WEIRD

We just concluded our trip to our nation's capital and we had a lot of good memories, a few bad and some that were just plain WEIRD.

God blessed us with great weather. The first day was a little on the hot side, 92 degrees, but the rest of the time it was in the 80s. We didn't get to see the White House or the Capital Building but we were able to visit everything else on our agenda. Opal didn't care for the journal aspect of my book, but she liked the check-off list for the museum. Mae loved the journal and she wrote insightful notes.

Smile!

It doesn't seem that big...never mind, it was huge!

 Day 1: Arlington National Cemetery and the National Archives

~A few must sees at Arlington would be the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the museum in-front of the tomb and the JFK memorial. FYI, if you have a child who cannot be quiet then do not approach the tomb, the guard will yell at anyone who is not respectful and quiet.
~The National Archives was really cool. They stress that photography is NOT allowed and they have several guards stationed around to monitor picture taking. The girls were very disappointed that they Declaration of Independence was so faded. We could barely make out John Hancock's signature. Fun fact, the document was mounted on a wall across from a window for 30 years which lead to the fading. The Bill of Rights and the Constitution were more legible and we were tickled pink to see the signatures of John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. It was hard to read many of the signatures and so many people were pushing and crowding so we didn't get to spend as much time as we wanted perusing the documents that helped forge the country we have today. In the education center, they give away free copies of these documents, but it is closed on Sunday so we did not get our copies.

Day 2: Smithsonian National Zoo

~We debated on how to get to the zoo and ultimately decided on driving and reserving a parking space using Parking Panda. The metro would cost $60 round trip for the six of us and they were doing construction on two lines so it would take over an hour. Driving took just as long in the end. The zoo was probably the most disappointing because many exhibits were closed. Only a few of the open exhibits had visible animals. The girls did enjoy seeing the zookeepers feed the beavers and we discovered the sloth bear! A definite highlight. The giant pandas were very neat to watch. The male was eating bamboo and the girls got a kick out of watching him eat. The female lay sprawled out on a rock and somehow my mother and I could relate immensely with what seemed like pure exhaustion. The baby was outside in a tree so we only saw the backside of it. Later, we happened upon a friendly seal who was playing with a boy. The boy would toss a pebble up in the air and the seal would do a flip every. single. time. he. threw. the. pebble. Totally cool!

~The drive back to the hotel was awful. The road we needed to take was closed and the GPS would not reroute us. We ended up going down a road that I'll call Embassy Row. I don't know the real name, but all of the embassy's were on this road. It was really cool to see all of the different countries. Then we ended up driving through Georgetown. I was thrilled at first because I really wanted to see this historic district. My pleasure turned to horror as my dad was forced to aggressively navigate the narrow streets and avoid sideswiping the lines of parked cars. It seriously reminded me of England. The designers took a narrow two way street and allowed parking on both sides so it turns into a one lane road. Every time you have an oncoming vehicle, you have to pull over into a parking spot to make room for them to get by.

This was so funny to me because my dad was a navigator for the AF and here my husband is navigating DC for him!

Day 3: The National Mall and the National Museum of Natural History

~We chose to drive again because of the same issues with the metro. We found parking again using the Parking Panda app. We thought the mall would take about 2-3 hours to walk and explore, but we ended up spending 5 hours there. We walked the farthest on this day ~ 8 miles total. Over 15,000 steps. The Washington Monument was terrifying to look at when you stand at the base. We missed getting there early enough to score free tickets to trek up to the top. Opal was most disappointed about this. We did talk to a park ranger and he said there are two cornerstones in this monument. The first one is buried underground and the second was placed where the new construction began. You can see a coloration difference about half way up the monument. Mae was amazed to learn it was 555 feet tall. The Lincoln Memorial was an awesome rendition of Lincoln. The girls both thought the statue would be larger. It was so pretty to face the Washington Monument and see it in the reflecting pool. We ate lunch and made our way around to the MLK Memorial. The girls were amazed how the artist made it look like MLK was coming out of the mountain behind him. The FDR Memorial was huge compared to the other monuments/memorials. It seemed like they had several sections devoted to him. We tried to make it over to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, but by the time we made it over there we only had a few hours left till the Natural History Museum closed.
~The museum was pretty cool and being indoors after spending hours outside was a welcome relief for all of us. Our favorites were the gems, the butterflies, the mummies,  and the dinosaur fossils.

Mae copying the quote on the side of the MLK Memorial for her journal

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The bad:

Hotel: Our hotel was terrible. We had two rooms that cost a grand total of $800. They came with kitchens, but you had to checkout plates, cups and utensils. No tissues were in the room so we had to use toilet paper to blow our noses. We had to empty our trash in a disgusting trash room on the second floor. Two out of three lights were blown. The room was dirty and the largest complaint of all: The WATER....the hotel had no water on the second night. That meant flushing the toilet was impossible. Taking a shower didn't happen either. You can imagine the stench of the unflushed toilet that lasted FOR. SIX. HOURS...

Zoo: Confusing and exhausting. It was pretty much a down hill hike and an uphill return hike after we were worn out. Tons of exhibits were closed and the majority of open ones still had no animals to be seen. The reptile house had a nasty smell and the primate house was either just cleaned using ammonia or the zookeepers had not cleaned up the cages in a while. Maps cost $5 and paths were poorly labeled. We found ourselves turning around several times because we hit dead ends.

National Museum of Natural History: It was disappointing to walk around and see the THEORY of evolution be professed over and over again as a fact. Luckily, the girls view what they see through a biblical worldview, so they questioned a lot of the exhibits. We didn't even walk through the evolution of man section because the first thing we saw said the ocean was our ancestral home and we come from the ocean.

The weird:

On our first day, after we viewed the archives, we walked towards the capital. To our surprise the road was blocked and there was a giant party going on...then we realized it was a gay pride festival on the lawn of the capital building. Now don't start thinking that we have a problem walking around people who are gay. I have no problem AT ALL....my problem lay with the attire that many choose for the occasion and how they expressed themselves. A creepy guy was holding a sign that said "Free Hugs" and he actually motioned to our girls for a hug...UM HECK NO DUDE. Then Mae and I crossed the street and as soon as we turned the corner a grown man was strutting towards us. He was wearing a red, lacy, frilly (a tutu according to Mae) woman's lingerie robe. The robe was open and underneath he was naked except for red and white stripped ladies panties, we'll call them Where's Waldo underwear. To top off the ensemble he wore a red beret and gladiator sandals. Now the man's private area was directly in Mae's line of vision and she was completely mortified. Let's just say we found Waldo...Today when I asked her what she remembers most about DC, this weirdo is the first thing she mentions.

Thanks to this ridiculous man (and I use the term "man" loosely in this case because a real man wouldn't dress like he walked out of porn set and walk through our nations capital), my 7.5 year old daughter lost a little of her innocence that day. Why can't people exercise a little bit of modesty today? I blame Hollywood, but I also blame parents. What has happened to our society that people are motivated to dress and act in ways that will get them attention? We are turning into such a vain and selfish world. The word selfie is practically spelled selfish. It screams, "Look at me world!" It wasn't just this guy and I'm not saying only gay people lack in modesty. It seemed that a lack of modesty was everywhere we went. Daily my husband had to advert his eyes because girls on school field trips were wearing shorts so short that their butt cheeks stuck out. Seriously, who are these girls wearing these shorts for? Certainly not for themselves because they can't see their butts. What happened to school dress codes? What happened to MODESTY? When I was in school, we had the fingertip length rule. Our shorts couldn't be shorter than our fingertips. Do kids today have freakishly short arms? My best guess is no, arm length has not evolved to shorter T-rex like arms. So parents, I ask you, do you see what your kid is wearing? Are you okay with your daughter's butt hanging out of her shorts? Do you like creeps ogling your baby? If the answer is NO, I say parent them for goodness sake. If we don't teach modesty, our kids will turn into the strutting raspberry beret dude and everyone knows where his Waldo can be found.