Our 36 hours in Washington, DC was wonderful. It was definitely beyond special that somehow the stars aligned to land us all there, around a dinner table, when I opened my email and saw my Johns Hopkins acceptance. I am going to work in "JOHNS HOPKINS" into every Yoke for a while.
It feels pretty incredible. Also, I realized that I will now have homework. Hopefully, my children will stay up with me all night, like I do for them, motivating me to get it done with chocolate and long winded speeches about my potential.
We've got some time for all that. For now, let's get back to the minibreak! DC is one of my favorite cities. I love every single Smithsonian museum (free admission; great for easily disracted kids and mothers), there is a memorial to someone or something on every street corner and history everywhere. Plus, there are some great spots to eat.
Today, we started wtih the National Zoo and arrived just as the elephants were waking up for the day. This is literally the second most adorable animal thing I've ever seen. The first is watching the giant pandas eat and laze around. And the third is watching the ostrich interact with Chloe as if they were old friends.
Animals are amazing.
Then we headed to the Natural History Museum (the rocks and gems are my favorite part), the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, the National Gallery of Art (which is a good rainy day pass through to get close to the Museum of the American Indian and then to Air and Space. Air and Space is still under renovations--the new sections look great; but it feels so small with all the sections still under construction.
Since we hit up the Washington Memorial and WWII memorial on Thursday night, after we had dinner tonight (at a fabulous French inspired resturant that resulted in everyone eating every last crumb) we got our Lincoln fix in. We also walked through the Vietnam War Memorial.
Mike and I are both the children of veterans. My Dad was in World War II. When I was a kid his stories seemed so far out to me--hard to fathom. Mike's Dad was in Vietnam. Both our dads went to war when they were basically still boys--so young, too young to be put in those horrible situations. These memorials mean so much to me now; especially as we experience raising a young adult daughter. How did our fathers go to war? How scared were our grandmothers? How blessed are we that they came home?
The answer to that last question is impossible to answer.
Those memorials are also reminders to me that all those who fought for freedom did it so families like ours could go on minibreaks and sing in the car to Pink and Lady Gaga and make memories that will last lifetimes.
I am so thankful for this family of mine, friends. And I am so thankful they are happy to twin with statues, ask endless historical questions that I cannot answer, eat French food and go to 5 museums in a day with their crazy mother who never saw an exhibit she didn't love (except for the Penis exhibit at the Hishhorn in 2018; that was NOT my favorite).
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