Washington DC Day 1

The trip to DC was actually a nice ride, despite the traffic. Since my in-laws were with us, we went down in two cars. This allowed us to split the boys. Noam went in my in-laws car and Avi in ours. Avi was very content either watching one of the Star Wars movies on the portable DVD or playing on his DS. We stopped in Delaware for a break and the kids were treated to an ice cream break by their Savta and Saba. Unfortunately for Noam this was perhaps not a great idea. Noam, from time to time, gets car sick. This time he was good enough to wait until we got to our destination. He got out my in-laws car and all of his ice cream was all over Cousin Louis’ street (we are staying with Marsha’s second cousin at his house in Gaithersburg, MD). He felt better after that and shortly after we went for dinner. We went to a nice pizza place and Noam drank some coke (which could have calmed him a bit) and soon the coke was all over! This time he and I walked to the Giant supermarket across the parking lot and got some children’s chewable Pepto. After a short time he was all better.

Today we drove to DC in one car and found a nice parking lot very near the Capitol building. It is a lot that is meant for a building in the area, but they do not seem to care too much. My in-laws went to the National Museum of the American Indian and we went over to the National Air and Space museum. The kids had a great time there seeing all of the big planes and rockets. Despite Avi having some difficult moments, we did get to see a nice amount of the museum. Perhaps we will get back there to see a bit more.

After the Air and Space we went to the Capitol building for a 3:20 tour. Avi was a bit difficult but once the tour guide asked Avi to walk in front with him and help him out, he seemed to pull himself together. Marsha and I really liked the new visitor’s center in the Capitol building. There is a lot to see there, and unfortunately with the kids we were not able to see all of it, but we did like what we saw. I was a bit disappointed with the tour actually. Years ago you could get a more comprehensive tour, but today you just get to see a few locations. Without a tour, you can only see the visitor’s center, so I definitely recommend the tour, but having done it once now, I don’t think I would do it again. We did arrange for the tour with our congressman’s office. I did not know I could have asked for a staff led tour which would have taken us to a few other locations, but perhaps we could do it again in the future and do a staff lead tour.

After the Capitol we met up with my in-laws drove back to Gaithersburg. All in all a nice day. Tomorrow we will be seeing the National Museum of American History and the National Archives. The kids are looking forward to the American History; mainly because they have C3PO and R2D2 there! We shall see. In the meantime, here are a few photos from today.

Enjoy!

Avi in a small Cessna