Destination: D.C.: Day 2 - Money, Tears and Scandals

We were up early this morning to start our adventure in D.C. Charla's husband John volunteered to drop us off as he went to his office in Bethesda. We wanted to be in line at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing by 7:00am to get tickets for a 9:00 tour. He told stories and pointed out interesting sights as he drove, then suddenly we were "there" and we quickly piled out of the car. After getting directions from a couple of security guards, we found the ticket stand and took our place in line, with only two people in front of us! We were hungry and needed a bathroom, but we were bound and determined to get our tickets. Afterward we walked around a bit and got coffee, then found our place in line. Wouldn't you know, they let us in early and we had to throw away our $3 coffee! It was a good tour, and at the end we went to the gift shop. We saw a photo booth and thought that would be a great souvenir for a mere $5. We squished our three selves into the booth and read the directions, which told us to insert our money, select our background, hit the "freeze" button and smile for the camera. The downside was, Kathy was in charge of the select button and she couldn't get it to go to the background we wanted. After we put in $5, it stayed on the "your picture with Obama" option, which we DID NOT WANT! Kathy insisted on hitting the button a thousand times, like she thought it would finally change, and she ended up changing the language to Spanish! We laughed so hard we were crying, and all the people outside the booth were watching us. We kept saying, "It's not working!", but all they could do was tell us to scoot together. We figured out that they could see us on a screen outside the booth! So we're laughing and crying and telling Kathy to "select, select, select" and she's refusing to do it; she finally gets mad and hits the freeze button, and the darn thing takes our picture. Once I realized it, I screamed "Nooooooo", but that's what was captured on film forever, me and Obama and Carol's hair and Kathy's side of face. You're darn right that I called the 1-800 number to get a refund!!

We went to the Holocaust Museum next. It's hard to say that it was enjoyable, but it was so interesting and eye opening and sobering. It was well worth the time we spent there. Even reading the postcards at the end of our tour brought tears to our eyes, especially the rhetorical plea of the mom who wondered where to place flowers for her son's grave when she didn't even know what happened to him.

We grabbed a hotdog and a Diet Coke off a vendor truck and ate it on a park bench in the National Mall, then visited the Boy Scouts' Memorial and took pictures of the south side of the White House. We found out that the Boy Scouts' Jamboree is being held sometime this week or next in Virginia, so many of the Scout troops have descended upon our Capitol. We've seen them everywhere and they've come from everywhere. In fact, we saw a group of Sea Scouts from London who was accompanied by the granddaughter of Lord Baden Powell, the founder of Scouts. We were impressed.

The Smithsonian's Museum of American History was our afternoon stop. There was so much to see, we could hardly take it all in. We felt like we should be more interested in the light bulbs and engines but we just couldn't get into it. All I could think is how bored our kids would have been if they were with us. Mostly we were pretty tired and hungry...again...and we still had one more stop to make that night. We grabbed sandwiches at the museum's cafe and hoofed it to meet Charla at the Secrets and Scandals walking tour.

This was a free tour where we were encouraged to tip based on how much we enjoyed it. The tour director was knowledgeable and funny and really enjoyed the stories she shared with us. Several of the roads around the White House were barricaded and we were interrupted by a motorcade that apparently took Obama or Biden to the Old Executive Office Building, next door to the White House. Talk about lazy! We did learn a lot of useless but interesting information and tipped her well.

Charla and John provided wine and snacks for three tired girls when we got home tonight, which was very much appreciated. We expect to sleep like babies.