A Day Off and a Great Date

washington monument
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

My husband took the day off, and offered to take us to see the newly renovated Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington, DC. I felt a little bad for him driving down there when he goes downtown every day for work, but he wanted to see the museum, too. Neither of our kids wanted to go, which is ok, they are teenagers so we can abandon them for a few hours with minimal damage to our house.

I did not recharge my camera batteries, so I got very few pictures before the camera died. As you can see from the picture of the Washington Monument, it was a pretty, clear day. It was not too cold either, the perfect day to walk around the city.

The museum was super crowded. Everything is nice and new, but I did not feel like the layout was as good for crowds as the old layout was. I actually got stuck in a room because it got too crowded in there and no one could move! We did see an exhibit called "Thanks for the Memories" which had iconic items from our history, like Judy Garland's ruby slippers, Kermit the frog, sports memorabilia. We also saw a number of priceless musical instruments, an exhibit about the presidency (that was the crowded one, and they already had Obama on the timeline and his picture up!) and a cool exhibit about the history of one house and all the families that had lived in it.

Then I got overheated and overanxious so we left and walked to Old Ebbit Grille for a great lunch of crabcakes and then stopped at the White House visitor center on the way back to the car.

It was a wonderful day. The funny thing is, when my husband invites me somewhere, I get this idealized image in my head, and it is always as if he and I will be the only ones there! Then reality strikes, and there are hundreds of people and metal detectors and it is really hot, and I get all cranky. He is such a treasure and "gets me" and we just do what we can and then move on.