our vacation part 2: edited with a note

...Thursday:

We went to the Air and Space Museum this day because of someone I wanted to meet. I was so excited when I read online that he was supposed to be there signing his books and I told Seth we had to go that day. I was so excited because not only is Alan Bean the fourth man to walk on the moon, he also is an artist that uses his astronaut experiences for inspiration.

He also is very friendly and was so nice to the boys. Even told Rhett that he liked his shirt!

I spent about an hour and a half in line but I really didn't mind it. Seth even stayed in line for me for awhile but I was too excited to concentrate on other things. Seth took the boys to see other things while I waited.

I don't think we took many pictures in this museum. There were just too many people. We did see an Imax and a planetarium show. Both were pretty neat. Rhett didn't like the Imax very much. He was too dizzy.

After the museum, we let the boys get some ice cream and we headed to the Sculpture Garden to rest. The sculptures were nice, but what really captured the boys' attention was the birds and this pool. I should rephrase. What really captured the boys' attention was the dialog that Seth made up for the birds hanging out by the pool.

Seth had us all rolling with laughter. This was one of my favorite parts of vacation.

After the break, we went back to our hotel and ate at Ted's Montana Grill. We had bison burgers (Rhett had chicken) and I was impressed how eco-friendly they were. Paper straws, plasticware that disintegrated in 50 days, ect. The key lime pie wasn't great, but their cookies were awesome. (Yes, we had both).

Then later that night, my sister Krista and her family arrived. Since Washington DC is closer to North Carolina than Oklahoma is, I made sure to ask if we could maybe see them while we were in that area. She agreed and they headed up to DC for the weekend. It was so great to see them. Krista was right when she stated on her blog that the kids got along great. After Phoebe asked if Isabel was with us (their only girl cousin, alas, was not), she quickly got over her disappointment and had a good time with the boys.

Friday:

We went to the Natural History Museum, which was my favorite museum of the ones we went to. It was beautiful inside!

Here are the four cousins in front of the elephant: Noah, Rhett and Seth all stuck their heads in the t-rex:
Then, while Seth went to see the Hope Diamond, the rest of us went to the Butterflies: Rhett was so worried they wouldn't land on him but one did and didn't fly off for four minutes:We ate lunch at the museum and can I say to never, ever get the portabella mushroom sandwich. Not only will it put you back $8, but it also doesn't taste that great. Seth, who shared it with me will tell you it was awful and disgusting--I don't think it was that bad, but it certainly does not need to be on the menu.

That is where I will end it today. I have to go through the rest of the pictures before I can go any further.

Note: Christy commented on this post and asked what my thoughts on the condition of the mall was. Well, I was very shocked. I was expecting green grass and instead, there was hardly grass at all. It looked like an alley. The pool that is in front of the Lincoln Memorial did have a certain stagnant smell to it. But I forgot all about it. Christy reminded me that I was going to look this up. I did and I read this. And this. And I found the website for the National Coalition to Save Our Mall. I can see now that it is a major problem. I don't have any suggestions on how to fix the problem or any input to add except that it was in pretty bad shape. And that I hope someone somewhere has a great idea on how to fix it.