Today the first order of business was the International Spy Museum. I'm sure you can imagine that's NOT a Smithsonian! lol So thus, it did cost us an admission fee but everyone had a blast. I will give you an insider's tip... they do NOT allow strollers. That meant the mister and I spent most of the time chasing the littles around but it was still fun! You could definitely spend hours upon hours here, believe it or not!
First order of business... assume a new identity!
Second... practice changing your expression!
Sneakily and stealthily make your way through this air duct secret passage way. {totally 'secret' escape with toddlers! ;)}
Ooooo...... secret weapons! Let's try some out! :)
A James Bond car? Yes please! Okay - so the toddler (thankfully) has no idea who James Bond is but all the weapons, lights and sounds the car showed off with was pretty cool - so he was a fan! :)
Now we are desperately needed to help locate enemy subs! All hands on deck!
This was pretty cool! To not only read where 'rosetta stone' came from but also to see scripture so prominently displayed in the museum.
Now aren't they just cutie patooties handsome boys! ;)
(sorry for the blurriness - she wasn't cooperating with the 'no flash' policy of the museum!)
Okay, this was the best part! At the end there is this electronic screen showing an underwater scene that is quite realistic, you can see fish swimming by but then there is this sign that says something like... 'if you dare, touch the screen.' Well who can resist that, right!?!? So OF COURSE we - I mean sweet loving DAD - touch the screen!
Uh oh! Maybe shouldn't have touched the screen with Esther 18 inches from it...
Ya let's just say that it didn't end so peacefully! lol ;P
As we left the Int'l Spy Museum, it was definitely trying to sprinkle fairly hard. So we donned our hoods and tried to stay undercover as much as possible. The brilliant idea of ducking into the corner burger joint now sounded better than ever! We even took the opportunity to try out our new selfie stick! (just a requirement these days when there's a gaggle of us) And they had the most incredible shake on special... a Stumptown Cardamom! :D That made my afternoon! lol
And we just happened to walk by the J Edgar Hoover FBI Building after lunch. That wasn't ANY. FUN. AT. ALL! lol ;)
We followed our walking directions to Ford's Theater and oh my - I guess this is something we should've gotten advance tickets for - just guessing by the long line out the door! lol
So then we noticed the place across the street where he actually died. There was NO ONE in line over there, oh great! We did a wheelie with the stroller and headed due North (I really have no idea what direction it was - that just sounded good!). The boys walk up the stairs and speak with lovely gentleman at the top of the stairs in the above photo. NOPE! No go! Have to have tickets for that too! Ooops... okay well photo op will suffice! And the boys were such good sports with it too! :)
Oh and here's how we do the littles at nap time 'on the road.' We quickly learned that we couldn't skip naps everyday or expect them to just fall asleep on their own in the stroller when they got tired enough. So we started 'putting them to bed,' at normal nap time, gave them their favorite blankets and the oh so high level clearance operation began... 'KEEP THE STROLLER MOVIN'!"
Next up... NATIONAL ARCHIVES
This presentation brought to you by Mr Grant Lauinger! Please welcome him with a warm round of applause! :p
Not to be all debbie-downer on you but all the cool things in this building will remain all those cool things until YOU come see them in person because... (read the last one!)
And we did see some pretty awesome American History documents! In fact, we got in line for the Declaration of Independence and the signs says 'average wait time 20 minutes.' Interrupt.... keep babies occupied in their stroller for 20 minutes moving very small steps at one time (remember that certain high-clearance OPERATION above? lol) Okay, put on your big girl pants, we are prepared and we can do this! This is what you trained for, right!?!? Now put it into action and make it happen. Pull out the toys, games, snacks, cups and blankets. Let's do this!
BUT.... just then, a security guard sees the titanic double stroller and says to us that we'll need to use the handicap entrance/exit over there. You see this is one big room in the shape of a half circle and all the important documents you want to see are on the circular edge. They let about 50 people in at one time to peruse the room at your own pace and then as people begin to exit, they let more people in the room. Thus, when we turned around and went to the handicap entrance... we WALTZED right in! :D Yipppeeeeee! The one time they stroller actually came in handy for us! Yahoo! :) lol
Put your hands down, I haven't asked for questions yet.... but I bet I know your next one!
National Treasure, right!?! See - I can read your mind all the way from here! ;)
So one of the museum employees who was standing there said they let the film company come into the room, take measurements and have some special access to the documents. But then they went back and built their own set, pretty identical to the way it is set up in the National Archives building. Oh and there's NOTHING on the back of the Declaration of Independence he said! :(
Okay off to our next stop.... we are cruising today! :) So we headed to the Lincoln Memorial so we could check that off our Washington DC bucket list. Have to go by the Washington Monument again - CHECK. Have to walk by the WWII Memorial - CHECK, oh wait - this is pretty big and very well done!
WWII MEMORIAL
But guess what, as soon as we step foot at the WWII Memorial, those obnoxious rain drops starting falling from the skies again! Eggghhhh!!!!! (translation - 'not good!') 
It really is a gorgeous memorial that is very well done! Unfortunately the dripping from the sky caused me to seek out shelter under some nearby trees for the littles, who I might add are napping. And when on vacation and they are asleep in their stroller - you do NOT wake the sleeping babies/toddlers! In fact, we've been known to keep walking just so we don't have to wake them up to put them back in the car. Yep we're just crazy like that! Sorry I digress...
Okay, I am soooo tired but I will be resourceful and use the almighty toothpicks to help prop my eyelids open for you because this long day all culminated in the last hour! And I've got to finish it off for you (sorry if you sense a bit of loopiness!)
After the WWII Memorial we walked to the...
LINCOLN MEMORIAL
But mind you, now it is POURING rain, I mean buckets, people! We are so very close to the Lincoln Memorial we can't turn back now. Oh ya and one child has a stomach ache... do you see this going from bad to worse, CAUSE IT IS!!!!!! So we book it the Lincoln Memorial, get up there, to see him face to face, okay it's more like toe to face and guess what? We're not the only ones up there! You see it's covered up there so all the other drop escapees headed under Lincoln's cover too (I'm sure there's some cool symbolism here but I'm too exhausted to come up with it - let me know if you do, okay?)!
It was so much fun being up there with Lincoln, just go with me now...
- sick son, trying to console
- mammoth stroller trying to get through a mass exodus of other annoying tourists
- photo without someone else in it? lol ya - right! ;)
- tired
- wet
- sleeping babies
Now the oh so important question.... best way back to our parked car? Hmmm....
- taxi? = wake up sleeping babies (remember previous discussion about waking sleeping tourist babies?), $$, one to fit all of us?
- walk? = in pouring rain, kind of far, stomach-aching son
- metro? = how and where to find
Well nearest metro is still a bit of a walk so we'll head in that direction.
NOW DUMPING 10 BUCKETS AT A TIME OF RAIN DROPS
I walk faster and faster. Littles blanket over them is now starting to sink in with the weight of the water on it. Son still not feeling well and now has to use the bathroom - sure there's one right.... NO WHERE!!!!! Dad brings up the rear with sick son. Oh goodie - a little is up now! This will be so much more fun!
Okay, we make it to a little booth with a park ranger in it. We ask for help with the metro. Oh okay, no problem, just take 4 different trains to make it back to our car. And the nearest train tunnel access is a block and a half away. So that sounds too complicated, no metro, start walking again, nope back to finding the metro.
Let me just admit here.... we are such small towners! lol The Chisms had kindly given us their metro passes to use so we attempted to buy our metro tickets for wherever it was we thought we were going to go! lol Ask attendant where to take the stroller through the turnstile at, back down the elevator again. Then we come up to handicap turnstile and it won't open for us. Yiippppeeeee! This is so fun, right!?! Son REALLY REALLY REALLY has to use the bathroom now! Man, standing on open train tells us the stroller is too close to the sensor. Okay - bless you sir! We finally get on the train, make it our four stops, find our parking garage and collapse in our car, after we strip our soaking wet coats from our sticky bodies! (didn't get the memo about needing GORTEX to walk around DC!)
So please indulge us by appreciating the below photo. This is us drenched to the bone, literally my shirt underneath my coat was soaked, and waiting for the elevator to go down to the metro. Oh we were soooooo happy - can't you tell!?! lol ;) But this is what memories are made out of right?
Thanks for riding along! It was quite the roller coaster of a day! Hoping tomorrow doesn't raise my anxiety level quite as much. lol
Now off to remove my eyelid supports! :D
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