Smithsonian

Can I just say that I love the Holiday Inn?  Seriously.  They have great rooms.  Great size.  Comfortable beds.  Complimentary breakfast.  AND reasonable rates.  And you can pretty much find one in every city you visit.  I am definitely converted to the Holiday Inn.  Plus, my kids like staying in a hotel better than a motel.  I asked them why and they said, "Because then there's a cool lobby that you can walk through before you go to your room!"  It's the little things I guess.

After our wonderful night's sleep at the Holiday Inn we got ready and headed to the Metro to ride downtown for a Smithsonian day.  Logan loved the Metro.  And it made it WAY easier to get downtown than driving.

It was CRAZY hot again today, and as we left the hotel the concierge told us that not all the museums have air conditioning.  We crossed our fingers that the ones we were going to did!

First stop:  The Smithsonian Castle.  It's basically like an introductory to all the museums with maps and information and a few artifacts that you'll find in all of the other museums.  It was cool for a brief visit.

Then we headed across the mall to the Museum of Natural History.  We had watched "Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian" before we left, so the kids were super pumped.  "I have come BACK to LIFE!" was quoted frequently.  By all of us.

We spent over 6-hours there.  We finally had to cut ourselves loose so we could see another museum before they closed.

Lucy loved the butterfly sanctuary.

Max loved the exhibit dedicated to Titanoboa.  Giant Snake.  Cool.

Logan enjoyed the bug section.

Next, we headed to the Air and Space Museum, which I was much more excited about than the kids.  I think they were hopeful that there would be more planes and spaceships for climbing in and riding in, rather than just looking at.  

As you can tell, I insist on taking pictures whenever we go somewhere...and Max insists that if he's going to be in the pictures, he sure's not gonna like it.  That's why there are a serious lack of smiles on his part.  Lucy's always up for a picture...and Logan pretty much does whatever Max does.  

Logan and I took a breather and sat in a quiet spot for him to have a nap while Tyler and the kids kept exploring.

We finished around 5:00pm and decided to head back to the Metro, in case it was going to be crowded from the home rush.  It wasn't too bad.

Back at the hotel the kids and I went swimming again and Tyler got some work done.  Pizza for dinner and Happy Feet 2 in the hotel and we were all ready for bed.

Tomorrow we have to check out of this hotel and move to the one that Tyler's conference is in.  We'll be spending more time just hanging in the hotel now while Tyler has meetings.  In theory the kids and I could do stuff while he's in meetings, but I'm not confident enough to drive in DC to make that happen.  The kids are happy to have some quiet days too.  Me too!