Thursday - The day my wife proved her love

Washington, DC is amazing. I knew it would be. I was mentally preparing Staci for the onslaught of sights and, more specifically, the walking that we would be doing today. And, after more than 6 miles of walking around, she never once complained, never once gave up, never once said we should stop. Did I mention she is 6 months pregnant??? That's true love.

We drive to Union Station and park the car. There's a 2200 car garage at Union Station, and its a major transportation hub, train, subway, bus, taxi, and of course walking are leave from it. The building is magnificent and naturally gigantic, like most things in DC. We walk from there to the Capital Building. After arriving in DC I learn that to truly experience everything you need to plan months ahead, contact the appropriate authorities to get the best access to the various sites. We of course didn't do this, thus are regulated to seeing many things from the outside. This is fine because we do have access to so much that there is just too much to see. After admiring the Capital Building, we head to the Botanical Gardens, something that neither of us knew about but it was there, so we stopped. And it was totally worth it. Not only very warm inside, (it's between 50-60 degrees and cloudy outside) the mostly rare flowers and plants are fragrant and beautiful.

From the gardens we visit the first of many branches of the Smithsonian Museum. There are 19 different Smithsonian Museums each focused on a specific topic. We start with the Air and Space Museum. This one is filled with old planes, including the original Wright brother's plane, various space crafts as well as a great planetary exhibit. Afterward, we are ready for lunch. We back track a bit to the interestingly shaped National Museum of American Indians. We eat at a cafe that serves Native American food. Staci has a buffalo chili taco and I have fried frog legs. The buffalo was better (and more filling). From there we duck into the original Smithsonian Museum. It looks and feels like a castle. James Smithson is interred there.

Next we cross the National Mall, the huge lawn area between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument. The mall encompasses over 300 acres and we zig zag across it all day. Our next stop is the National Museum of Natural History. We spend the most time in this museum, not only because its one of the biggest but both of us were most interested in its contents which range from ancient fossils to current animals (both exotic and more common) to geology (the Hope Diamond is here) to an interesting exhibit on human bones. We both like the fossils best. We find a fossilized tree from Oregon and Washington, which makes us want to find one of our own when we get back home. We buy tickets for a later showing a movie about dinosaurs in 3D and head out to the National Archives.

Unforutunately, the line into the Archives is ridiculously long; image 500 people lining two sides of the building long. These are all people waiting for the visitor entrance. We head to the researchers entrance where there is no line, but a hefty security process. After clearing security we head into the bowels of the building to do "research." After completing a little bit of research on the archive computers, it is time for our movie so we head back to Natural History Museum. The movie is ok. The 3D aspect was great, but the information was pretty surface level.

From there we head to the Washington Monument, the giant obelisk that is synonmous with DC. It's too late to go up but we admire it from the base as the lights begin to turn on around us. This monument, like many others, are lit throughout the night. We walk west through the World War II Monument, pass the Reflecting Pool and enter the Lincoln Memorial. As a history buff and fan of Lincoln, it is a moving experience to stand before his statue. We turn around and face the Washington Monument. There is a plaque on the floor where Dr. King stood to give his infamous speech. We begin walking towards the White House, though halfway there hop into a pedicab, a type of tricycle with a bench seat on the back. It was nice to rest and our bicyclist was a great tour guide. He takes us as close as you can get to the White House. Of course, this is another place you need to get tickets months in advance to. We peer through the fence and get a couple of good pictures.

Then its off to dinner. I chose a historic, and highly popular we find out, restaurant called Old Ebbits Grill. Established in 1864, the location has bounced around DC but the decor has remained the same. It is the former haunt of several presidents, senators and DC power players. This place is packed. We wait an hour and a half before being seated. I pestered the poor hostesses so much they knew me by name and called it out as we leave hours later. Finally we're seated, devour our food, which was delicious then take our time enjoying some Bread Pudding, Staci's new favorite dessert. We take a cab back to the car; originally we had planned to take the subway back to Union Station, but we were too exhausted to walk to the nearest subway stop several large blocks away. After getting the car we drive past the monuments once more to view them in the night all lit up. It's been a truely memorable day. We get back to Peter's house a few miles outside the city around midnight and immediately go to bed exhausted.