The Lee Family: Spring Break, Day 4: More Museums

We envisioned visiting two museums a day, so we felt like we really needed to get moving on Tuesday. We got up a bit earlier (but still slept until nearly 9am) and met Aunt Shirl at Market Lunch for breakfast. Market Lunch is always empty during the week and crazy on the weekends, so we were excited to be able to walk a short two blocks to enjoy such a delicious breakfast. It was as good as we remembered and both CK and I had the egg, bacon and cheese sandwiches while the girls split an order of pancakes, which they said were "almost as good as Mommy's." I was impressed because I think Market Lunch's pancakes are better!

After enjoying breakfast with Aunt Shirl, we headed for the Metro and rode it down to Smithsonian once again. This time, we walked to the American History Museum, which I don't think I've visited since I was 12 years old. We made it inside and all went to see the American Flag from 1814, which is much larger than I expected. It was amazing to see and is so thin and delicate from age and exposure. After, we decided to split up once again and see things on our own, with Sofia going with CK and Olivia and I heading off on our own. The night before I'd downloaded the "Smithsonian" app and it gave me the "highlights" of what to see for each museum and where each exhibit was located in the building. It was pretty amazing and very helpful! So, Olivia and I set off to see all the "highlights," most of which she wouldn't understand for several more years. The first thing we came across was the Greensboro Lunch Counter, which was so much smaller than I expected. So amazing to see and understand how history was made at that lunch counter. From there we saw Dorothy's shoes from "The Wizard of Oz" and then on to Julia Child's kitchen. We also visited Thomas Edison's lightbulbs as well as George Washington's uniform. We also looked at the doll house that's been there forever, and I remember taking pictures of it and exploring all the little rooms when I was 12 years old! It was such a fun museum to visit and there was so much more to see!

We met up with CK and Sofia so we could walk over to the Air and Space Museum, however, it was raining outside so we stopped at the gift shop to buy four blue "Smithsonian" rain parkas. We had to knot Olivia's at the bottom so it wouldn't drag on the ground, but both girls loved it, of course. The blue parkas certainly brought back a lot of memories of living in DC and watching tourists shlep along wearing them. They really did work well though! We walked to the Air and Space and CK ended up carrying Olivia for most of it after she fell off one of the tree boxes and skinned up her leg.

Just inside the entrance is the Spirit of St. Louis, Charles Lindbergh's plane that he flew over the Atlantic. I think CK stood and looked at it for at least 20 minutes! We walked around the museum and saw the replica of the Wright Brother's airplane, rockets, the lunar module and all sorts of airplanes. We also met Aunt Shirl at the Imax theater to watch "Journey to Space" about our efforts to fly to Mars in the future. It was fascinating and Sofia really loved it. Olivia fell asleep in my arms about 20 minutes into it and slept all the way through the end. Aunt Shirl had to get back to get things done, so we said goodbye to her and headed to the cafeteria where we ate lunch after Olivia woke up. We walked around the museum a little longer after lunch and the girls bought Space Ice Cream which they loved. The mint chocolate chip flavor wasn't bad, actually! Much better than Olivia's neapolitan flavor, which she seemed to love too. When we were ready to leave, CK contacted an Uber driver who picked us up (with a child seat) and dropped us off at our door step. It was great!

We relaxed for a short while before we headed to Aunt Shirl's house, where she cooked a delicious meal of chicken mirabella, salad and roasted potatoes for my friends Yvette, Bret and their daughter Ella. Another girlfriend, Tina, was planning to join us, but got caught at work. It was such a fun evening and such great food. It was to comfortable to be in Aunt and Uncle's house once again and it felt like old times. Ella, Sofia and Olivia were fast friends and they all started coloring on little Easter bags that Yvette brought with her. It was so sweet and they all loved it. We enjoyed a great meal and an equally good catch up and had a fun night. After saying goodbye to Yvette, Bret and Ella, we helped out with dishes before heading home to bed. On our way, the girls jumped in every single rain puddle they found and they were both completely soaked by the time we made it back to our apartment. Hopefully their shoes dry out by tomorrow morning!

Aunt Shirl and the girls at Market Lunch for breakfast - our absolute favorite breakfast place in DC!