1 Single Mom, 1 Little Moose, 1 Spring Break, 140 Desserts

1. It’s 45 minutes before our flight to D.C. and we are nearing our gate at O’Hare. Between lunch, chocolate bark (vacation rule: desserts all the time), a magazine, a chapter book for “big kids”, and bottled water, we’ve spent nearly $55.00!
2. We arrive in D.C. at 4:30pm and decide to go for a walk to the White House; it’s 5 blocks away.  I diligently confirm with the hotel clerk that walking back to the hotel as it starts to get dark will be safe.  Her left eyebrow goes into a pointed arch; her eyes, now frosty, say “Really Lady?”  I realize I’ve just asked if it’s safe to walk within 5 blocks of the White House.  Only if you can get past the secret service, I quip in my head.  Heh heh…We leave.  We get some chocolate.Then we go on to revel in the exactness and sheer majesty of the Washington Monument and the crisp certainty of the White House.  All is good and right in America.
3. The next morning, we get a local map from the front desk and we are informed that we are so lucky to be here at the peak of Cherry Blossom season!  Hooray!
   
4. Around 9:00am, we mosey over to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing where our money is made.  We are informed that the free tickets are all gone, having been handed out at8:00am.  Since it’s extra crowded this week, people lined up at 6:00am to get them…it’s extra crowded because we are here at the peak of the Cherry Blossom season.  Hooray.We get some chocolate despite the fact that it’s 9:45am, because I am the best Mommy ever.
5. Refusing to be held back by just another pretty blossom, this single mom and her eight-year-old see the following over the next 12 hours: the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, a double-decker red bus tour, more ice cream, the Spy Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the American Art Museum, Georgetown, and Arlington National Cemetery.
   

   I lose all composure at the Kennedy graves at Arlington National Cemetery.  How must Jackie have felt lighting the eternal flame for JFK?  How must her loved ones have felt burying her there?  My daughter knows something has shifted in her mom.  She asks if my allergies have gotten to me because my eyes are red.  I whisper no.  Then she gently holds my hand and we gaze at the beauty of this place.  Rows and rows of angle white headstones…I am totally overwhelmed by what our soldiers have done for us – just so my daughter and I can stand in this very spot.

   America is an amazing country.

6. The next day, we attempt to wake early to get tickets to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  So. Not. Happening.  We fall back into bed, asleep within seconds of our wake-up call.  Once we are up and moving, we wait an hour-and-a-half for free tickets to go up the Washington Monument…only to be told the 700 tickets they hand out each day are gone…we are about 20 people away from the ticket booth.  Because. It’s. Cherry. Blossom. Season.  Grrr.
7. 
   A ride on a different bus tour, a trip to Union Station, then the Capital, and then the Museum of Natural History put us back in good cheer.  No worries, we’ve squeezed in another ice cream at Gifford’s.  In the Hall of Human Origins, we are able to see what we would have looked like as Neanderthals, 200,000 years ago.   You may think that picture of me is awful, but I was a babe to the other Neanderthals.  My daughter loves the fact that many cave people were only 3 feet tall.  Secretly, so do I.  We are concerned that a 65-foot Octopuses exist (though it’s beautiful) and are silenced by the vividness of the photographs presented for a natural wildlife contest.  Except I think the momma gorillas look more patient than I do.  The 45+ carat Hope Diamond is, er, smaller than I imagined (am I Demi Moore?)

   Chinatown disappoints; it’s about one block long, with one open shop, and my daughter has saved $27 to shop the trinkets.  Luckily, Chicago’s Chinatown can compensate.  “Mom, what day are you taking me there?” Sigh.  Cup cakes.

8. J. arrives for the weekend, exhausted.  I decide I will get up early to get the three of us tickets to the Washington Monument – the only thing on my daughter’s must see list.   As she falls asleep that night, my daughter tells me to wake her because she’s coming too.  I wake her at 5:30am the next morning and she says “I love you mom” and goes to sleep.  J. hasn’t taken the hint at all (!!!) and so I am definitely the one getting the tickets – and it’s still dark outside.  I need COFFEE.  The hotel dining room is closed for business, as is the clerk at the desk.  Two nearby Starbucks are closed too.  Very few things make me curse spontaneously, but WTF?!
9. With martyr-music playing loudly in my head, I hail a cab to the Monument – and am relieved and amazed to see about 75 people there already!  My new ‘close friends” and I watch in awe as the sun rises over the Capitol and the Washington Monument while the moon is still out; it’s stunning.  Bullishly having worn flip flops, my toes are now fully frozen.  Tickets are handed out beginning at 8:30am; thirty minutes later, over half are gone already – but I’ve gotten three.  I want to tell the people at the end of the line, “don’t bother” but I don’t have the heart.They will be in line at 6:15am tomorrow.  Maybe I should tell them that Starbucks won’t be open either?
10. I get back to plenty of hugs and coffee.  My daughter says,”I feel jealous when my stuffed animals can get in somewhere really teeny, tiny and I want to get in there and I can’t.”  Well who doesn’t?
    Two hours later, we are set to go up the Washington Monument…but only after we wait in the ladies room line for 29 minutes (only two stalls)!

    The views from the top are truly beautiful – even those damn Cherry Blossom trees surrounding the Jefferson Memorial.  Why are the windows so small?  Why are we up here with fifty 8^th graders who are busy texting and flirting?

    The Air and Space Museum enchants some of us with the Wright brothers original plane (“Mom, there’s a bunch of planes all over…why do we have to keep looking at this one?”)

11. At the American History museum, we see Lincoln’s top hat (I thought it would be taller); but the exhibit fascinates me, J. and my 8-year-old – yippee!  Now that’s good exhibit design.My wish to stand near Julia Child’s kitchen is fulfilled along with the 126 others with the same wish…but the true jewel is the exhibit with the finely designed gowns worn by our first ladies for their husband’s Inauguration Ceremonies.  Jackie Kennedy out does all, once again.  And I imagine a day when this exhibit has a man’s tux as his wife becomes our Commander in Chief.At Ford’s Theater, we see the exact spot where Lincoln was shot.  We have to pause and just stop everything because it’s not humanly possible to be at that spot and just walk by.

    Another ice cream at Gifford’s cools us off and I wonder if it’s a public company so I can invest.  My daughter gives in to the flavor of the day: Cherry Blossom!

12. Sunday brunch at Paolo’s in Georgetown rounds out our trip.  We’ve forgotten to get cupcakes at a recommended bakery, but make our way to Gifford’s one last time.
13. Exhausted, we arrive home with 20 pairs of dirty undies, 3 extra pounds on the Mommy, and lots of delicious memories.  And we are so thankful to be in America.

Tags: cherry blossoms, D.C., museum, spring break, washington