The Road to… Our Nation’s Capitol! – Part 2

The Road to… Our Nation’s Capitol! – Part 2

Day 5 – Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Washington, D.C.

This is it, guys!  The piece de resistance!  When we hatched this plan a couple months ago, all Sarah wanted to snag was a White House tour – she had been here a few times in the past but never done that.  In order to get a tour, you have to submit a form to your state’s senator, and their office submits your information on your behalf.  THEN, you get another email and have to submit ALL your information including social security numbers, etc.  It was intense.  That was like 2-3 months ago.  Then 2 weeks before your trip, you might be notified that you got a spot and you are told when it is.

And yeah, we wouldn’t have written all of this if we didn’t score a sweet email confirming a white house tour 2 weeks ago!  Hoot hoot!  They make you print it out and the restrictions are kind of wild.  Basically all you can bring is a wallet, a phone, and a non metal tipped umbrella (it should have been a warning that they kept mentioning dress for the weather and umbrellas in every email).  We were assigned 11 am on March 5.  So here we are!

Because we needed energy today, we got actual food from Starbucks (lies, it was two dry scones and a piece of banana bread that Zoe ate but did not care for) and coffee to power up.  Important information:  Sarah is more laid back on trips and has never been late to anything, but tends to be comfortable with relaxed timing.  Matt is a bit more anxious and likes to arrive very early and even plans what to do when arriving very early somewhere.  For this, Sarah had calculated how far it was to walk there and timed it out, and Matt pretended to be comfortable with that plan last night.  This morning:

Matt (cracking):  it is raining, we are getting an Uber, I downloaded the app.  

Sarah: but we don’t even need to leave to walk there yet

Matt: it’s okay, we can go to the visitor center first and check that out when we are early

Sarah:  …

So off into the Uber and hit the visitor center – it had restrooms, which was the most important thing.  Matt talked to one of the guys working and said, great news, they don’t care what time is on your ticket, we can go now!  

So off we went, across the street with all the people in ponchos and carrying umbrellas in the fine mist/rain.  We waited outside the gate for about 1-2 minutes then us and others were ushered into the line.  We waited for about an hour, with the line snaking along the block behind us (glad we came early, thank you Matt!!) and made our way to the first security check.  Turns out, nobody cared about the ticket that said it had to be printed off.  They cared more about our driver’s licenses and our ability to recite all our children’s names and dates of birth correctly.  Then on to the second security check which was exactly the same.  Then on to the metal detector that Noah set off (they blamed it on his belt and off he went).  After that, we made our way down a side walk and up the stairs that lead into the Easy Lobby.  The White House tour is of the East Wing, and you kind of drift along a preset route, although no one will frisk you if you are slow so you could take a while if you wanted.  

Waiting outside in the mist

The East Lobby leads into The East Colonnade which was a long hallway with some displays of pictures in it of the First Families.  That then leads into The East Garden Room, which is an area with office White House stuff you could buy (like their Christmas ornament).  It was tempting!  Then you go down the Ground Floor Corridor and can peek in various rooms.  We saw the Library, the Vermeil Room, and the China Room.

The ground floor corridor
The Library Room

We then went upstairs and and toured the State Floor after that.  You walk down the Cross Hall, and then tour through the East Room, which was set up with chairs and a microphone – it was noted to be the great ceremonial room of the White House.  Apparently 7 presidents have lain in State in the East Room (so 7 deceased presidents were in that room in the past, wow).  We then saw the Green Room, the Blue Room, the Red Room and the State Dining Room.  That room was also set up with several tapes with microphones in it and bright lights and a video camera.  Felt very C-SPAN-y.  

The East Room setup for something…
Us in the East Room – not giving press conference
State Dining Room setup for an event – thankfully they didn’t cancel the tours

We then exited through the Entrance Hall after taking pictures – you exit through the original formal entrance to the White House.  It was incredible!!!  So glad we got the chance to do this (thanks for having a kick-ass senator, Tammy Baldwin, whose office was competent and made it happen)!

After this, we stood outside for a bit staring at the White House through the fence and disoriented, not knowing what to do.  We were hungry and thirsty.  So we walked back to the hotel, and ate everything in our hotel room that wasn’t nailed down.  It was probably 12:30 by then.  We have several more things on our to-do list, and the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum (other half of the one we went to previously) was on Matt and B’s wish list – the only catch is it is a 40 minute drive from Washington DC as it is at Dulles International Airport.  Oof, okay, we have this!

So off we went – again, since this is a Smithsonian it is free, works on banker’s hours of 9-5, and has metal detectors.  This is a giant airplane hangar and is literally filled with airplanes.  Matt and B were in heaven.  Noah was tolerant.  Sarah has been to enough air museums to have evolved coping mechanisms.  Zoe just couldn’t.  So she dragged behind us, sat on benches while everyone else was looking at stuff, and at one point Sarah had to sit with her while everyone else got to look at all the Nazi planes.  So many Nazi planes.  Sarah did enjoy looking at all the space stuff though!  

Braden in his element
Impressive to see up close
Rare Nazi plane that was brought back after the war
Kids vaguely remember this is from a movie… Matt remembers all too well
One of the Concordes – we’ve watched the NOVA about it many times
The Enola Gay

We then ate at Shake Shack (soooo good) surrounded by thousands of poorly behaved and disinterested middle schoolers in bright orange shirts and their similarly disinterested blue-shirted chaperones.  After that, we went up to the Observation Deck to watch flights come in to Dulles (B loved it!) and the employee running the elevator told us there were 5 school groups there, and it was busy because of election day.  Huh?  He said, of course they have school off on election day because everyone votes at the schools.  He said, where are you from that they don’t have off and where do the people vote?? (guess they must not have rec centers available for voting purposes in other states)

In the tower above the center

Either way, that answered that question!  We all did some flight simulation stuff, and B and Zoe did one where you could do barrel rolls and such.  Now Zoe was 100% engaged because something physical was going on.  

We all got to ride on the mission to the moon mining colony (or escape it? it was unclear)
Braden and Zoe taking the full flight simulator that spins 360

We left as they closed at 5:30, everyone happy (after the gift store stop, of course).  Stopped at Milwaukee’s Best Custard on the way home in Chantilly VA (seemed to be a Culver’s imitation, kids loved it) and then spent an hour in rush hour traffic navigating back to the hotel.  Collapsed and Zoe requested to watch National Treasure (one) as she had forgotten it all already.  

Yep, it’s from Wisconsin

Miles driven: 65

Number of WORDLE attempts:  Sarah with 6 and Noah lost

Day 6 – Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Washington, D.C.

Day 6 already??  Oof, that is what happens when you count travel days.  So today we had planned on devoting the entire day to the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian.  We were so excited for this!

First things first – we only have one other full day here before we have to make our way back to homeland, and two of the things we really wanted to do included a Capitol tour and the Washington Monument.  But because we didn’t reserve ahead of time, all the Capitol tours for the week were sold out and the only chance for Washington Monument tickets was at 10 am each day – they release 30 tickets for about 7-8 time slots, and they are gone in seconds.  

Last night, Matt had noted that 4 random time slots at the Capitol had tours available for Thursday, so we snagged one!  That made Sarah even more determined to get monument tickets.  Our track record wasn’t great.  On Monday, Matt didn’t manage to get any.  On Tuesday, he was going through a metal detector at the White House visitor center at exactly 10 am and it was too late.  So darn it, today we were getting them.  We were armed, Matt on the laptop and Sarah on her phone.  Matt snagged 5!  Sarah snagged NONE.  They disappeared in 5 seconds.  It was wild to watch.

Then we were off, after the requisite Starbucks.  It is only a ten minute walk over the Smithsonian area, and into the museum we went.  We were alarmed by the dozen coach buses out front, and rightfully so.  So many middle school tour groups.  And these kids were not well behaved.  Nor well chaperoned.  But plenty of normal families, older couples, etc.

This museum is full of human history, fossils, the Hope Diamond, and more:

Cell phone exhibit.. yep, drew the kids right in
Not sure how we feel about these things being in a “history” museum
Lapis lazuili – the kid knew this from Minecraft
Here it is… The Hope Diamond

We ate in the best cafeteria we have been in all weekend – the food was really good!  We even got the “fast food” with fried chicken sandwich and crisped mac and cheese and hot dog and burgers, but they had mushrooms, pork loin, beet salad and more in a separate area that was clearly a bit fancier than we were looking for (today).

Just some of the things the cafeteria had

Off we went to explore more after and hit up the gift shops.  Then we saw them.  The orange shirted kids.  Turns out because their shirts had all their information on them and their school  that their itinerary was easy to track down.  Feel bad for whoever is going on a dinner cruise with them.  The best part was as we were leaving when a security guard was yelling at them and one of the few chaperones – we were giggling.  It was a good example of how not to behave.

Now typically we would have started home, but at the start of the day when we went to the enclosed Butterfly Gardens, a friendly lady who worked there turned out to be from Burlington, WI (well, originally, moved out to DC in 1974 haha) and chatted with us about the UP and Stevens Point.  She also conspiratorially leaned in and asked how many more days we had her win DC.  She informed us the best view in the city was from something called the Clock Tower, in the Waldorf Astoria building.  She said a clear day would be best (meanwhile everyone is wearing ponchos around us and carrying umbrellas).  

Well, well, we cannot turn down a recommendation from a former Badger, especially something we hadn’t seen or heard of yet.  So off we went.  Turns out it was the original US Postal Building, and then over the years became the Trump International Hotel (the kids were horrified to find this out) and then became the Waldorf Astoria in 2022.    How did we find this out?  By going in a secretive door on the side of the hotel, then going down a sketchy hallway where a single lady went through Matt’s entire backpack, and then let us walk down a hallway that had the entire history of the building.  Apparently the clocktower is operated by the National Park Service?  So weird.  You get on an elevator that heads up about 9 floors, and you can see the entire grand lobby of the hotel (kind of, it is slightly opaque to keep us commoners out).  Then you walk down a hallway and board another elevator (all with NPS workers around) to the tower.  That elevator has a max capacity of 5, which our irregular family of 5 loved!!  In retrospect, that is kind of concerning.  Either way, when you arrive at the top, there is a ranger there and you can see for quite a while!  There are pictures of all the buildings and you can see the white house, basilica, capitol, and move around the entire clocktower.  It was pretty cool and a beautiful view!  

The secret entrance in an alley

After this, we retraced our way down, then hopped over a couple blocks to check out Ford’s Theater.  There was a school group flooding it and we snapped a quick selfie and set off on our way home.  

After getting back to the hotel, everyone collapsed onto the couch and immediately pulled out their phones.  It was rainy and dreary and no one wanted to go out for supper (ha, like we ever wanted to anyway).  The bar and restaurant downstairs were too busy.  All Sarah could think of all day was how delicious Ethiopian food was (did you know Ethiopia was the only African country that was never colonized?  Noah loves African history and political geography, and he pointed that out at the museum).  Turns out, Washington DC has the largest Ethiopian population outside of Ethiopia and there are tons of restaurants – we opted for Ethiopian Family Restaurant and got delivery.  it was AMAZING.  The injera survived and was deliciously spongy – Sarah got a samosa and we split a veggie and meat family platter (our veggie sids were misser wot, kik alitcha, diffen miser wot, and shirt wot) – Noah got yebeg tips, and Braden got asa tibs and fried tilapia.  Zoe tried some injera and said it was spicy (uh huh) and ate yogurt from the hotel lobby Grab n Go instead.  

What a wonderful day!  Off to a few more places tomorrow then our journey home the next day…

Miles driven: none!

Number of WORDLE attempts:  Sarah with 2 and Noah with 4

Day 7 – Thursday, March 7, 2024

Washington, D.C.

The last full day here!  Today was kind of put together and planned last minute.  Our plan was to hit the Capitol for an 8:50 tour, then bop across the street to the Library of Congress and try get into the main reading room, then plan on the Washington Monument later in the day.  To make the plan work, Matt insisted on a 6 am wake up time, we had to leave at 7 am to get there by 8, as the website said to arrive 45 minutes early to get in and get your passes.

Well, we straggled out by 7:15, Matt happily striding quickly while everyone else blearily stumbled behind him.  We get to the East portion of the Capitol where the visitor’s center is around 8 and there is NO ONE there.  Matt confidently states that the visitor center opens at 7:30.  The guards are like, umm, not open now.  We stumble about in the bright sunlight.  There are pages and aides and fancy people and politicians and sleazy people in business suits streaming around the Capitol to start their day.  

So we sat on a bench for a half hour and then others show up so we joined the line to get in.  When you are ushered inside under Capitol building into the visitor’s center, it was huge.  Like being at an airport with lines – a helpful lady checked us in.  While she was chatting, Braden said “noooooo”.  YES.  It was them, the orange sweatshirt kids.  SERIOUSLY.  WHAT are the chances.  They are haunting us at every turn.  There are dozens of museums, and what are the chances we would make up an itinerary every day on the fly and these rugrats would be there EVERY day?

We lined up for our tour time, with many many school groups and a German couple that kept kissing each other and some other normal family types and older couples.  We were ushered into a movie theater and made to watch a patriotic short movie that was so inspiring that Sarah briefly wondered what she could talk to her Congressional representative about (answer: nothing).  There was probably about 200 of us in there?  We were filed out and divided into 5 groups and handed headphones.

Our tour group leader led us out into the Crypt, National Statutory Hall and the Rotunda, giving us a brief history of building.   Each state is allowed to give two statues to the Capitol building for display and the only rule is the person has to be deceased.  Our tour guide was hysterical and was 100% Patton Oswald.  Loved him!  There was definitely a lot going on the Capitol today with the State of the Union – more Secret Service per the tour guide and we could see employees moving chairs for the State of the Union seating.

After, we planned to stroll over to the Library of Congress.  Turns out there is a tunnel underground that connects the Library of Congress to the Capitol so we just walked over through that.  You can buy timed tickets for the Library of Congress (thousands available, no lie) so we bought them before going into the tunnel.  We then popped out and went through security and in we were!  Patton had shared with us that the Library is the most elaborate/ornate building in the city and he was not exaggerating – it was beautiful.

We came right at the start of the one hour per day you can walk through the famed Main Reading Room (as seen on the Simpsons, and National Treasure 1 and 2) and joined a tour.  They were training new employees and commented that Sarah’s purse was “maximal allowable size” haha.  It was beautiful!  We loitered around looking at a Thomas Jefferson book collection.  The view of the Capitol was very pretty – Sarah wondered what angle the January 6 riots had occurred from into the Capitol and Matt said it was best not to google that on the Library of Congress’s Wifi.  Point taken.

We have our stickers that get us into the reading room

After this, the kids were hungry and so we took up Patton on his suggestion – he said the National Gallery of Art had an amazing cafeteria and since the middle school groups don’t go to art museums, you could eat there without thousands of children.  Done and done!  We strolled inside into the East gallery and quickly realized that we are not “art museum” people.  Everyone was dressed fashionably and quiet.  Whatever, the cafeteria was the bomb.  It was really good and only one school group passed through and they were clearly private school kids.  

After this, Zoe was reenergized, and B and Noah were laid back as usual.  We decided to stop off at the National Botanical Gardens on the way back, which was beautiful (the indoor portion, not quite seasonal for the outdoor part yet).   Another tour of the many houseplants we have killed.  Zoe had a little booklet the docent gave her and she had to hunt several different plants through the Garden, which she loved.  A great stop!

The cocoa plant with cocoa pods
It was 85 degrees and humid in here – something we weren’t dressed for

We trudged home and everyone collapsed.  Another day where Sarah regretted not wearing walking shoes and Zoe regretted wearing shoes that were 1/2 size big (her regular sized shoes were considered unacceptably dirty for the Capitol after a mud incident that occurred at school last week, and these were the only shoes Matt could find).  After relaxing for an hour, off to the Washington Monument!  And guess who wasn’t there?  Those orange kids.  Thank GOD.

These were the tickets that were crazy hard to get.  It was a beautiful clear perfect day outside and worth every penny of the $1 we paid for these tickets.  You are escorted in, have to go through the usual metal detectors (like everywhere, except the botanical gardens weirdly) and jam yourselves and some number of close friends to equal 15 into the elevator.  The top is pretty tight but the view is AMAZING.  On a cloudy day, oof, that would suck.  This was beautiful – and my advice is if you cannot get tickets to the Washington monument, then the clock tower is a reasonable substitution and guaranteed you will get up there because no one knows about it.

After, we went to the museum store and Matt took every stamp they had and stamped all the pages.  Whatever, we are NPS junkies.

Zoe reminded us that she gets a stuffed animal at every national park

Off home to finally relax, start packing up and all.  The security is super tight today – on the way back, we saw all the cars being towed due to clearing the streets for the State of The Union tonight.  There are police cars lined up at our hotel (why??).  There are many helicopters buzzing over the hotel and hanging around the Washington monument.  Exciting stuff here.  Our pizza from We are Pizza (hey, Patton also recommended it and since we enjoyed it the first time….) took forever to come. 

As we write this, State of the Union address is in 6 minutes and we sweat we saw Biden’s motorcade go by the hotel on 395.  With flanking helicopters.  Checks out!  Our excitement is done for the day and we can pack and get ready for the painful journey across Pennsylvania tomorrow.  

Miles driven: none!

Number of WORDLE attempts:  Sarah with 3 and Noah with 2 and Braden with 6+ (he’s joining in on the fun now!)

Day 8 – Friday, March 8, 2024

Washington, D.C. to Toledo, Ohio

Alas, our time in DC comes to a close.  We let ourselves sleep in, hauled ourselves and our luggage downstairs, and waited for the valet to bring our car.  We saw a recently arrived spring break type family near the entrance to the hotel, looking at their phones, confused.  Ah yes, that was us a week ago.  You will figure it out, you clearly Midwestern family!

We piled in and made our way out past the Jefferson memorial (yes, stamps to be had, but Matt would only go if we walked there and we vetoed that plan yesterday) and drove north, heading back through Maryland, hitting Pennsylvania.

Now we didn’t comment on it, but there is a bizarre little town called Breezewood in Pennsylvania, where the interstate literally appears to be routed through their downtown, stoplights and all.  Noah actually recognized the downtown when we were routed through their strange little town the first time on the way out – he had seen a picture of it in UrbanHell on Reddit.  Well, this time we stopped because the town was so weird we just kind of had to, plus on the tollway you don’t get any choices except for the Travel Plazas.  

We ate at a very nice McDonald’s there full of friendly staff and customers, and then made our way out to get gas, and back to the highway we went.  Won’t lie, it was a pretty boring drive.  Noah was stoked to see that at the Travel Plazas that had 7-11s that they had candy hearts available on clearance.  It weirdly is his favorite candy (after Cadbury Eggs) and was hard to find this year.  Well, discount pricing on all Valentine’s candy and each of the kids each bought a bag for a $1 – we had seen it once eastbound in a Plaza and well, well, we found more!

We stopped just south of Cleveland at Cuyahoga National Park.  This doesn’t appear to be a park that we would make a special trip to, so we wanted to make sure to get there and experience it while we were in Ohio.  The park headquarters were in a cute redone house and the park wove around actual houses and several small ski hills.  Yes, people were skiing on them while it was 67 degrees.  It was frightening to watch.

We did the Brandywine Gorge Loop trail, which was only 1.5 miles on a combination of rocky trail and boardwalks.  It was quite pretty, around a nice waterfall.  Of course the kids made their way down the river and were whipping rocks into it before we could stop them.  Matt later saw that the pretty river we were looking at was the reason the EPA was formed.  Apparently instead of flowing, it used to ooze due to all the contaminants dumped in it.  Huh, might explain that there was a stickiness that took soap and water in the bathrooms to get off their hands.  It also looks like they do some historical presentations there, including on the Underground Railroad.  We did get our stamps and motored on!

We finished our rain soaked journey in Toledo, Ohio, specifically the town of Maumee (hehe, pronounced Mommy).  Sarah spied a Greek restaurant near our cluster of hotels and was immediately in charge of selecting dinner.  We stayed at the Home2Suites, along with 1042 dance families.  Kids had fun in the pool, and we ordered food from Charlie’s (the Greek place) which was AMAZING!  Our only regret is not leaving a good review, because it looks like Google wouldn’t let Sarah leave one today when we were back in WI.  The food was amazing and also super cheap, especially compared to Washington DC!

Miles driven: 463 miles

Number of WORDLE attempts:  Sarah with 4 and Noah with 3 and Braden with 6

Day 9 – Saturday, March 9, 2024

Toledo, Ohio to Waupaca, Wisconsin

Alas, our journey comes to an end today.  We all slept in, woke up and threw all our stuff randomly into our single suitcase, and made our way to the lobby for breakfast.  It was reasonable, the coffee was good – but the hoards of dance families, oof.  Sarah heard one of the dance moms (in her jammies) recruiting a hotel breakfast bar worker to some multi level marketing scheme.  It was so uncomfortable but seemed about what we would expect.

We then made our way over to Mama C’s – it is a longtime donut shop in Maumee and was adorable!  Old fashioned place with nothing but regular donuts and coffee – our type of place.  After we got our donuts and coffee (total was like 9$ or something ridiculous, take that Washington DC) the woman (of few words) working looked at our family and said “you all are so tall!”.  haha!  We loved it!

We then made our way back onto the soul sucking tollway and off we went.  Noah had depleted his supply of candy hearts, so we stopped at the first Plaza we ran across and bought 10 bags of them.  The lady working the counter loved every bit of that.  Unfortunately, no further candy hearts were available at any of the the later stops.  We did stop at another one and had Sbarro.  At like 11 in the morning.  The tollway is like a different alternate universe.

Anyway, we motored on into Indiana, and then up to Gary (oh yeah, you read that right) to visit Indiana Dunes National Park.  This place was really pretty!  Beautiful visitor center, and we did the Dune Succession Trail on the West Beach – it was a beautiful boardwalk leading to a beach.  You could see the Chicago skyline in the distance, and the waves were kicking!  You kind of had to pretend that the US Steel Mill and docks in the Port of Indiana were not visible, but we are kind of gritty port people and enjoyed the whole feel of it.  More rock throwing from the kids and plenty of sunshine for all.  Must be a beautiful place on a summer day!

Sarah lying on a beach for spring break

We hiked back, said hi to the black Ascent from Wisconsin parked next to us, and then drove on.  Up through Chicago we went, into Wisconsin.  Stopped in Pleasant Prairie area to grab snack from Kwik Trip, then eventually made our way to the Fox Valley and home.  Ooof what a day!

Miles driven: 448 miles

Number of WORDLE attempts:  Sarah with 3 and Noah with 3 and Braden guessed twice and then got distracted

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