D.C. Day 2 11.9.11

Itinerary: Bureau of Engraving & Printing & as many Smithsonian Museums as we can handle. Haha…

Day 2 started out much better than day 1! First of all, there was no appointments – so we slept in and got around much later than the first day. The Metro passes we purchased charged you extra if you traveled before 9:30 or between 3:00-7:00 so we tried to make sure we left the campground after 9:30, which was NO problem with me! Haha…

In fact, today we almost missed the 11:30 tour at the Bureau of Engraving & Printing. I had been to a mint before in Colorado but Michael hadn’t so I thought this would be right up his alley. And he loved it. Again, no pictures… But this is one of 2 places that they print paper money. It was amazing to see the process, the innovation, and accountability! Wow. Here’s Michael in front of a million dollars in 10 dollar bills.



After that we were off to the Smithsonian Museums. Our walk there took us right by the Washington Monument but unfortunately, because of the earthquake in August, it was closed to visitors, bummer.







Our first stop only because it was the first one we arrived at was the American History museum. I was most interested in seeing the original Flag of the United States (no pictures!) but found something almost as precious…

Dorothy’s Ruby Red Slippers!!



We checked out all of the exhibits, or as many as we could without being overrun by the hundreds of kids there on a field trip. Michael even pretended to give a presidential speech…



Then we were off to the Air & Space Museum, one of my favorites! The displays were incredible and it was just as I remembered from my visit many years ago.



Two museums and we were toast. We jumped back on the Metro and headed back to MD, still not making it by dark. We were so exhausted (again!) that we ate at the same place as last night and went back to the campground and crashed…again! The campground is perfect – not too many campers and quiet. We have a musician somewhere in the park and they switch instruments nightly – last night they were playing the violin, tonight they’re playing the flute. Ahhhh…..nighty nite!

More to follow…
Rene