Take It On The Run, Part I

Last Sunday, Kenna and I drove down to Maryland and spent Sunday evening with Leah before I met my family on Monday afternoon. This is a picture of Kenna on the couch, in Puppyland, with her eyes open and her tongue sticking out of her mouth:

After Leah and I stocked the kitchen at the apartment where my family and I were going to stay in Gaithersburg, I drove to Baltimore to get Family of Ken at the airport. We spent most of the week in Washington, D.C., but our first order of business was to attend the Orioles-Royals game at Camden Yards.


Brother of Ken is a huge Royals fan (the rest of us are fans, but just not quite as passionate as he is) and he insisted that we all wear Royals shirts to the game. This was his first major league game outside of Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City and it was at Camden Yards, which is a great park to visit. As we walked in, a staff member gave us five old Royals baseball cards--there weren't a lot of other Royals fans and this guy was excited to see us. Brother of Ken grabbed his first beer about 30 feet into the park:

We arrived early enough to see batting practice and for Brother of Ken to catch two practice balls (including one from his favorite pitcher):

The game:

It was actually a pretty good game, given that both teams are kind of awful this year. In the end, we won, so that was a nice way to finish the evening. Especially since it was hot as hell and so humid that we were sweating long after the sun went down.

We got back to our apartments late on Monday night and it took us a while to get going the next day. Once we got into the city, we went to the Library of Congress to take a tour since neither of the guys had ever been there. It is a really cool building, but the tour was really long and tedious at times.

After our tour of the library, we were ravenous, so we ate at Cafe Atlantico near the Navy Memorial:

The food was excellent. We all had special drinks (fresh lemonade and limeade and fancy iced tea for Mother of Ken) and our entrees were interesting takes on traditional Latin American food. All of it was well prepared and nicely presented.

Since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to go to the Spy Museum in the afternoon. Brother of Ken had never been there and the last time I took Mother and Father of Ken, we were really pressed for time. This time, it was crowded, but we had plenty of time to look around. If you ever get a chance to go, this is a fun museum.

On Tuesday evening, we had tickets to see The Second City's Barack Stars, which was awesome. The Woolly Mammoth theatre is wonderful--a small space, not a bad seat in the house, and we saw both Arlen Spector and Dick Durbin there, so that was exciting. This was Father of Ken's Father's Day gift and, judging from the giggling coming from the seat next to mine, he enjoyed it.

The next day, we went to the Holocaust Museum--again, the rest of us had been there, but Brother of Ken had not (his last trip to DC for sightseeing was when he was nine).

This is one of those museums that I think everyone should see at least once, but I had a hard time going back for a second time.

We took so long at the Holocaust Museum that we had to skip lunch and go directly to Ford's Theatre because we had tickets to see the building at 3:00 and tickets for a walking tour after that. The last time we went was way better. This time, they shoved us into the basement museum where it was crowded and hot. Some of the information was incorrect and the whole thing was poorly organized. Once we got into the theatre, people were acting like jerks and being really loud and obnoxious while we waited for the tour guide to begin his presentation.

The President's box:

Mother of Ken with her fan:

We had enough time between our two events at the theatre to get something to eat at a nearby bakery. It was across from the FBI building where this super cute FBI dog was working with his person:

When he wasn't working, the dog slept in the shade of one of the trees in planters that surround the building.

The walking tour was supposed to be a tour of all of the important places in the city where various people connected to the assassination had been. It was about a mile and a half walk from Ford's Theatre to Lafayette Park across from the White House. The tour guide was a man dressed in period costume pretending to be a detective working on the case. I think he was an out of work actor trying a little too hard. The whole thing was pretty hokey and it was pouring off and on the whole time, so we were glad when it was over. We did get to see Marine 1 arriving at the White House, though.

Father and Brother of Ken riding the metro on the way back to the apartment that night:

Thursday, we began the day at the Newseum, which no one had seen before besides me. This is another great place to visit if you have time--lots of cool exhibits with interactives and some great audio visual material (of course).

That took most of the morning, so after we ate lunch, the guys went to the Air and Space Museum while Mother of Ken and I went to the Sackler to see this show. We met up with the guys at the American History museum, but not before taking pictures of the food carts outside:

Mother of Ken and I saw the First Ladies' exhibit, which isn't nearly finished yet, and then once the guys got there, we saw everything else: Julia Child's kitchen, the star spangled banner, the Lincoln exhibit, etc.

That's it for this post--I think I'm still tired from all of the running around. I have slept so much since I got home...

Stay tuned for the next post about our visits to Hillwood and Arlington Cemetery.