Washington DC spring break

We had a late start our first morning in Arlington.  I will blog about

 our trip here and the disastrousness that was our trip to DC later.  Right now, it’s too fresh and painful…..but it does make me incredibly easy to please on this first day of being in DC.  We slept until 10:50am which has something to do with spring forward and daylight savings, but more to do with our travel day which lasted a full 12 hours.  We did some easy waking up with some cuddling, trying out different beds, getting dressed slowly and turning on some hot water in the shower to put some humidity in the air and help Oscar’s hoarse cough that he got from being out in the cold most of last evening.  We 

 got dressed and went downstairs at the Westin to inquire about a close place to eat.  We must have just screamed “we would rather be in Europe” because she sent us across the street to the “Mussel Bar”.  The Belgian flags in the window should have prepared us, but the taps were

 enough to make us happy we had gone.  There was even a beer on tap from the brewery that we toured in Bruge last year.  We got some fries, that Oscar loved even with parsley and spices on them (I mean, there was green stuff on them, but he still ate them).  We had French onion soup that was so

much richer than the one that I tried to make at home and then some flatbread pizza with truffle and other things that sounded amazing, but was waaaayyyyy too much for someone who has been eating no grains for the last 6 weeks.  I got my blood tests completed before the trip so that I wouldn’t screw anything up by 

 eating normal food on the go, but then realized that this diet has completely changed my ability to eat rich foods.  I had most of the soup, one bite of the pizza and 4 fries before deciding that my stomach felt like a lead weight had been dropped into it.  And all the food looked amazing, I totally would have been able to eat 

 that no problem in the past, but not now.  Even without enjoying the meal, I was just so damn grateful to be here that I just kept looking at Oscar and John and saying how happy I was.  So, the day could have started with upset that we weren’t getting an early start, ended up with a very laissez faire attitude that suited me 

John Glenn's suit and Yuri Gagarin's suit in orange

 just fine.  We went to the metro and got us cards and found our stop that we wanted and got on the orange line all the way down to the Smithsonian.  Now, John had gotten a map at the hotel, I picked the Smithsonian stop because we were going there, but did I look at the map and the stops and put the puzzle 

Waiting for the IMAX to start

 pieces together?  No, I feel like it’s Washington DC.  It’s my capital city.  They speak English here and use my currency, I’ve been here twice, so I don’t need to look at the map to see that the metro stop that I am choosing, while named “Smithsonian” is not the closest one to the Smithsonian air and space museum.  Don’t ask 

a piece of the moon that you can touch

   why.  I can’t tell you why when I know that there are many different Smithsonian museums lined down the mall….for some reason the mall seems to shrink in my head when I remember it and it’s only a far walk if you have to walk from the Lincoln

Memorial to the Capitol.  Which is actually more than two miles away from each other, with Smithsonian museums lining most of the way.  So, we had quite a walk from the metro stop I chose and the Air and space museum.  But, we got there and for the first time, the underwire in my bra set off the metal detector.  Luckily, a large busty woman was doing the scanning and understood immediately what was going on.  We laughed about how we needed these wires damn it.  I guess I have a high quality bra, or the Smithsonian is looking for some serious stuff because a piece of foil in John’s pocket set it off at the Natural

 History museum, but I digress.  Oscar ran through the Air and Space museum with some stops at things that had levers he could pull or things  he could twist.  We could have stayed at home and given him a bop it for all that I could tell, but John was a bit upset by how fast we were heading through.  We kept losing him.  He had to read plaques and find out what everything was on display….crazy.  The very idea.  We did do an IMAX movie about going to Mars and Oscar said he liked that, the 3 D was very 3D, and it made me excited to think that we could get to experience the feeling when we hear about the first human setting foot on mars in our lifetime like hearing the moon landing.  Then we gave in to the pleas of a young boy who wanted a space bear from the museum shop.  I think we’re still feeling guilty about the shitty trip we gave the kid yesterday…..oh well, we then hit a wall where Oscar didn’t want to walk anymore.