The Smiths go to Washington

My Dad and Suzanne came to visit last weekend from Florida. Unfortunately, they came during the Nor-Easter that was produced from Hurricane Ida. Sorry Dad. They had 5 days of rain and wind. Sunday was gorgeous but they left at 8am! We still had a great time though. Friday the boys had to go school (with a 2 hour delay for the 6 inches of rain we had) so Dad, Suzanne and I went to St. Mary's City. I think they had fun looking around - even if it was windy and cold. St. Mary's City was the first capital of Maryland back in the 1600s. They have done a great job of recreating the place using archeological digs combined with written history. It was fun to see it in more detail than last year when Max's class went. On Saturday we headed out to DC to visit the Museum of American History. We hadn't been and they just reopened it last Spring so it was fun to see! The boys did pretty well but they weren't as interested as we were. They may have enjoyed the Lincoln stuff - or maybe they will in a few years.

The boys sitting at the end of a section of the first railroad trestle bridge with a steam locomotive behing them. This particular locomotive was brought over from England and had to have a set of wheels added to the front to help it stay on the uneven tracks here in America.

In the first room, Max started reading the information below the display of a ship. He was so cute. He was reading every word and did an awesome job! I had to stop him though. Can you imagine if he tried to read every word in the Museum of American History???

The first room we went into was all about boats and ships. It was displayed in chronological order and detailed how ships have contributed to shaping and building America. It started with ships that the colonists came over on, tobacco trade ships, pirate ships, slave ships, merchant ships, goldrush ships, then moved on to steamships and ocean liners. We even saw the first gold nugget that was found in California that started the California gold rush!

Playing an interactive game with Grandpa. There were a few displays peppered throughout for kids....little games to quiz them or displays to further demonstrate a topic. They were cute and the boys liked them.

They also had a room set up about inventing. It wasn't that impressive but it was nice to have a place that was specifically for kids. I hope DC gets a kid's museum before my kids are too old for it!

Overall we had fun. The kids did a great job walking all over and of course they had fun riding the Metro (so did I). It was a good trip. And I can definitely recomment Priceline as a good place to make hotel reservations! We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel for $80 a night! Woo-hoo!