Sunshine for the third day in a row! The weather was still brisk for late March, but we were excited for another day of exploring in the sun. Before the carousel (spotted the day before on the Mall), we headed to breakfast down the block from our hotel. In my opinion, there are few better things than a Monday morning on vacation. There’s always a moment where it sinks in that this is not a typical Monday morning, and vacation really starts to feel like it.
So after the carousel spin, there was a whole lot of feet dragging and complaining. At the base of the Hirshhorn, F sprawled out and called it quits. I said it was too many pain du chocolat, but the spinning probably didn’t help either. Even after we entered the National Air & Space Museum, F wasn’t feeling so hot.
We asked a docent there what was the one must-see thing in the museum, and he recommended one of the IMAX shows that started in about an hour. F and I sat for awhile and rested, while M and E explored. Once the movie started, we were all hooked. To be honest, I wasn’t all that excited about seeing Aircraft Carrier: Guardians of the Sea (in 3D, no less), but it turned out to be really, really fascinating. As they would discuss any of the technology on board, the entire ship would explode into a 3D diagram of all the working parts, which was really cool. And since we had toured an actual aircraft carrier in NYC two years ago, we made a lot of connections back to that experience. The best part about the movie was that when it was over, F declared herself to be a “completely new person”, feeling and looking 100% better. The rest of the day was a complete delight for all of us.
Not pictured here – the THREE STORY GIFT SHOP at the Air & Space Museum. Enter at your own risk. We did some serious damage there, but resolved to do better moving forward.
We skipped the food at the Air & Space Museum, and headed next door to the highly recommended cafe in the National Museum of the American Indian. At this point it was mid-afternoon, so the lines were low, but they were also out of a couple of things. But it was still delicious. I’m usually pretty decisive in restaurants, but I had trouble settling on one thing in here. After lunch, we spent a few hours in the museum, starting with the movie in the beautiful theater on the top floor, and moving through the exhibits on our way back down. It’s a really peaceful space, and was a nice change of pace from the Air & Space Museum’s crowds.
After the museums closed, we walked around some more, and then headed back to the hotel to clean up and relax a bit before a late dinner at Le Diplomate. I was really looking forward to dinner here, and was excited to score a reservation. My pictures are kind of late-night, low-light grainy, but it was such an enjoyable evening out that I wanted to remember it. E was so conversational and funny and she’s loving the French language, plus there was just a really good vibe in the place. A few hours later we caught a cab back to the hotel, and nursed our sore feet a bit before bed, pinching ourselves that it was only Monday yet.
