[DopeyGirl]

A “sort of” early morning . . . “Look at the size of that rock!” . . . and Bono in 3D.


I slept pret-ty darn well that first night . . . all thanks to the lovely pillowtop mattress on that big ol’ bed in our room. Holy cow. It was quite nice to actually wake up and feel totally rested as I have found that nights like that are becoming fewer and farther between for me these days (and only going to get worse )! That was kind of my cue that I either needed to buy a new mattress or at least a pillowtop when I got home. And I did. We bought a pillowtop for our old bed yesterday and are buying a new mattress when Mike gets home from deployment in the spring.

We all got up at around about 8am, got dressed and headed down to the hotel restaurant to try their breakfast buffet (since our room included a “Kids Eat Free” plan). It was just “OK” . . . nothing to really write home about. Although it was a bit “overpriced” for the amount of items they offered. There honestly wasn’t much in the way of choices on the buffet . . . scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, hash browns, cereal, 2 types of muffins, toast, watermelon, strawberries and apples. They also had a made to order (tiny) omelet bar and would make you a waffle if you asked. We were able to get plenty to eat, but there just wasn’t a lot to choose from . . . it could be that I am just so darn used to Disney breakfast buffets that cost $18/person that when I saw this “measly” one at the same cost, I kind of had a “moment”.

ANYHOW . . . evidently, breakfast wasn’t on Miss Emilie’s agenda (and she hadn’t slept well either, I guess) and she had a major meltdown before we could even decide what the plan of the day was going to be. It took quite a while to get her calmed down to the point where she would agree to go do “something” but by 10:30, we were ready to head to the Metro station.

We rode to the Federal Triangle Metro station and got off to walk down to the National Museum of Natural History . . . or as Emilie took to calling it (because she kept getting confused) the “National Museum of NATIONAL History”.

We passed the IRS on the way . . . you know, those folks who take your money every month and SOMETIMES you get it back in the spring . . .



The lines for the security/bag checkpoint were moving fairly smoothly, so getting in was no problem. It was a little crowded in the rotunda area though, once we got through, but wasn’t too bad. This was the ONE museum that Emilie was looking forward to visiting because of the “big elephant” and the “bunch of dinosaurs”. So, naturally, the first stop after the “big elephant” in the rotunda was the dinos and fossils. (for the next little bit, it will be primarily photos with a few comments tossed in. )










We’ve decided that this will now be our nickname for the St. Louis Cardinals’ Albert Pujols.


Emilie with a leg bone from one of the “smaller” dinosaurs. (I must have had “super flash” at that moment because her little pale face almost got totally washed out. )







CONTINUED IN NEXT POST . . .