Listen to Your Mother DC 2016

If feels a little ridiculous to write a "no I'm not dead" post for a blog without followers... But the active 2008 blogger in me is really uncomfortable with this lapse. And who knows - maybe I do have a few followers who have been worrying about my well being.

SO I just wanted to post a quick update that right now, I'm a little busy with a project that's taking up all of my free time.

Every year, I work on a local production of a national stage show, Listen to Your Mother DC. LTYM features local writers and storytellers reading original essays on the subject of motherhood. Hilarious...heartbreaking...heartwarming...though provoking...All of that and more!

If you live in a city that hosts an LTYM show (check HERE to see all 41 cities in 2016), buy a ticket! Especially if you live in MY city.

On the fence or just have NO idea what this is about? You can watch the show videos online. Here is our 2015 production. Grab some tissues...for both tears AND laughter.

At some point I will be back to tell some stories about our activities around DC over Spring Break and our weekend trip to Philadelphia over Easter...and oh yeah - that road trip we're doing in just a few short months! 

As always - keep your comments and e-mails with  advice, suggestions and links coming!

Presidents and Tetons and Bears (Oh My)

First bears.

This is a picture of my 12 year old father approaching a Yellowstone grizzly bear in 1956.

And behind that bear is her CUB. So, no - not at all dangerous or anything. Epilogue: he lived to tell the tale. And the bears ate the food he offered instead of HIS HAND. While I am really looking forward to following my grandmother's footsteps by taking my own three children on a cross country road trip, bear feeding will not be on our agenda.

We will be spending some time in National Parks though - specifically, Grand Teton National Park and Mount Rushmore National Park. We'll only have a full day in each so I'm going to have a set itinerary for both.

Luckily, a high school classmate saw my posts and sent me some great information about her own family trip to South Dakota. They had a lot more people involved and rented a cabin, but we'll probably just find a hotel/motel for a couple of nights (any suggestions?) The activities she listed included three days worth of scenic drives, towns to explore and monuments. Here are some of the options I'm considering for our one day.

Mount Rushmore - obviously. I think we'll leave that for the end of the day though, as I keep hearing that you HAVE to view it at night. I've also heard that you HAVE to view it at sunrise. But if I had to pick, getting my three children up before dawn would not be my first choice.

I got that image from the Visit Rapid City website. As a past meeting planner, I like to start with the Convention and Visitor Bureau websites for basic location information (and, in this case images, as I assume they won't sue me for using them to promote their city and send traffic to their site...hopefully). I find that a combination of CVB websites, word of mouth suggestions and random Google searches generally gets me all the information I need. I also like the Visit Rapid City Things to Do page. Perfect for clueless South Dakota travelers like me!

I think we'll drive along the Needles Highway (Highway 87) as we make our way to Mount Rushmore.

Another borrowed image from Visit Rapid City, of course. Sadly, our car looks more like this:

Minus the reindeer antlers.

Back to the trip... I think my kids would also really like to see the Crazy Horse Memorial. So that might be a morning activity. My friend said they did a horseback ride there that took them past the memorial. So that's another option. She recommended the company they used, Rockin R Rides, saying they were great for beginners (which would be us!)

One last image from Visit Rapid City. This website certainly has been good to me...maybe we'll stay there!

If I had to add anything else (though two monuments, a scenic drive and a potential horseback ride does seem like a lot), I'd also like to check out Deadwood (once home to Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane). Apparently, they do a Western reenactment for kids in the middle of Main Street. Me from 10+ years ago doesn't understand this at all. But she doesn't have children who LOVE hokey tourist attractions!

Another scenic drive would be the Wildlife Loop Road. The actual "wildlife" we might see includes bison, deer, elk, coyotes, burros, prairie dogs and eagles. I think I'll just have to map all of this out to see what itinerary makes the most sense!

I may know very little about the Mount Rushmore area, but I know EVEN LESS about Grand Teton.

Thorough research (i.e. one Google search) brought me to a Top 10 Summer Activities list on Jackson Hole Traveler. So many outdoorsy possibilities...but I think I can immediately rule out anything involving rafts or fishing. While I'm willing to go outside my comfort zone to give the kids some new experiences, I draw the line at anything that may conclude with me falling into a lake. So rafts, canoes and kayaks are definitely out. I might brave a sturdier vessel though. Boats do make me nervous, but last summer I managed to enjoy myself on a  pontoon ride around San Diego bay. This lake looks pretty placid right?

Image courtesy of (surprise!) Jackson Hole Traveler. Of course a boat ride would be much better if this was involved...

...but something tells me it won't be that kind of boat.

The scene in that first (nonalcoholic) image is of Jenny Lake and a boat from Jenny Lake Boating. I'm sure there are a lot of other locations and boat company options to investigate - but this certainly looks nice. AND affordable at $19/adult and $11/child for an hour cruise around the lake.

Wildlife tours also look fun - but the one that Jackson Hole Traveler mentions (Jackson Hole Wildlife Safaris) is $130/person for a half day. That's definitely not in our Grand Teton budget. We could always just go for a hike and take our chances with the bears... The Grand Teton National Park website has a page that lists a number of hiking options (all FREE!)

There is another GTNP page for horseback riding. Funny how this activity keeps coming up in my idea lists, as I have never before expressed a minute of interest in riding horses. Must be those Grand Canyon mules. I will have my picture taken on a large animal if it's the last thing I do! Or more likely, not.

I think that's more than enough to consider. But feel free to tell me if you've been to either of these areas and have fabulous recommendations to make! I will only draw the line at bears. And small boats. But if a glass of wine is offered in either scenario, I may be persuaded...

Danger Island, INDEED

This week, I've been working on nailing down the dates and locations of our summer road trip...which actually means: this week I've been busy working (for my paying jobs) but have found a few minutes here and there to think about how I should really nail down the dates and locations of our summer road trip. Maybe this weekend? It will happen!

In the meantime, I have a funny honeymoon travel story to share. Chris and I went to Spain - specifically the Costa del Sol. Look - aren't we all young and cute and free of child-induced wrinkles?

That picture was taken with a pre-iPhone, Year 2000 DISPOSABLE CAMERA. We brought several left over from our wedding tables and used up the rest of the "film." No digital images were generated from that honeymoon...I think there were a total of 50.

Anyway... As a city person, I could only take so much of the pool and the beach before I demanded a day trip. This story is about that day. It was originally posted on my blog, The Big Piece of Cake in 2009 (though I've edited it for this site because OH MY GOD SO MANY WORDS I USED AAAAAALLLLLL THE WORDS).

Enjoy!

Sunny Spain, Danger Island and International Abductions

In September of 2000, Chris and I got married and then flew to Spain for a two week honeymoon in Andalusia. We stayed in Malaga, Marbella/Puerto Banus and Seville. And while we were in Puerto Banus, we decided to make a quick trip to Great Britain.

Yes – you read that right – we left the sunny beaches of the Costa del Sol so that we could enjoy a cool, overcast day in the city of Gibraltar. This British territory shares a border with Spain, and was just an hour drive from our hotel.

Our hotel was beautiful, but after a few days relaxing by the pool with a book, I got at little bored. So that morning at breakfast, I pulled out our trusty Andalusia book and said, “I’m tired of looking at topless German supermodels at the pool – I have to have an activity today.” And while Chris probably didn’t quite agree about the topless German girls, he was happy enough to leave the hotel to have a little adventure.
One of the reasons that we selected Gibraltar was that we would get to enjoy a drive along the coast. It was a beautiful day and the hour long cab ride felt more like minutes as we took in breathtaking views of sun sparking on sea.

Then we saw “the rock.” It’s almost shocking to see Gibraltar looming on the horizon. It is literally a giant rock under an ominous looking cloud. We immediately dubbed it, “Danger Island.”


While it’s not technically an island, it does kind of look like one as you’re driving down the coast.
I won’t go into detail about our arrival at Danger Island (where we brushed elbows with armed soldiers), or the time we spent there (purchasing hand stitched lace pillow cases and hearing jokes about Monica Lewinsky from the locals). This particularly story is about our drive back.

When departed Gibraltar later that afternoon, I was very ready to put my shopping bags at my feet and close my eyes. Between the walking and the overcast sky I was feeling rather sleepy, and within minutes of entering the cab, I had dozed off.

At some point I felt sun on my face, and peered out from under my sunglasses to see that we were in fact, back in Spain proper. But the expected view of sun sparkling on sea had inexplicably been replaced by green hillside vistas.

While groggily trying to make sense of this new scenery, I realized that my husband was engaged in an animated conversation with our cab driver. Unfortunately, I don’t speak Spanish – so if I wanted details on where exactly we were going, I was going to have to ask Chris to translate.

Right before I sat up and announced my confusion though, the city girl in me held out a cautionary hand. Something wasn’t right. I mean, we were being chauffeured by the Spanish equivalent of a gypsy cab driver, and we were obviously not taking the familiar route back.

My first thought was that it might be a short cut. But in researching our day trip, we did look at a map which clearly showed the coastal road was the most direct route. I may be map-challenged, but Chris is practically a human GPS system. So he would know that we were taking the long way.

I had to conclude that we weren’t going back to the hotel – or at least not directly. And the fact that Chris and the cab driver were now BFFs indicated that they had made a decision to…well, I wouldn’t know would I? Because I was asleep when that decision was made.

At this point City Girl started fuming. What the hell was Chris thinking? This stranger could be a criminal for all we knew. To let him drive us into the hills of Spanish no man’s land and to not even consult with me about it was inexcusable. I would NEVER agree to this. What if he planned to take our credit cards and passports and then leave us miles from civilization. He could be a serial killer. He could be planning to sell me into white slavery. We didn’t know anything about this guy! City Girl was irate. I was a little frightened.

So I decided to feign sleep while I worked out what could possibly be going on. And soon enough, we seemed to have reached our destination. The cab pulled up to a small group of buildings and parked in what could only be described as a rural ally.

I sat up an started to ask Chris, “exactly what the hell is going on?” But I never had a chance. Within seconds, my companions were out of the car and too busy talking and laughing to give me any explanation. Chris barely glanced over his shoulder as he said something about coming in with them and that we would “only be a minute.” Whatever that meant.

City girl and I huffed as we picked up every bag in the cab and dragged them over to the big wooden gate through which the two men had disappeared. There was no way I was leaving all of my beautiful lace napkins and pillowcases in an unlocked cab with open windows.

I’m not sure what I was expecting to see when I followed them in, but we seemed to have entered a courtyard. To my right were rows of kennels and cages. Dogs barked and birds squawked at our intrusion, and flies buzzed around my head. The general effect was something like a barnyard pet store. Directly in front of me was a paddock with a huge brown horse – apparently, the source of all the flies. On the left was what looked to be the side wall of a house.

Our host had opened a door to the house and gestured for us to stay where we were, saying something that seemed to indicate that he’d be right back. Again, there wasn’t time to interrogate Chris about where we were, let alone why we were there. Before I could open my my mouth (which was already agape), the man was back, now holding a box.

He looked at me and asked Chris something in rapid fire Spanish. Chris looked in my direction, then laughingly shook his head and held up his hands, saying something that involved the words “no” and “gracias.” I couldn’t imagine what he thought I didn’t want – but I was happy to finally hear Chris say “no.”

Then it suddenly came to me. It was so obvious what was going on, I couldn’t believe that I didn’t figure it out earlier. Oh my god – he’s trying to sell us drugs.

But before I could begin to puzzle out why Chris would have even agreed to this detour trip, I was being ushered back to the cab. In a cloud of unintelligible banter and every fly previously stationed on the horse’s butt, I followed.

Safely back in the car and surrounded by my shopping bags, my anxiety began to fade. City Girl was back and mapping out the tirade the Chris would hear as soon as we were alone. At this point, I was certain that we were in fact, on our way back to the hotel. And I let out the last vestige of the breath that I was holding when that sparking sea came back into view.

We finally arrived back in Puerto Banus, and the minute the cab pulled away I rounded on a happily waving Chris. “What on earth were you thinking? WHY did you let him take us to that, that…whatever that place was? Did he try to sell us drugs?“

Chris just stared at me in utter bafflement and said, “What?"

Exasperated, I ranted, “that weird farm-like place! What were we doing there? He came out with a box and asked you something. Then you said, ‘no.’ Was he asking you if we wanted to buy drugs?!“

Still dazed, Chris said. “He asked if you wanted a ride on his horse. And we stopped there because his radio had died and he needed to pick up another one. That’s what was in the box. I figured that you were sleeping and we weren’t in a big rush to get back, so it wasn’t a big deal. He didn’t charge us for the extra time or anything.“

Oh.

Well – that didn’t sound quite so bad, the way he explained it. I may have overreacted just a little bit. But I’m still a city girl at heart, and don’t assume that I’m safe with a stranger – no matter how nice they may seem.

I doubt we would encounter a situation like this again – and now that we have kids, Chris would be far more likely to take a conservative view of friendly strangers with cars. But either way, I like to think that he would remember my feelings on the subject, and at least give me a vote the next time.

We were newlyweds – and with every year of marriage, you get to know each other better. I now know that Chris is a good judge of character, and would never have put us in a situation that seemed like it could be dangerous. And Chris now knows that I prefer to be be informed of what’s going on – AND to be asked for my opinion before it is assumed.

But Chris did get one thing right all those years ago… You couldn’t have paid me enough money to sit on that fly-covered horse. Especially if it meant that I’d have to abandon my shopping bags.

By Train or By Mule...

I have to admit...I've been pretty busy lately and planning for our cross country road trip has kind of fallen off my radar. Time to get back to it!

image via Grand Canyon Railway

One stop I did research a bit is the Grand Canyon. We won't have a lot of time there (just one day), so I really do have to be strategic about itinerary. Otherwise we'll probably spend 10% of our time at scenic overlooks and 90% wandering around gift shops and looking for somewhere to eat lunch.

From what I've read, the South Rim seems like our best bet for limited time. While it will definitely be crowded with summer tourists - we'll fit right in! I actually don't mind the idea of being part of a crowd. We'll need someone to take a family picture of us. And it would be good to have other people around if one of my kids falls in.

The night before, I think we definitely have to stay at the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ.

image via Wigwam Motel

This does not require explanation. I have kids...we'll be driving by a motel with rooms shaped like wigwams... DONE. This is a great option for a "cheap" hotel stay at $56/night for one queen bed and $62 for two doubles. But really, you had me at "wigwam."

Then we'll have one full day for the Grand Canyon. If we decide to stay in Williams, AZ (60 miles south of the South Rim), we COULD take a train via the Grand Canyon Railway.

image via mygrandcanyonpark.com

This is pretty pricey...even the cheap seats aren't in the budget for us. But I have to at least dream-plan for it, as Oliver has been obsessed with trains since he was two and decided that Thomas and Friends was no longer terrifying.

If you are inclined to splurge... The cost varies depending on class. The Pullman Car sounds like the best deal to me. It's the lowest price (round trip: $65 for adults and $29 for kids) and you get to ride in a refurbished 1923 Harriman style coach car. The cars "feature seats that flip so families can face each other, and windows that open to let in that good ol’ country air. A Passenger Service Attendant is available to share the train’s history with passengers, and help plan a fantastic Grand Canyon stay. Western entertainers are also on board to serenade passengers along the way to and from the canyon." I couldn't find anything about how many Pullman cars there are. Since you have to purchase tickets for specific days and there is only one departure and return train each day (see below), I would guess that those tickets sell out. The question is...how far in advance? There are six different ticket options, the most expensive is $219 per person (no lower price for kids). Full details are on the Train Rates page.

A one-way ride lasts about two hours and 15 minutes. The train departs Williams at 9:30 a.m. The return train leaves the Grand Canyon at 3:30. So a day trip involving the train would only allow you about four hours to explore. If we were able to take the train, I would consider staying overnight and then coming back the following morning. (Don't you love how I just spent half this post on something we probably can't afford? Time to start checking Groupon...)

And can we talk about how The Grand Canyon Railway's website is THETRAIN.COM? How did they do that?? Must have bought their domain around the time Jenny set up her jennifer@gmail.com account.

Moving on... However we get to the Grand Canyon - what SHALL we do there?

As I mentioned, I think we'll stick with the South Rim, tourist invasion notwithstanding. The view is the whole point of the trip, so I'd like to spend as much time as possible on that. In looking up "day hikes", I found a number of websites, all offering similar lists. This is great since I don't want to scroll through hundreds of options - but if you want the longest "short list" of South Rim trails, I suggest this one.

We are definitely looking for an easy one. We don't have a lot of time and we want to do a lot during the few days we're in Arizona. I do not need kids crying about blisters as I drag them through Sedona. We may just stick with "Rim Trail" hiking. It's a paved trail that runs along the South Rim for 13 miles. And there are shuttle stops along it, so we wouldn't have to gauge how far we've walked and when we should turn back.

Not very adventurous...but there will be tons of hiking opportunities in Oregon; and we'll be there for almost a week. This day trip to the Grand Canyon is more of a photo-op jaunt than anything else.

But if we DO decide to add some hoopla... We could do a three-hour Canyon Vistas Mule Ride!

image via Xanterra Parks & Resorts

I know - I said there was no way I would be riding mules (actually, I said "donkeys" - after some research and an e-mail from my Dad, I stand corrected)... Now that I'm 100% committed to drinking the American tourist Kool-Aid though, I think that mules sound like a hoot. They also sound expensive (approximately $135 per person), so this may be filed with the train under "That Would Have Been Fun."

If we were to saddle up some mules... It looks Xanterra is the only company that offers mules rides for the the area we plan to visit. And I've done at least two Google searches - so this must be true (clearly, I am kidding - feel free to correct me in a comment). Grand Canyon National Park Lodges (part of Xanterra Parks & Resorts) does a four-mile, three-hour mule ride (two-hours in the saddle) along a new East Rim Trail. Departure is five miles east of Grand Canyon Village, so I assume people who took the train up would have to catch a shuttle bus. The site says that "wranglers will stop six times along the trail to provide interpretive information about the geologic formations, human history, fire ecology and more." The mules depart at 8:00 a.m., making this an option only for tourists staying nearby (or very early risers). Even if we did budget for mule rides, I'm not sure we could swing it time-wise.

Why all of the sudden interest in mules? My Dad sent me this:

"Attached is a photo of your Grandmother (Olive) and her 3 children (including me!) going down the Grand Canyon  to stay overnight at Phantom Ranch on the Colorado River in 1956. As you can see, we rode sure-footed mules (not donkeys). Interestingly, the man who owns the zebras I've had my photos taken on, trains the mules that they now use. (My mother is second from the bottom. I'm in the first pith helmet up the line, Uncle Dick is in the second pith helmet with Uncle Burke just before him.)

Our two and a half month road trip took us to most of the places you have mentioned. My longevity on the planet has taken me to all the others on your list. We, too, did not camp. And at most of the places, we stayed with relatives or college friends of my mother's.

What you are doing this summer and hopefully in the summers to come is a priceless gift for Oliver, George and Eleanor. I know... because I was that 13 year old boy in the pith helmet."

Then I wiped a tear and cried, "I want to ride a donkey-I-mean-mule!"

I don't know if we'll ride a train or mules or neither - but I am pretty excited to repeat family history in some small way. If Grandma Olive drove three kids across the country, so can I!

As always - I would LOVE to hear your personal experiences in travel. Feel free to comment or e-mail me at kate@mamadontcamp.com with tips, links, advice and anything else that you think would be helpful!

The City (Winter Edition)

One of my favorite cities - really, my favorite city (shhhh! don't tell DC!) - is New York City. 

I spent a lot of time there while growing up, and there was no question of where I wanted to go to college. I moved back to DC after graduation, but I never missed an opportunity to go up to stay with friends. Even today, I would move there in a minute (a New York minute!) if that was in the least bit practical for my family (which it is not).

Here are two thoughts (of many) that I have about New York City. First - people who live there or in the surrounding areas refer to it as "The City." People in New Jersey don't go to New York to see a show, the go to The City. People in Long Island don't go to New York City to meet a friend for dinner, they go to The City. It's like there are millions of cities all over the world, but New York City is THE city.

Second - New Yorkers are not rude or mean or unpleasant in any way. Or at least no more so than people in other cities. If someone is super rude to you when you ask for directions, they are not real New Yorkers. They are people from other places who moved to The City. Born and raised New Yorkers are some of the friendliest most helpful people I have ever met. Especially when it comes to telling you about their city. A perfect example of this would be the many times that my subway train was re-routed and I had to figure out how to get from somewhere like the Lower East Side to the Upper West Side for my weekend brunch shift. I only had to spend a minute or two examining the subway map (which to the uninitiated, looks something like a map of the vascular system of a human arm) before someone would ask me if I needed help. I would sometimes attract a crowd of New Yorkers competing for who could give me the best directions. And they could never just say "take this train to that stop, and then transfer to this train." They'd be all, "you COULD blah blah blah OR you could blah blah blah, but your BEST BET is to blah blah blah." This was somewhat problematic since I would inevitably just get all of the directions confused. Why couldn't they just tell the best bet!? Confusing or not, I love me some friendly option-giving New Yorkers!

But back to the point of this post (yes I have one!). For a while now I've been dreaming of taking my kids to The City. Sure - it wouldn't be anything like the long lunches, shopping and bar hopping of yore. But one of my favorite things to do in NYC is absolutely kid friendly. I wanted to take them to see all of the holiday decorations. The gigantic tree and ice skaters in Rockefeller Center...the window displays a few blocks away at Saks Fifth Avenue...the smell of roasting chestnuts... They would love it!

Luckily, I have family that lives just outside NYC in NJ. So we could easily plan a day trip while visiting them. Long story short (yes - I can do that sometimes), our day in The City wasn't quite what I had hoped. I forgot how crowded all of those places with holiday decorations can get. Probably because it's much easier to zip through crowds as a single person than as a mother with three children in tow. For the most part, it was a lot of getting crushed in crowds – but I still loved it! And my kids found their OWN favorite thing to do there. Here is a recap in haphazard iPhone pictures:

The kids got to take their very first train ride!

We could see the tree at Rockefeller Center if we stood on our tippy toes and the ice skaters if we peeked through gaps in the crowd.

We even got a family picture (thank you friendly New Yorkers!).  Of course two of us are rocking the double chin look big time and the only scenery behind us appears to be a the draped private area of a statue...but we’re ALL in the picture!

We tried to look at the holiday windows at Saks, but it was a bust. I remembered magical fantasy displays with moving figures and some kind of narrative that unfolds as you view each window. This year it was white evening gowns and crystals. Pretty - but the kids were bored. We should have made a stop at Macy's as we headed uptown from Penn Station. I heard later that they had a Peanuts-related theme. Here are a couple of images I found on www.newyork.com to show you what we saw (and should have seen):

Saks Fifth Avenue: I would have enjoyed this on my own...
but no child stands in line to look at fake Snow Queen banquet tables. 

Macy's: Dammit.

I actually found some images of Saks' holiday windows in 2005 (the last time I saw them - 10 YEARS ago). Can't include them since Getty sues for that kind of thing, but if you are interested (and you should be because they are SO much better than 2015), click HERE.

Takeaway: Saks doesn't have the same holiday window budget these days. Bummer.

At this point I was desperate for my children to find SOMETHING they the loved in NYC. So obviously I made them walk a mile to Central Park. And I will tell you right now that all of that "we're tired" and "can we stop and rest" and "my feet are bleeding" that kids pull on their parents is complete BS. Because the minute my whiners saw the Central Park rocks, they were running.

Looks like I didn't take any action shots of the climbing. I think I was too busy spotting them (or trying to). They could have climbed for hours more, but we had dinner plans in NJ. Once we pried them off the rocks, we looked for a subway to take us back down to Penn Station. This was another bust, as the random station we picked had only one subway fare machine and it wasn't accepting credit cards. And since we are complacent people (or sadistic parents - depending on if you ask my children) Chris and I just kept walking.

This ended up taking us through Times Square where we ran into the Naked Cowboy. I didn't even realize he was behind me. Chris made me stop so he could take a picture.

Then we got a great view of the Empire State Building. Again - Chris made us pose (I think he took more pictures of me with the kids that day than he has during our entire life together as parents!)

Look at how bedraggled poor Eleanor was! It was a long day... AND so much fun that we decided to go back in January! Well, I decided to go back in January. Chris was going to be away on a 10-day business trip.

The kids had a four-day weekend and we had a little more time to stay. So we actually had two outings. The first of which was a visit to the Liberty Science Center...

Wow! Fish! So exciting – almost like we’re at Petco or something.
And nope - no idea what is going on with George's hair...

This turtle was 100 times better at posing for photos than my children.

Eleanor was the only one to get all the way across the rock wall on the first try.

More science stuff!

“Oliver – take off your hood!” “George – put on your coat!” “Eleanor – stop acting so grumpy!”
No one ever listens to me…but this one was pretty cute.
(In Eleanor’s defense – she claimed to have a cracker in her mouth and couldn’t smile. I’ll take it.)

Another highlight was seeing tanks of gigantic fish from the Jurassic age that apparently still live in the Hudson River. Okay - I made up that Jurassic part. But as far as I'm concerned, those were dino-fish. Also - remind me to never fall into the Hudson River. 

My kids said that their favorite thing was The Touch Tunnel, a big, box-like structure that you enter on one end and exit on the other. You basically crawl through a meandering tunnel, in absolute darkness, trying to feel your way out. Oh - and there are infra-red cameras that take pictures of you while you're in there. You can download these to your phone. Handy if you're into social media sharing... #FunInTheTouchTunnel #OnlySoundsDirty #GoodCleanFunExceptForAllOfTheGerms.The line wasn't too long (which was lucky since my Aunt Jan said it's usually packed). But there was just enough time for Oliver to turn to some girls behind us and say, "hi girls, want me to buy you some flowers?" Just a little mashup of the stuff he learns in his social skills group and the cartoons he watches on TV. Never a dull moment with that kid. 

Eleanor was mortified of course, but that didn't last long since she was starting to get nervous about being in the pitch dark. She begged me to accompany her, which I only did because she seemed so scared. As a card carrying "not fun" parent, I would typically say no to crawling on my hands and knees through...well, anything really. Five minutes later when we exited the structure, George was jumping up and down, exclaiming over how awesome it was and asking me what I thought. I didn't want to harsh his buzz, so I stayed neutral, "well - it wasn't my favorite thing I've ever done..." And no - I decided not to download the infra-red picture of my butt.

The last thing we did at the Liberty Science Center was the Titanic Exhibit. This was both fascinating and haunting (I have no pictures of this since cameras were not allowed). The kids were getting museum'd out at this point, so we didn't linger over the displays as much as I would have liked. But they LOVED how we each got a "boarding pass" that gave us a name, class and background story. At the end of the exhibit, we got to look ourselves up on the survivor lists to see if any of us went down with the ship. I am sorry to say that Oliver didn't make it. 

The next day, we went back to The City. Unfortunately, this was also a day that it was supposed to be freezing cold. So we did some extra bundling and decided to drive in. The plan was to grab lunch, go to the Natural History Museum to see dinosaur bones and then hang out in Central Park for an hour or two (or until we turned into icicles - whichever happened first).

Since this post is now ridiculously long, I will keep the rest "pictorial" with brief captions (i.e. copied straight from Facebook):

Night at the Museum star sighting. You can’t walk 10 feet in NYC without bumping into a celebrity….

Dinosaurs!

MORE dinosaurs! Travel tip: when you go to a museum, specifically to see dinosaur bones, make sure to see everything else first so that by the time you get to the bones, everyone is over it and wants to leave.

"No really, Mom – can we leave now?" Also - I think George is giving me the finger. 

We found the bridge where the pigeon lady lived in Home Alone 2!
It doesn’t get any more glamorous than this.

Pigeon lady bridge take 2.

Race to the rocks! George got there first (see tiny figure at the top).

There is no such thing as too many rocks to climb…

She NEVER poses for me anymore (willingly)! Central Park brings out the best in us I guess.
Also – where the fuck are we?!

Right before we realized we were on the wrong side of Central Park... Pretty bridge though!

It’s getting darker (and colder) and it’s really time to leave the park.
It will probably be a 20 minute walk across…so obviously time to wrestle and give piggy back rides.

 
We will definitely go back in the summer to do more touristy stuff. Perhaps even a double-decker bus ride. 

On the drive home, I asked the kids if it was safe to say that New York was one of our favorite cities. Ever practical, Eleanor pointed out that they've never actually been to any other cities (DC doesn't count since it's "home"). "Mom - it's our ONLY city." Unintentionally spoken like a true New Yorker. Now we ALL love The City!

Extreme Touristing (A Winter Tour of DC Landmarks)

Back in December, when DC was enjoying tropical temperatures, I saw a deal for tickets to ride one of those double-decker sightseeing buses. Every time my kids spot one rolling down the street, the "can we, can we?" begging ensues. So when I saw the City Sights deal, I thought, "SOLD."

The only catch was, the tickets would expire at the end of February. Time of year didn't seem like an issue, as we've always done okay in the cold as long as we're bundled up. And we had several weekends and school holidays to choose from. But then there was snow - a lot of snow. And a few birthday parties... And Saturdays were out since Oliver has a weekly appointment we can't miss... And suddenly it was mid-February and there were exactly TWO DAYS we could possibly make it into the city for this tour: yesterday and today. The weather forecast was for arctic cold yesterday and snow today. So we did the tour yesterday.

We are crazy.

I only bought four tickets since I thought there was a chance we would be doing this on a weekday when Chris had to work. So he stayed inside where it was warm, and did lazy Sunday stuff like a normal person.

The City Sights kiosk is located in Union Station which, with its history and beautiful architecture, is a sight seeing stop, itself. George was particularly impressed by all of the 14 karat gold leafing on the ceiling (there was talk of "climbing up" for a better view...) 

image source
(here is a better one I'd have used if I didn't fear being sued...)

As an aside, I lived in walking distance of Union Station when I was a teenager (and the year after college when I couldn't afford my own place) and was around for its big re-opening in 1988. It was like having a neighborhood mini-mall and my friend Jenny and I ate many a slice of pizza at the food court after school. The restaurants and shops may have changed, but I always have that nostalgic feeling of "mine" when I'm in Union Station...

Back to our wintery jaunt... When we finally found the kiosk, the City Sights staff were super friendly and helpful. The lady who was processing our tickets said that two kept coming up as 48-hour passes even though we only paid for 24-hour. So she changed the other two to 48-hour as well, in case we wanted to come back the following day (epilogue: no fucking way...but STILL - so nice!) The guy at the kiosk chatted with George about thunder snow, suggested that Oliver (ten feet away, inspecting some scaffolding) was figuring out how get up to the ceiling to check out the gold leaf (told us there was over 70 lbs. in all!) and listened to the twins' non-sequitor anecdotes about school. Then they told us we had about 10 minutes to grab some hot cocoa before the next bus departed.

While waiting for beverages at Starbucks, we had a little excitement. One of the baristas asked me to get Oliver away from the window. Before I could even begin to imagine what he was doing, she explained sotto voce, that people were outside engaging in behavior that "children should NOT see." As she banged on the window ("Hey! We've got kids in here!") I explained that there were people doing something inappropriate and we should stay away from the window. Eleanor whispered to me that she thought she knew what they were doing: "probably smoking." George thought they were pulling down their pants. I said we didn't need to know specifics. Oliver told me he was sorry. I said he wasn't responsible for other people pulling down their pants. As long as his stay up, I'm happy. And as all of this transpired, I just kept thinking, "I'M HOME!"

When we arrived at the corner for bus pick up, the City Sights rep told us we JUST missed the bus (pointed to it disappearing into the distance). But the next bus didn't come for another 45 minutes, so he called the one we missed and then walked us to the spot where it would loop back around (about two blocks away). We bumped into a couple of other City Sights staffers and they joined our group (we had a full escort!). Two minutes later, we were on the bus (squabbling over who wanted to sit where of course) and ready to see the sights!

And who should be our tour guide, but our friend from the kiosk, Derek (that's his name). He was great! Friendly, funny AND he made the otherwise dry material (sorry, U.S. History buffs) interesting.

Here are some highlights (get ready for some world class photography...):

Look at all that scaffolding on the Capitol dome!

Look at all that ice on the Capitol reflecting pool!

Remember when we first got on the bus and weren't covered in icicles yet? SO FUN!

Totally! Let's do this every weekend!

We're having so much fun that we took a selfie with sun beams! #nofilter

Not sure why I took pictures of the National Museum of the American Indian - but it is a cool building. I'm embarrassed to say that the last time I was there, Oliver was six months old and I don't remember much about it. But I DO remember that the flush in the family restroom echoed so loudly on the tile, that my generally easy-going baby screamed for a solid 20 minutes (and only stopped being terrified of public bathroom flushes a year or two ago). Derek told us that a few years ago The New York Times named the museum restaurant, Mitsitam the best food on the National Mall. I vaguely remember going there for lunch - but as the mother of a six month old, it's doubtful that I actually ate anything. Derek also told us that the menu included items such snake soup.

"Do they make soup out of the snake's venom?"

George had comments for pretty much everything Derek told us, and after a half hour of this, was offered the opportunity to run the tour.

G smiled for a photo op - but in the end, he politely declined.

Oliver was starting to feel the cold and asked me to sit next to him.
I made him pay with a selfie.

Someone asked about the Webster School as we passed it. Derek explained that it was a masonry school built in 1881 and it was named after Daniel Webster - not Webster from the TV show. Between all of the foreign tourists and my children, I may have been the only one on the bus who laughed.

Also - how about this photo journalistic tour of DC? I'm thinking coffee table book...

This is Derek! He's the best. Make sure to get on the City Sights bus when he's running the tour.
Behind him is the FBI building.

I tried to get a picture of Ford's Theater - but my fingers were starting to go numb at this point of the tour and it was more like "ord's Theater." One new thing I learned was where John Wilkes Booth made his getaway. Derek pointed out the alley (a few doors down from J. Crew).

Here is a picture of the new National Museum of African American History and Culture.
And my finger.

I titled this one Still Life with Washington Monument and Frozen Tourists. See - they're frozen, so they're still. Get it?!

Then my phone shut down, which is weird since the battery wasn't close to dying... I can only conclude that it got too cold and said, "yeah - time to go back in your pocket, Kate. I'm out." I was having trouble bending my fingers by now, so who knows if I could have taken pictures anyway.

It was hard to enjoy the rest of the tour as we slowly turned into ice cubes - but I really would love to go back for that loop around the Tidal Basin (where my brain went numb). If you'd like to check out the "Monuments and Landmarks Loop" we did, here is the route with a map.

I had planned to get a picture of the bus (ideally with us in front of it) but by the time we got back to Union Station, I was close to tears over not being able to feel my body and the kids weren't in much better shape. And of course, my phone was dead. But here is an artist's rendering:

Eleanor Hood (b. 2006)

The Bus Tour, 2016

While I don't typically feel comfortable doing a blind interpretation...I believe the yellow surf board-looking thing in front of the bus is the Washington Monument.

A few hours later when we all started to regain use of our limbs again, we agreed that it was a great tour. We highly recommend City Sights! Just not when it's 20 degrees outside.