American History Museum, DISmeet
After we came down from the Washington Monument, we had time for one museum before meeting up with friends for dinner.
Off to the Museum of American History we went.
The line to get in was pretty long, but we noticed that the bagless line was not. We were travelling light because we had been at the White House earlier, so we waltzed right in!
The first thing we did, because it is right there in the lobby, was visit the exhibit that holds the flag that inspired “The National Anthem”
No pictures allowed here in order to preserve the flag.
Next, we were off to the “America at War” Floor. My boys are really into history, especially military history, so they could probably spend all day here. Fortunately, we only had about an hour!
Some of the things we saw:
General George Washington’s uniform and epaulets
Sword from the British Surrender at Yorktown
This model of a privateer ship. There was no formal US Navy during the Revolutionary War. Privateers are like pirates, but legal since they were supported by the government.
The reason that this is meaningful to me is that two of the owners of the museum house and farm where I work were privateers. The first, Nathaniel Tracy, was one of the wealthiest men in our area. During the Revolutionary War, he lost many ships and also loaned a great deal of money to finance the Revolutionary War, which was never repaid. Ben portrayed him during his 3rd grade wax museum at school. Bankrupted, Tracy sold the house/farm to Offin Boardman, who was a captain on one of his ships and also a war hero. The extensive and interesting diary he kept is the basis of one of our programs, a historical fiction class called In Search of a Story. We take students through different areas of the farm, discuss Boardman’s connection to them, introduce some period language and then the kids write their own stories.
More war exhibits:
History and pieces of the Berlin Wall
Another nearby exhibit was the full-sized gunboat Philadelphia. You could walk all around this and it was pretty cool to study.
But I was getting a bit overwhelmed (bored) with all the war stuff. I wanted some pop culture!
Some of my favorite artifacts from previous visits to this museum were Archie Bunker’s chair, Fonzie’s jacket, Kermit the Frog, Dorothy’s ruby slippers, memorabilia from the Lion King play.
I looked at the museum directory and could not figure out where these things were displayed. We checked all the floors and nada!
Turns out, these items were not on here, they are on traveling exhibit to other museums.
We did make our way down to the bottom floor and spent a little time looking at Julia Child’s kitchen. As someone who loves to cook and a fan of tv cooking shows, it was appropriate to pay tribute to the one who started it all.
“Save the liver!” (10 bonus points to the first one who explains this reference)
But by this time, we needed to leave to get to our dinner meeting. We had plans to meet friends at 5:30 at a chain restaurant I had never been to before. I told Mark and the boys that they could join me if they wanted to, but they didn’t have to. They decided to come along.
Missy
@Missyrose was one of the first trip report writers I followed. She is a writer by trade and has the best descriptions of her trip and a true love for all things Disney. Her husband Franklin takes incredible, just incredible photos, but don’t take my word for it. Check out her reports or her Facebook page. We have become good friends through the DIS, Facebook and email.
We walked the few blocks to Shake Shack. Nobody guessed this!
Shortly after we walked in we spotted each other and exchanged hugs. Missy, Franklin and I went up to order while Mark, Nate and Ben waited to find a table where we could all sit together.
I ordered the ShackBurger and a Strawberry Lemonade. Shakes are a bit rich for me and I preferred something refreshing. The boys ordered a cheeseburger, two Chicken Shacks, fries and 3 shakes. Wow, I am just looking at the receipt and the shakes are the same price as the burgers! Then after the meal, we ordered some donut/ice cream thing they are famous for.
This is the only picture I took of our meal.
None of the food really blew me away, but it wasn’t about the food.
We had an incredibly fun visit with Missy and Franklin. We talked Disney, we talked Star Wars, we talked football. We had just “made” our dining reservations that morning for our October trip. Well, IPO made ours because we were away. They will be at Disney at the same time we are so we discussed where we would be eating.
We all know that if there are not pictures, the meet didn’t happen. We had the best photographer in Washington DC at our table, so what did I do? I handed my phone to Nate to snap a picture of Missy and me.
Nate was across the table from us and I didn’t want to bother Franklin.
But what we got was good enough for Facebook…
And believe it or not (I don’t), that was the last photo I have from that night!
I want to say it was around 7 when we parted and walked back to our hotel.
We chilled out in the room for a bit, watched some tv.
Our dinner was not huge, so around 8:30 or 9 we all decided to go to the lounge at the hotel for drinks and an appetizer or two. We had done that a couple of times on our previous trip 5 years ago at a table outside the bar. We have some nice memories of the food and conversation the 4 of us shared.
We sat down and waited for someone to come by. And waited. And waited. After about 10 minutes, a waiter finally came over with menus and said he would come back for our order. He lied. We waited around another 15 minutes or so before we bailed and just returned to our room.
End of Day 2.
Summary of our day- we started with breakfast in the hotel food court. Toured the monuments on the mall from 8 am to 9:30. Visited the Smithsonian Castle and Museum of Natural History. Lunch back at the food court. Walked to White House for tour. Washington Monument tour. Museum of American History. Dinner at Shake Shack then back to the hotel.
Contest Questions:
Step Count for Day 2, Tuesday (see above)
The next day, Wednesday, we have a docent-guided tour of the National Archives at 9:30 am. After lunch, we will go to the Stephen Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum, which is near Dulles Airport. This will take up most of our afternoon. Then we will tour the monuments at night.
We have breakfast at the hotel dining room. Our breakfast check (including tax, not including gratuity) was less than the bill we had from our fabulous dinner on our arrival night. How much less? $5-$10 less, $10-$15 less, $15-$20 less? (5 points)
Which of the 3 Charters of Freedom does our guide almost forget to show us? Declaration of Independence, US Constitution or Bill of Rights? (5 points)
What site do we visit after the Archives and before lunch? (10 points)
And don't forget to "Save the Liver!"
Next Up: We the People
Thanks for the reminder to guess 
sometimes
Oh well, I never would have guessed Shake Shack. I would have picked something that served appetizers. 
