Flashback: An Urban Adventure

This isn’t a travel blog, but after posting about our epic spring break road trip, I realized that I never blogged about the trip I took with my older daughters last summer. We had a tradition to uphold, going somewhere incredible every other year: 2013 was our Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Tour to California and Arizona, and 2015 was our Wyoming adventure. For 2017, I was up for another couple of national parks, but the girls wanted an urban trek, so we settled on Washington, DC. We could drive there (saving money on flights and car rentals), it was full of museums and memorials and monuments, and I could sneak in one night camping at Shenandoah National Park along the way! Plus, the teenager was going to visit DC in the fall with her school, and (this is sweet) she wanted to see it with me first.

At the time, Emily and I were moving toward marriage, but weren’t engaged yet. We talked about summer travel, and we decided that we would each take a trip with our kids, one last #3ofus trip for each of our little families. She spent a long weekend at Hilton Head with her kids (ages 3 and 6 at the time), and I took my girls (then ages 9 and 13) to DC. I think Emily and I would have preferred to be adventuring together, but we knew our kids would appreciate the quality time before their lives changed. I don’t know if we’ll do #3ofus trips again now that we’re married, but we’ve definitely found that the kids need a little time in their original families from time to time. Stepfamily expert Ron Deal uses a crock pot metaphor to describe how families should blend together–it takes time and just a little heat. Carving out #3ofus time is part of how Emily and I have chosen to crock pot.

Okay, let’s flashback to June 2017. It’s been more than a year, so I don’t remember all the details from our DC trip, but I did take notes each night on my phone before I went to bed. (Good thinking, Bruff.) Let’s see what I said about Day 1.

1. Mostly packed. Late start for medical reasons. Lots of podcasts. Guitar building. Adventures in firewood. Shenandoah NP. Campsite. Hot dogs, smores, grilled cheese. Great helpers. Stargazing.

I think “Mostly packed” refers to the fact that I wasn’t quite done packing the car the night before. As for those medical reasons, I think there was a UTI involved. (I’m a dad of girls. There are lots of UTIs.) As for the podcasts, most were episodes of 99% Invisible, one of my favorite podcasts. It’s all about design in its various forms, and the storytelling is so good that it makes great listening on road trips. (Try “Ten Thousand Years” or “Vexillonaire” or “U.T.B.A.P.H.” to get a sense of the awesomeness.) And that guitar building? That was our little bit of Roadside America on the drive to Virginia, an abandoned guitar store shaped very much like a guitar.

We reached Shenandoah National Park just before sunset. Skyline Drive, which runs for about a hundred miles north-south through the park, may be the prettiest drive I’ve ever taken. The trees, the views of the mountains, the setting sun… it was beautiful. We couldn’t stop and take too many photos, however, since we needed to get to our campsite before dark to set up the tent. We had lost almost an hour earlier in the day with our “adventures in firewood,” since the gas station that advertised firewood was all out and we had to find a local Walmart instead. I recall having a rookie cashier, too, who got really confused when I paid cash and cost us another ten minutes. The firewood worked, however, and the girls I were able to have hot dogs, grilled cheese, and s’mores for dinner. The girls were incredible helpers, working with me to get the tent set up in the almost-dark and helping me gather kindling for the fire. We didn’t settle down to eat until well after sunset, but we were camping, and we loved it!

And later that night, we took a trail to a clearing and looked up to see the night sky. The real night sky, with thousands of stars, far away from the lights of the city. The girls had never seen that before, and they were amazed. I’m so glad I got to share that with them.

2. Windy night. More great helpers. Oatmeal, coffee, smores. Goofing off with marshmallows. Packing up the campsite. Souvenirs. Frazier Discovery trail. Great views, Appalachian Trail, forest puppies. Picnic lunch. Drive to D.C.  More podcasts. First experience of D.C. Airbnb and Roya. Parallel parking. Smells like camping. Sleeping Queens. First ride on the Metro. “Lily” sandwich.  Quick dinner. White House, just in time. Lafayette Square and the hunt for Lafayette. McDonalds. Back to the apartment. Crash.

Day 2 was a full one, starting out with a relaxing morning around the campfire after a very windy night in the tent. (Thanks, Emily, for letting me borrow your tent and cots!) Once again, the girls jumped right into camping, helping to start the fire and make breakfast and thoroughly roasting some leftover marshmallows. I love slow mornings while camping, enjoying the cool air while your body wakes up. Our morning involved seeing a deer walk right by our campsite, which amazed the 9-year-old. The 13-year-old started calling deer “forest puppies” (the deer were on the small side), a joke she riffed on later during our hike along the Frazier Discovery Trail. It was an easy hike, but a beautiful one, with some stunning views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We even hiked the Appalachian Trail for like a 500 yards, as it met up with the Frazier trail for a bit. That was a first for me! And I was grateful for the outside time before our week of city exploration.

After a picnic lunch at the park, we drove the last few hours to DC, arriving in the late afternoon. I’m not sure if the girls had driven through such an urban environment. They loved it, remarking on all the different architecture and different people they saw as we navigated to our Airbnb. With a little help from our host, Roya, I was able to parallel park my Santa Fe right in front of her brownstone. Luckily, we were just a couple of metro stops from all the museums and monuments, so I was able to leave my car there the rest of the week. Our Airbnb was a basement apartment, just perfect for us with a bed for each of us. We took a little time to unpack, noting that everything pretty much smelled like camping. And maybe we played a round of Sleeping Queens, given what my notes say? I don’t remember that.

I do remember our first ride on the metro, however. I’m pretty sure it was the 9-year-old’s first ever ride on a subway, and it was sweet how protective the 13-year-old was of her. She decided that when getting on and off subway cars, we should make sure the the 9-year-old was between us. That way, if the doors closed and we got separated, she wouldn’t be left alone. (Evidence that my teenager is an Enneagram 6.) So we used the “Lily sandwich” strategy (except we used her actual name) the rest of the trip, on the metro and getting in and out of Ubers. We had a quick dinner at some chain restaurant, since we didn’t have time to search for something more local, then made tracks over to the White House just before dark. I wanted to get in at least one solid photo op our first day in DC, and the 13-year-old desperately wanted to see the Lafayette statue in Lafayette Square next to the White House because she was in full Hamilton mode that summer. We were both successful!

And a bit later, we were all thankful for McDonald’s for a late night snack and potty break on the way back to the Airbnb, since all the other restaurants in that part of DC had closed. We walked a lot that night, since the metros weren’t running in favorable directions for us and I hadn’t yet decided to Uber around, so we crashed hard when we got to the Airbnb, given all the city walking and trail hiking we had done that day.

3. Slow start. National Archives. Nic Cage jokes. Guess the immigrant. Parents. Gift shop strike one. Hot dogs. Sculpture garden. Mall. Trapeze artists. Something cold. Newseum. Photographer game. Reading the news. First dogs. Great views. Not enough about the news. Gift shop strike two. Starbucks. Lily’s first Uber. Vietnam Memorial. Lincoln Memorial. MLK Memorial. FDR Memorial. Gift shop strike three. Ella’s pizzas. Beautiful night. Back to the apartment.

Thanks to a pre-trip viewing of National Treasure and a visit to the National Archives, Day 3 was full of Nicolas Cage jokes. The Archives were impressive, with a grand setting for the founding documents of the US and a solid set of museum activities exploring other documents, including a “guess the immigrant” game featuring immigration papers for families whose children went on to be very famous. “Gift shop strike one” in my notes refers to the 9-year-old not finding anything just right to purchase in the Archives gift shop. (Evidence that my second child is an Enneagram 1.)

After some hot dogs from a food truck, we made our way over to the National Mall, enjoying some amazing art in the Smithsonian’s outdoor sculpture garden. At this point in my art appreciation career, I know a few sculpture artists, and I can distinguish between a Calder and a di Suvero! (I think I might have enjoyed the sculpture garden a little more than the girls did.) The Mall was gearing up for some big festival, and we stumbled upon some trapeze artists practicing for a show. It was neat to see that particular activity so close up. We also took a ride on the antique carousel on the Mall, which was fun, but can I say that it’s a little sad that the girls have outgrown carousels? They used to be one of the 9-year-old’s favorite things. Now she’s too big.

Our second indoor stop of the day was the Newseum, a museum that explores the First Amendment and, well, the news. We really enjoyed the Newseum exhibits, but I wish we had spent a little more time in the room that explored the history of journalism in America. It wasn’t as interactive as some of the other exhibits, and the girls were a little restless. But, they really enjoyed getting to read the news on green-screen TV, and they loved the exhibit about First Dogs: pets of the presidents. There was a fantastic exhibit of prize-winning journalism photography, but I had to skip most of that, because the 9-year-old found too many of the images disturbing. The Newseum definitely has good exhibits for both kids and adults, but I found it hard to do both in one visit. And the 9-year-old struck out at the gift shop again, still not finding the perfect souvenir. We did, however, get a great #3ofus photo on the rooftop of the Newseum, which has amazing views of the Capitol building.

Day 3 also set the pattern for future days in DC. We visited a couple of museums in the morning, then took a break at Starbucks, then Ubered over to a memorial or two. Hitting the museums during the day was necessary, since they all closed at 4 or 5, and it saved us from some of the heat. The memorials, on the other hand, were open all night and were a little more enjoyable in the cooler evenings. On Day 3, after the 9-year-old’s first Uber (and another “Lily sandwich”), we visited a bunch of memorials, all in a line on or near the National Mall: Vietnam, Lincoln, MLK, and FDR. All of them were profound, but the FDR Memorial is my favorite in DC. It’s laid out like a small park, with a path that leads you through the memorial. As you walk the path, you encounter statues and quotes that tell the story of FDR’s life and work. It’s experiential and narrative in a way that the other memorials aren’t. The 9-year-old struck out at the gift shop again, however this time it was because we didn’t get there before it closed. We consoled ourselves with really fantastic pizza and a leisurely stroll to our metro stop on a beautiful summer DC evening!

4. Liking the apartment. Earlier start. Metro pros. Spy Museum. Cover stories. Scavenger hunt. Epic gift shop. She decides to collect pins. Wonder Women. Dollar bill tshirt. Portrait Gallery, but just the atrium. Gift shop. National Building Museum. Wow! Wright, paper craft, architect annual report, that sculptor, the play area, House & Home. Big sister / good sport. Epic gift shop. Melissa at Starbucks. Is that her? Uber to Jefferson Memorial. Breathtaking. That smile. Jog to FDR gift shop. Success! Uber to dinner, but Founding Farmers packed. Bobby’s Burger Palace. Walk, metro home. Unpleasant design. 13-hour day, but good spirits! More Wonder Women.

Yep, Day 4 was packed. We got an early start, and we felt like legit city-dwellers navigating all day by Metro and Uber. We hit two main museums on Day 4: the Spy Museum and the National Building Museum. I’ll let you guess which daughter picked which museum! I had been to the Spy Museum before and I knew it was a lot of fun. It’s not a museum that takes itself too seriously. For instance, there’s an entire floor devoted to James Bond films. And when you go in, you’re given a fun cover story to memorize and be tested on at a fake border control, to give you a spy experience. The museum also has a scavenger hunt for younger kids, which gives them very specific things to look for in the exhibits. I think it held up to all our expectations. I certainly had fun photographing World War II encryption machines! (I teach a course on cryptography at Vanderbilt.)

The National Building Museum, on the other hand, was new to me, and I was worried it might be too dry for the kids. It is, after all, a museum about buildings. But it was a highlight of the trip, for me and for the 9-year-old / future architect. They had an exhibit featuring giant-size line drawings of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings that you could color with dry erase markers. There was an exhibit about how single-family home construction has evolved over two hundred years, with amazing cutaway scale models. There were multiple rooms full of vintage paper crafts, commercially available kits that created scale models of buildings and other objects out of nothing but paper. (Constructing and decorating rooms for her Barbie-size dolls is pretty much how the 9-year-old spends all her free time after school every day.) And a giant room with all kinds of kid-friendly building materials, like Lincoln Logs, to play with. The 9-year-old could have spent all day in that room! And, bless her heart, the 13-year-old was a real trooper, even though her interest level in architecture is about 2 out of 10.

Both museums had really amazing gift shops. At the Spy Museum, the 13-year-old spent some of her trip allowance on a t-shirt with that creepy pyramid / floating eye thing from the one dollar bill, and the 9-year-old picked up Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Innovators, and Trailblazers Who Changed History. She can’t resist a collection of biographies about women who did awesome things. And, after a day of gift shop failure, the 9-year-old also had an epiphany at the Spy Museum gift shop: she decided to collect pins. Almost every gift shop has them, they’re reasonably priced, and they’re super-portable. I breathed a sigh of relief at this. I knew our souvenir shopping would get way less stressful. The gift shop at the National Building Museum was great, too. A little pricier, but we spent an awful long time browsing all the architecture and design wares.

Other highlights of Day 4: lunch in the stunning atrium of the National Portrait Gallery, along with a photo shoot (by me) during which the girls kept cracking each other up; meeting up with my college friend Melissa who lives in DC, preceded by a very silly game of “Is that her?” involving asking that question of literally everyone who walked by the Starbucks; really fantastic burgers at Bobby’s Burger Palace, a burger joint developed by Bobby Flay; and some fun / concern spotting unpleasant design around DC, like benches built with a slope so that homeless people can’t sleep on them, inspired by our listening to a 99% Invisible podcast on that topic on the way to DC. My personal highlight, however, was the smile on the 9-year-old’s face as we stood in front of the Thomas Jefferson statue at the Jefferson Memorial. The light was beautiful, there was a cool breeze, she had had a really great day, and she was just so happy to be seeing something impressive she’d never seen before. That moment made the trip for me.

She went to bed that night reading her new Wonder Women book. She’s the best.

5. Three showers! Capitol by 8. Well-dressed 20somethings. Disappointing tour. Marsha Blackburn’s office. Leo. Back to Capitol. House gallery. Lunch. Senate gallery. Tunnel to Library of Congress. TJ’s library. National Treasure. Walk to the Mall. Air and Space. Amelia Earhart. Margaret Priester. Epic gift shop. Gelato. Folklife festival. Washington Monument. Scooter family. Uber to Lafayette. Mysterious closure. Grilled cheese. No concerts. Motorcade. Back to apartment. Crash.

Day 5 was our scheduled tour of the US Capitol. We were pumped. And, somehow, we managed to get to the Capitol by 8am for our scheduled tour while managing pre-breakfast showers for all three of us! Walking from the Metro stop to the Capitol, I was reminded of just how many well-dressed 20somethings there are in DC, all hoping to make a difference and/or a lot of money. The tour, however, turned out to be a bust. I had made the mistake of signing up for a Capitol tour through my senator’s office, and I was given the 30-minute, large-group tour that only visits a couple of rooms. They were pretty awesome rooms, but all three of us were disappointed not to see the chambers where Congress meets, or to have a well-dressed 20something tour guide entertain us with fun stories about interning in DC. After inquiring about ways to go on the awesome tours, I was directed to the office of Marsha Blackburn, our congressional representative. I can’t say I agree with almost any of her politics, but Marsha Blackburn’s office staff was top notch. Thanks, Leo, for being such a great host and getting us tickets for the awesome tour!

After seeing both chambers of Congress (neither of which were being used by Congress-people at the time) and being entertained by a well-dressed 20something with fun stories about interning in DC, we grabbed lunch at the Capitol and took the underground tunnel to the Library of Congress. Note: Do visit the Capitol if you’re in DC. The statuary is really fascinating (each state gets to send statues of two famous state residents, and the selections are often surprising), and I had a moment when I sat in the chambers that I had seen so often on C-SPAN. Just be sure to talk to your representative, not your senator, to get tour tickets! I’ll recommend the Library of Congress, too. We made it a quick stop, but there was lots to see, including that big room where Nic Cage looks stuff up in National Treasure and (our highlight) Thomas Jefferson’s personal library. Most of it, anyway.

By this time it was mid-afternoon and crazy hot. And we had a fairly long walk from the Library of Congress to the Mall. Our destination was the only Smithsonian museum on our must-visit list: the Air and Space Museum. It’s full of incredible planes and satellites and rockets, but it was so, so busy. We ended up spending most of our time in the less popular exhibits, like the one about airplanes and barnstormers in the first half of the 20th century. The 9-year-old was good with this, since it meant more exhibits about Amelia Earhart. (As I mentioned, she’s into biographies of women who did cool stuff.) She couldn’t believe her eyes when we saw Earhart’s Lockheed Vega 5B, the bright-red plane she flew across the Atlantic in 1932, becoming the first woman to make that flight solo. I have a daughter who really, really enjoys museums. Meanwhile, I was pleasantly surprised to run into a friend from high school, Margaret Priester, who was visiting the Air and Space Museum with her family! I hadn’t seen her in more than 20 years! It’s a small world, sometimes.

On Day 5, we traded our afternoon Starbucks for some gelato at the folklife festival on the National Mall. (Apparently, trapeze artists are now part of American folklife.) Then we walked to our monument for the later afternoon: the Washington one. It’s definitely impressive, and I’m glad that it wasn’t under construction in such a way that prevented us from walking right up to it. No elevator service, however. I’m not sure if people have been able to go up in the Washington Monument since 9/11. It was another sunny, breezy afternoon in DC, and we enjoyed hanging out and photographing the monument from various angles. Then, suddenly, the 13-year-old called out, “Scooters!” See, during our three days of walking all over DC, she had repeatedly made the case that we should have brought razor scooters with us. That way, we could scoot around town, without getting all tired from walking. Every single time she brought this up, I would roll my eyes at the idea. And, yet, there on the courtyard surrounding the Washington Monument was a family — mom, dad, two kids — all on scooters. And they seemed to be having a great time.

Between that moment of justification and the long walk down the hill from the monument to meet our Uber, the 13-year-old came up with an idea: Scuber. It’s like Uber for scooters. Open the app, summon a scooter, and ride where you like. She was a little vague on how the scooter would get to where you are, but she was certainly on to something with her business idea. I wondered aloud if the new service would be limited to urban environments. What if you were in a national park and needed a ride? That led to her next big idea: Ubear. It’s like Uber for bears. Open the app, summon a bear, and ride where you like.

Surprisingly, there weren’t any Fourth of July concerts in DC on the Friday night before the Fourth of July, so we had to be content with dinner at a grilled cheese restaurant. It was great, except for the part where a pigeon tried to steal the 9-year-old’s grilled cheese. She still doesn’t trust pigeons.

 

6. Up early. Backyard. Packing. On the road. Udvar-Hazy! Discovery! Traffic. Giant frog. Potato chips. Traffic. Passing on the right. So many podcasts. No ponies. Cracker Barrel. Trex gravy.  Home after midnight. Whew.

Our last day! I got up a little early and took a moment to drink coffee in the backyard of our little Airbnb. Then we packed up and hit the road. As I mapped out our drive back to Nashville, I realized we had a few hours to make stops along the way, so I checked our list. Multiple friends had recommended the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum’s annex, the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Having grown up going to the Air and Space Museum on the National Mall, I was a little skeptical of some secondary facility, but I figured it would be worth an hour stop. Little did I know how incredibly incredible the Udvar-Hazy Center was! It was huge, like four or five times the size of the Air and Space Museum on the Mall, and it was packed with all kinds of aircraft. I couldn’t believe my eyes! We spent way more than an hour there, and maybe saw half of it. The highlight for this child of the 80s was the space shuttle Discovery. An actual space shuttle! Right there! I was so glad we made the stop. So, friends, you were right: the Udvar-Hazy Center is even better than the museum on the Mall.

Having used up most of our free hours at the Udvar-Hazy Center, we spent most of the rest of the day driving. We did, however, fit in a photo op with a statue of a giant farmer frog, which Roadside America tells me is sadly no longer there. And, later in the day, when we were looking for a late lunch stop, we found our way to the Route 11 potato chip factory. We had never heard of Route 11 chips, but we were happy to get a tour of the factory and see how potato chips are made. Our guide was enthusiastic and informative, and the factory tour made for the perfect pit stop. Plus, we got really fresh potato chips to take with us. I had never had potato chips less than a day old. They were awesome, and we ate most of our three bags on the drive back to Tennessee!

The rest of the drive went smoothly, except for all the pre-Fourth of July traffic. Apparently, people in Virginia drive really slowly in the left lane and are, consequently, terrible drivers. Also, we got to southwestern Virginia too late in the day to stop at Grayson Highlands State Park, famed for its wild ponies. We’ll have to go back. There’s an apple butter festival at Shenandoah State Park, where we camped on the way to DC, every September, so we have good reasons to visit Virginia again. Next time, there will be six of us! As excited as I am about that, I’m really glad I took this vacation with the girls in 2017, one last epic trip for the three of us before life changed. I’m also glad I married someone who loves to take trips like this. Our spring break road trip this year to Montana and back felt natural for all six of us, thanks to all the adventuring Emily and I did before meeting each other. I’m grateful for all the memories I’ve made with the girls, and all the memories I’m making with our new family.