American History Museum

My goal is to go into downtown DC at least once a week while we are here so we can take in as many of the sights as possible. 

Yesterday (Friday) the boys and I made our downtown-trek-of-the-week.  We took the Metro to the Smithsonian's American History Museum. The trip was a MAJOR work-out...pushing 60ish pounds in a double stroller in the heat/humidity up and down hills, elevators, escalators, bus stops, and train stations...but well worth it. The museum was awesome and again, we'd have to go a few more times this summer just to see everything. We didn't even make it to the 2nd or 3rd floors, which is where the all the pop culture stuff is.  There was enough on the first floor alone to fill our afternoon with exploration and learning (and to sufficiently tire us out).   

Jonah was beside himself when he saw C3-PO's costume from Return of the Jedi right in the entryway of the museum. 

The hands-on children's Science Lab was fabulous and where we spent the bulk of our time - legos, gears, switches, magnets, blocks, marbles...they had it all.   

Then, we headed over to the Transportation exhibit where they had everything from trains and cars to motorcycles and pirate ships - a little boy's paradise. 

When we finished up at the museum, we walked down Constitution Ave from 12th to 4th where we met Steve at the Courthouse at the end of his work day.  He introduced us to the judge he is working for this summer and gave us a tour of the courtroom - fun stuff!  Jonah, of course, charmed the judge with his personality and had him laughing. 

  

It was a fun treat to be able to see Steve at the end of our day and I was VERY glad to have him helping me push that darn double stroller on the way back home! 

P.S.  A little update from my last post...On Thursday, we did indeed to go the park with neighbors.  The boys had so much fun playing with the other kids and I had a great time connecting with some other moms.  That afternoon, Mason (5) and Grant (2) from across the street came over to our house to play!  Jonah was sooo happy to have a friend over and he hasn't complained about going home since.  He's even got plans to play with Mason again tomorrow.