The trip to Washington: Went fairly well Sunday....departed Michigan a little before 8:30 am and landed at the hotel just after 6 pm. Nothing spectacular to report about the trip; I guess the most outstanding thing was that we're staying at a Residence Inn and due to our residual 'gold' status on my account from the timeshare purchase we received an upgrade from our 1 bedroom suite to a 2 bedroom suite, which, will go a long way towards making this week go easier.
Monday: Started the day with breakfast at the RI; they do a good breakfast, not the continental deal at most hotels, but, hot eggs, sausage, pancakes....the boys do well here so paying the extra money sometimes to stay at a RI is worth it.
View on our walk to the Capitol
Christopher and Dad in front of the Grant MemorialWalked over to the Cannon House Building to the offices of our Congressman (Rogers, the 8th district in Michigan) and went on a tour of the Capitol guided by one of his staff. And that was good, but, a little weird. I wonder if we would have learned more doing the regular tour with the big group but able to have the audio tour and listening.....I wonder if we would have been able to enter the House Chambers if we weren't on the tour...our tour guide, Lauren, couldn't take us into the Senate Chambers because, she, working in a House office, didn't have access. It was nice being in a smaller group, but, Lauren hadn't done the tour in a while, and didn't have the answers to relatively easy questions at times. Oh well. We're glad we were one of the first tours from the House buildings....we walked right into the Capitol but the tours that had started later were stuck in a long long line. The BBS (Boys Behavior Scale) was a measly 4.....ok, it's the Capitol, and it's not expected to have appeal to Christopher and Matthew, but, the 4 is only because Christopher was a little angel...Matthew was a whiny terror and Kevin, strangely, wasn't nearly as interested or appreciative of where he was.
The family in as close as we'll ever get to a good, posed, picture. Notice Matthew already trying to screw things up.
A much more typical family pose. Kevin, whether enjoying the subject matter more, or responding to his parent's commentary about how he was going to get the most out of the trip after his rather poor performance at the Capitol, really took his time going through the ASM, particulary enjoying the meterology/satellites sections and the WWII aviation section. The real highlight for Kevin was the trip through the full-motion flight simulator...he was the pilot, I was the gunner, and I took great pains to tell him that upside-down rolls should be held to a minimum. We only rolled twice, but the shoulder harness only keeps your head and torso in place, my legs would end up bent over the harness on the ceiling/floor, and I'd be yelling "KEVINNNNNNN!" and he'd be laughing.
BBS: A solid 8.
Dinner: Went to the ESPNZone.....service was really really slow, and the games were ridiculously priced and expensive, but, the boys all responded that this was the best restaurant ever, so, I guess it couldn't have been that bad.
what happens when you let a boy near a camera
times two
