Washington DC - fourth week - Nick

3/24/17

Today we had cereal for breakfast. We were planning on going to I-Hop for breakfast, but mom wasn’t feeling good so we decided to wait until another day. Then we went to the African American History Museum. I did not find the museum very interesting except for one exhibit. The sports exhibit. It was about Jessie Owens, who won four gold Olympic medals, Jackie Robinson, and lots of other people. One thing I didn’t know was that Jackie Robinson wasn’t the first black MLB player. Before the Civil War, started, there were black MLB players and after that they re-segregated sports, so Jackie Robinson wasn’t the first black MLB player. The rest of the museum I did not find very interesting. We stayed at the museum until 7:00. Then we went back to the camper. I saw Sean playing outside so I went over for a while and played again. Finally we had shepherd’s pie for dinner.

Helicopter exhibit at the Marine Corps Museum

3/25/17

Yesterday we had pancakes for breakfast. Pancakes are my favorite breakfast food in the world. Then we went to the Marine Corps museum. It was really interesting. We went to all kinds of exhibits, like the World War I, World War II, Vietnam, Korean, and the Cold War Exhibit. I liked all of them a lot. I saw lots of weapons like grenades, machine guns, flame throwers, muskets, rifles, and pistols, and swords. I also learned that the Marines were usually first to attack. We also went to the Boot Camp exhibit. It was all about what Marines had to do and how they were treated in Boot Camp. They had to do really hard training exercises, rope courses, hand to hand combat, and lots of other stuff. They also got treated really harshly. They were always getting yelled at.

After the museum, I went over and played with Sean again. We played football. I did not get to stay very long because Sean was going over to his grandparents’ house for the weekend. Then we had shrimp for dinner and watched Iron Man. I forgot to mention we got special souveniers because my Uncle Ryan was in the Marines. We got dog tags.

USMC Museum souvenir

  

3/26/17

Yesterday we went to I-Hop for breakfast. I-Hop is the international house of pancakes and I love pancakes, so I had to go there. I got a thing called Build Your Own Breakfast and you get 3 pancakes, two eggs, bacon or sausage (I got sausage), and hashbrowns. Everything was delicious. After that we went to Great Falls National Park. The line to get in was over a mile long. It was slightly downhill and it was moving so slow that my Dad turned the engine off. When we had to move he let go of the brake and we glided down as far as we needed to go and then he hit the brake again. By the time we got into the park it was 12:45. The park was really neat. There were lots of hiking trails that we hiked on for a while. Some of them led to places where you could see the waterfalls. The water was moving really fast. We guessed 20 mph. We saw some trick kayakers who were kayaking down the waterfalls. We also saw someone fishing and two people were rock climbing. There were some really nice people who set up a tight rope and they let us try tightroping. I was not very good and neither was Andi. Then we went home. Just for fun Andi and I set up a tent using two trees and a tarp. We had some help from Dad. Then we had chicken for dinner. We ate outside.

Walking on the slack rope

3/27/17

Folding the flag at Fort McHenry

Yesterday we slept in really late. Then I made eggs for breakfast. Everyone liked them. Then we went to Fort McHenry. That is where the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner was rose. When Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner he was with the British because he was getting an old friend out of prison. The British were fighting the Americans to get Fort McHenry and the battle lasted 25 hours. The Americans finally won and Francis Scott Key could see the American’s flag in the dawn’s early light! In the fort we saw the men’s rooms which had about 8 bunks and they slept 2 to a mattress. There were no tables, no dressers, just a fire. The commander’s rooms were a whole lot different. They had slaves to cook great meals for them, a bed for themselves, a fireplace, and a sink. After that we got to see a ranger lower the flag above the fort and put a new one up. I got to help fold the flag. It was huge. Then we came home and made homemade pizza for dinner. For dessert we had cone smores. Those are where you have a waffle cone and you put marshmallows and hersheys, reeses peanut butter cups, kit kats, and other chocolate in it. Then you wrap it in tin foil and put it in the coals of a fire. We didn’t have a fire, so we just put them in our toaster oven. They were so good.

Making S'more Cones 

 

3/28/17

Yesterday we went to the Arlington Cemetery. To get buried there you had to serve in the military in a time of war. There were graves as far as you could see. We saw the Eternity Flame which is a fire that they never let die. John F Kennedy is buried next to it. Thirty-eight people got buried in the Arlington Cemetery every day. We also saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is a memorial for the soldiers that died in battle and were not recovered. There is always a guard and the guards switch every hour. We got to see the guards switch. After the Arlington Cemetery we went back home. I saw Sean out again and I went over and played football with him. Then I came home and had dinner.

3/29/17

Yesterday we waited in line to get tickets to the Infinity Mirrors. The Infinity Mirrors are in the Hirshhorn Museum. We got tickets for 3:00. Next we went to the Ford Theater. That is where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. He got shot right by his left ear. He was shot by a pistol we also saw a play at the Ford Theater which was re-enacting the day Lincoln got shot. Then we got lunch at We the Pizza. I got two slices of pepperoni. It was delicious. Then we went back to the Infinity Mirrors. They were not very interesting in my opinion. They were just boxes with mirrors on all the sides. After the Infinity Mirrors we went to our camper. I saw Sean and his brother Andre playing outside. I went over and played football with the for awhile. We also invited Sean and his family to our camper for a campfire. We had smore cones with them on the fire. It was good. Then we said bye and went to bed.

  

3/29/17

Today it was Dad’s birthday so we all woke up before him and when he got out of bed we yelled “Happy Birthday Dad!” Andi and I made a card for Dad. Then we let Dad pick where he wanted to go and he picked the American History Museum. The two main exhibits we went to were the Revolutionary War exhibit and the Civil War exhibit. They were cool, but I didn’t really learn anything new because we are studying both those wars in home school. I did see the sword George Washington carried into battle which was cool. The handle looked like it was made out of emeralds, but I bet it wasn’t. After that we went to the store. Only Dad went in. he was picking out ice cream to have for his birthday and wanted it to be a surprise. We had leftovers for dinner and then dad showed us what kind of ice cream he got. He got Moose Tracks. It is a type of chocolate ice cream! It was delicious. Sean and his family weren’t home yet so we didn’t get to play with them tonight.

3/31/17

Yesterday we slept in late. We had cereal for breakfast and Mom had tons of work to do. When she was done it was lunch time. We had ravioli. Then we went to the Portrait Gallery. I did not think it was very cool, because it was just a bunch of paintings and sculptures, and I’m not a huge fan of art in the first place. One of the exhibits I found especially boring because the artist just drew a bunch of lines on an oil canvas and that was it. At the end of the exhibit there was a book where you could write what you thought about that exhibit and someone drew a box, put some lines through it and wrote, “I’m an artist too!” I thought that was pretty funny. After that we went geocaching. Geocaching is where you go on the geocaching website and pick one cache. There are 2 million caches all over the world. Then the website leads you to the cache you chose. Once you get there, there is a box or something you have to find. The one we found was magnetic and it was stuck to the bottom of an electrical box. Once you find the cache you open the box. There is a log book and you have to write down that you found the cache. After that there are toys and stuff you can take but to take a toy you have to put something back in. we went geocaching twice and we only found the cache once. Then we went home and I played football with Sean and his brother, Andre. Then we said bye because it is our last day in D.C. Then we came home and went to bed.