We traveled down to some friends of mine in McClean, VA (Scott and Jin) who had two kids of their own (Alex and Allison) with a third on the way. I don't know why they felt having 3 more kids in their house was a good idea, but all I can guess is they were doing research with our visit on what their life would be like when their Thing 3 arrives.
I picked up Molloy at pre-school and the boys at post-pre-school (which I guess is "school") and took my assigned spot in holiday traffic by about 1:30 in the afternoon. Google Maps' 5 hour and 10 minute trip actually took closer to 6 hours and we rolled into the Haag's house at 7:30, their dinnertime (known as "bedtime" in our house).
I picked up Molloy at pre-school and the boys at post-pre-school (which I guess is "school") and took my assigned spot in holiday traffic by about 1:30 in the afternoon. Google Maps' 5 hour and 10 minute trip actually took closer to 6 hours and we rolled into the Haag's house at 7:30, their dinnertime (known as "bedtime" in our house).
The kids all stayed up until about 10:00 pm, which naturally led them to waking up Daddy at 5:30 am to go downstairs and "watch a movie", but Daddy was not particularly in the mood at that hour to meet their needs. Eventually we all had breakfast and we went to the National Air and Space museum which was a giant hangar with quite a collection of airplanes, including a Space Shuttle...if you count the Enterprise as an actual shuttle. (For those keeping score, the Enterprise was the first prototype, but never flew into space.)
We saw quite a collection of airplanes including the Enola Gay, a Yankee Clipper, a Spitfire, and a Japanese Baka. The Japanese Baka was a kamikaze plane that was not much more than a human being strapped onto a winged bomb and dropped from an airplane with the assignment to simply glide into its target. (How do you explain that to your 9- and 8-year old?) I never knew they existed but am happy to know that we have evolved as a race where we would no longer fly airplanes into things or strap bombs to our bodies...right?
Japanese Baka
We saw quite a collection of airplanes including the Enola Gay, a Yankee Clipper, a Spitfire, and a Japanese Baka. The Japanese Baka was a kamikaze plane that was not much more than a human being strapped onto a winged bomb and dropped from an airplane with the assignment to simply glide into its target. (How do you explain that to your 9- and 8-year old?) I never knew they existed but am happy to know that we have evolved as a race where we would no longer fly airplanes into things or strap bombs to our bodies...right?
Japanese Baka
There was a group of German planes off in a corner with swastikas painted prominently on the tails. While Lev loudly expressed his knowledge of Nazis and swastikas like any normal 9-year old could (he is turning out to be quite a war buff), I tried desperately to explain the technology of the Stealth Fighter by placing my index finger over my lips and letting out a repeated, "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!".
I gave the kids the option of the Flight Simulator ride or the IMAX movie, both at extra cost of course, and Lev proudly chose the IMAX movie about fighter pilots; comfortable that his choice would last half an hour while Daniel's choice of the Flight Simulator would last only "20 seconds".
Another late night and now the kids really slept in late...until 6:30 am.
After breakfast we took the train into the city to go to the International Spy Museum. I expected the entrance to be modeled after the opening credits of Get Smart (http://videosift.com/video/Get-Smart-Opening-Sequence) but was bitterly disappointed. My favorite exhibit was being able to crawl through ductwork while narrowly dodging bullets fired from the machine guns of evil henchmen that left steaming holes in the ductwork metal only inches from where we crawled. OK, there were no bullets, but we did get to shimmy through the ductwork and listen in on "secret conversations". The kids seemed to love that. At one point Molloy had gone missing and I eventually found her in the ductwork. How many parents can say that?
After several hours of educating our children on the exciting benefits of lying, cheating, sneaking, and keeping secrets we found ourselves in the gift shop where I told them I was buying a lie detecting machine so they shouldn't dare try to put anything they learned into practice just yet
Lev got a Spy Case filled with $17 dollars of useful spy gear (or what I would call "useless spy gear"), Daniel got a $12 telescope that allowed him to see around corners and over walls, and Molloy got the traditional nose-and-glasses disguise kit (yes, she even looks cute in that). At least this time they purchased things that had to do with the place they visited.
Later that night Molloy complained that the moustache on her fake nose was bothering her so I cut it shorter with a scissors, not realizing until later that I now have a son who spews knowledge of the Nazi party and a daughter who looks like Hitler. (Was that Predator drone at the Air and Space Museum an exhibit or was it monitoring my parenting?)
We took the Haag's out for breakfast the next morning as compensation for damages and emotional distress and then trudged 8 hours back to Connecticut, including a "triple poop stop" in Maryland and dinner somewhere in New Jersey.
We took the Haag's out for breakfast the next morning as compensation for damages and emotional distress and then trudged 8 hours back to Connecticut, including a "triple poop stop" in Maryland and dinner somewhere in New Jersey.
