Who'da Thought

Most American families, in visiting our Nation's Capital, plan way too much into a few short days. As a result, they become tired, crabby, and unfit for pleasant companionship. We are no different.
On Saturday, we visited the Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, and Museum of Natural History.
Yesterday, we visited the Museum of American History, National Gallery, and the National Archives.
The Museum of American History (and Technology -- they seem to have augmented their name!) seemed promising for holding the attention of a fickle eleven-year old. She is "into" computers now and we had read that it had quite a display tracking all the computers and how they developed. Unbeknownst to us, it is closing in two short weeks for a three year renovation. And, apparently, they begin shutting down this display and that one as they prepare to close the museum altogether. All told, less than half this venerable museum was open for display and turned out to be a bitter disappointment At one point, Little One was racing through an exhibit searching for anything computer, with her poor old harried gparents madly chasing her so no one would grab her in our absence. By the time we caught up to her and had quite a loud chat about running away from us, NOBODY was happy. Ruby slippers did not help. Nor did Kermit the Frog, the famous old dollhouse, or the Star Spangled Banner. We all were disappointed.
A short trip to the National Gallery was just that – short, as her attention was short to match. As we were leaving, DH turned to me and said, "Next time we come here, we’ll send her to camp first."
In an effort to please somebody in the group, I suggested we go to the National Archives next, as it was the one place DH had expressed a desire to visit. LO perked up at this suggestion as she really wanted to see the Declaration of Independence.

I've been to Washington several times and had never visited the National Archives before. It seemed to me to be a dusty collection of boring old papers. We stayed over three hours and left only because they were closing the building down. It was by far the best experience we’ve had, -- and we have really had many, yesterday notwithstanding – and LO was thrilled to actually see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The security guards were downright personable as they described to us the $5million vaults housing the documents.
The remainder of the Archives was fascinating as well, with the telephone-like devices we used narrating the stories behind each display. Each of us had one and moved independently throughout the exhibits, although always within sight of each other.
In the shop, LO especially wanted her very own copy of the Declaration of Independence, and bought one for her GF as well. Dollhouses, schmollhouses. Ruby Slippers – bah. Declaration of Independence. That’s the real stuff. Who’da thought???
As we left last night, I remarked to a guard that it was the best museum we’ve seen yet.
Now we are getting ready to take the subway downtown for our tour of the Capitol.