Greetings once again from our nation’s capital, where today we were paid a special surprise visit from an old friend we haven’t seen for quite a while: The sun! Yes, let’s hear it for the sun, giver of life, mother of all things; when it goes, we all go. And it’s been missing for a while, hidden beneath a thick layer of clouds and humidity for most of our vacation. But it did pick a WONDERFUL time to visit us this afternoon, just as we headed off for a long-ish walk between two museums. Sun ☀️, your timing is impeccable as always.

SO: Let’s talk about a fun SUN-day. (I know you saw what I did there…)

What is the meal most closely associated with the seventh day of the week? That’s right, it’s America’s favorite meal, brunch! And there’s no better place to get brunch in D.C. than Emily’s old neighborhood, which is home to Eastern Market. This is a great collection of vendors: Think swap meet/flea market/farmers market/just about anything you could think of market, which takes place every weekend in both an outdoor and indoor space. The indoor space is open Tuesday through Sunday. The outdoor space is more of a weekend thing, with streets and streets lined with booths of individual vendors of all types: Mackie found the dress of her dreams, and Daphne scored a great new handbag/carrying purse thing that she was super excited about.

But for me, the real fun stuff was inside, where on the menu today were delicious brunch items from Market Lunch, a D.C. tradition since 1978. DAMN IT WAS GOOD FOOD!! This was another big win for Emily, who has delivered hit after hit on the food stops of this trip. Yay, Emily! Among us, we had pancakes, Johnny cakes, delightful eggs Benedict, a breakfast sandwich, and some stacked French toast. TRIPLE YUM!

A girl who is about to eat five delicious things…

After Eastern Market, we hopped back on the Metro to visit the National Archives, home to America’s founding documents. There is something special about standing in a room with an original copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. I don’t care how cynical you are about this country, those three documents have proved so monumental historically that you cannot help but feel a bit awed. In fact, if that wasn’t enough, the museum also has an original copy of the Magna Carta downstairs! Wow! All in all, you’re looking at a pretty inspiring trip through Western governing philosophies of the last, oh, seven centuries.

So after checking all that stuff out, along with a great exhibition in the Lawrence O’Brien Gallery featuring unforgettable photographs of coal miners from the 1940s, why not head across the street to view the original Star-Spangled Banner? Yes, the very flag that flew over Fort McHenry to inspire Francis Scott Key is on display at the National Museum of American History. So other than the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the actual Star-Spangled Banner, what is there left to see when it comes to that type of thing? I mean, at that point, you’ve really cleared out the category… so you might as well move on to some fun stuff, like Prince’s guitar, or a Jackie Kennedy dress, or any one of about one trillion other things they have on display which are instantly identifiable icons of American popular culture over the last 200 years.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life…”

We also learned the hard way that while the National Museum of American History remains open until 5:30 PM, the Smithsonian ain’t Disneyland, and they close the gift shops at 5:20 PM. Unlike the mouse, who will drain you for every dollar you’re willing to spend, the fine folks at the Smithsonian apparently figure, hey, they’ve got enough money. Forewarned is forearmed, though, and if you’re looking to hit the gift shops at a Smithsonian museum and plan on doing it on your way out the door, I suggest avoiding that, lest you burst into tears and run away screaming as one poor little visitor did upon being told by the guard that no, it was too late for him to get the souvenir I imagine his parents had been promising him all day. Note to the Smithsonian people: This is a bad policy, and it left many people today with a bad taste in their mouths as they walked out the front door. You really should fix that…

For us, it was off to our next stop on this day of adventure, which took us to an Ethiopian restaurant in Northeast D.C. called Ethiopic. The food was pretty good; well, I should say the part of our order they remembered to bring to the table was pretty good. The part that got forgotten about? We have no idea. A reminder though that Ethiopian food can be very spicy! I’m not gonna point fingers, but there was someone in our party who may have … reacted poorly (from a gastrointestinal standpoint) to the sudden ingestion of extremely spicy food. But don’t worry! Emily bounced back for our last adventure of the evening. (Yes, there still was more!)

Now this was something that started out as a miss, but turned into a huge hit. The National Symphony Orchestra was playing a concert tonight on the front steps of the Capitol. So I figured, it must be just like the inauguration, you can just sit back on the lawn of the Mall all the way down as far as you want, and they’ll pipe the music down there, and you can enjoy a nice leisurely holiday listen.

This was not the case. I should’ve been clued into it when I saw the news release that indicated the doors opened at 3:00 PM for an 8:00 PM concert. I guess this is a bit of a thing! We had no idea, so when we moseyed over around 8:30 PM to catch the last hour or so, we were turned away by an apologetic security guard, who said that they had long ago stopped letting people in because it was just too full. Oops! But you know what? We decided to have fun anyway, and proceeded to have an amazing evening on the other side of the Capitol! There, we found just a few people, a few guards, and not much else! Just a few other folks like us, sitting around, taking photos, basically having a lot of the place to ourselves. It was kind of amazing there really weren’t that many people on the back side of the Capitol, and you could get right up close to the back steps no problem. So we did!

The United States Capitol building, lit up on a gorgeous September 1, 2024.

We also did some goofy photo poses (of course), but mainly, we just kind of sat there and bathed in the glow of the light of the Capitol Dome. Before we knew it, we had spent about 45 minutes of quality time hanging out in the presence of one of America’s truly inspiring national landmarks! Turns out, this is a pretty fun thing to do on a Sunday night at 9:00 PM.

The Capitol at night. Highly recommended!

The girls’ version of the Capitol … at night! Keep working on it…

And since it was so much fun, we decided to head across the street to re-create the scene at the Supreme Court. This was a building we hadn’t gotten too close to so far on our travels, so again, we took advantage of the opportunity to just hang out on the front steps for a half hour. Lots of photos, lots of fun, and even fewer people around. Night monument visits pretty much rock!

‘What? You took rights away from little ole’ ME?? Oh, you shouldn’t have…”

Not pictured: A Sherman Oaks man trying EXTREMELY HARD not to let his fingers do some “freedom of speech” about recent Supreme Court rulings.

And with that, another fun-filled day in D.C. had come to an end! Tomorrow: Air! Space! Museums! And more… We can’t wait to see what our last full day in DC will bring.

We’ll give the last word to Mackie, for tonight’s sign off…