DAY 4 - FOUNDING DOCUMENTS AND FINDING FUN

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…

A wee people meets “We the People…”

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…

Hope for the future of America…

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…

DAY 3 - A Somber Day, a Celebratory Night

Hello again, dearest blog readers. It's your beloved Campbell family, reporting once again from our nation's capital. Let’s kick it off with a special end-of-day report from Mackie Su!

Hi! It's Mackie, coming to you from the hotel room! Today was yet another fun, but long day in Washington, D.C. We started with some museums in the morning and ended with sightseeing in the evening!

Tonight was the day we went on the Monuments at Night tour. It was super fun. We were able to easily see lots of the major D.C. monuments and buildings. Also, we have really lucked out on tour guides this trip. This tour was hosted by another fantastic tour guide! She was really funny and made sure we saw all the important (and sometimes not too important) things.

Thanks, Mack! You're absolutely right - we have been very lucky with tour guides.

Our day began on a somewhat somber, but incredibly important note: a visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum here in Washington. This was a rough visit, no doubt, because it hit so very close to home for our family. (Emily’s paternal grandparents were both survivors.) From finding names of villages that Emily had only heard stories about to seeing the horrors of war and persecution… Difficult, yes, but incredibly important. I'm so proud that as a family, we were all able to lean on each other to get through some of the rougher material. I know it doesn't need to be said, but we are obligated to "never forget." And we certainly will never forget our visit to this place of remembrance and loss… and hope for a better future.

After that somber start to the day, we were ready for something a little lighter. So we went to the center of the political universe: the White House!

It was the first time Colin had been there for many, many years. Strangely, it hadn't changed THAT much. For starters, it was still white. But it had been rebuilt since he saw it burned down in 1814. (These are jokes because daddy is old, says Mackie).

True, Mackie's east and west "wings" could be a little more parallel to the ground, but hey, A for effort!

Daphne continued to build her photography skills, and there's certainly few more photogenic buildings on which to practice. In pursuit of the perfect shot, it looks like Daphne means business!

Here you can certainly see Daphne's enthusiastic take on photo journalism...

... and the resulting photo!

Meanwhile, Mackie was a little more respectful of the rules ("It says not to touch the fence!")...

...and the resulting photos were perhaps more appropriate should the deposed former president retake the White House in 2025.

Then again, I do remain hopeful a future view of the disturbed, sex criminal convict ex-president will be between bars, as in the Mackie photos.

Oh, and it turns out the twice-impeached felon actually WAS in town yesterday, but not for a court appearance. (Darn.) No, his hate-filled orangeness was addressing the truly awful “Moms for Liberty” when we were tooling around. (Ugh - So I guess the theme of the last two days has been book burning and book burners?) Now, it turns out, we DID actually see some people wearing Moms for Liberty T-shirts yesterday, but had no idea the Orange Julius Caesar was talking to the Moms for Liberty convention. This likely explains the huge, somewhat mysterious traffic jam we ran into in the afternoon near the White House, which was close to his speaking location at the Marriott a few blocks away.

Anyhow, that's MORE than enough about that guy! Let's talk about some other politicians we witnessed up close, namely, statues near the White House honoring the Marquis de Lafayette and Rochambeau. You know what they say about D.C. - it's like watching "Hamilton" lyrics come to life!

"The code word is "Rochambeau", dig me? (Rochambeau!) You have your orders now, go, man, go!"

After enjoying the ambiance and street fair vibe on Pennsylvania Avenue for a bit, it was off to a late lunch/early dinner at a restaurant called Founding Farmers, suggested by loyal blog reader Julia. Thanks Julia! The restaurant was fantastic! We sampled a variety of artisanal foods (devil-ish eggs, prosciutto bread, ribs, cheeseburgers, fried chicken, pasta) and delicious desserts (apple pie and carrot cake plus an extraordinarily chocolatey milkshake). Daphne especially recommends the straw and hay pasta (no mushrooms!) which she declared truly spectacular.

After that, it was back to the room for a quick rest and recharge. Then we headed off for our nighttime D.C. monuments tour. We've written before about our enjoyment of the Big Bus system. Sure, it's touristy, but as the saying goes: When in Rome… or any other major city… go ahead and act like a tourist! And in fact, we did! The fact that we once again hit the jackpot in terms of tour guides, as Mackie mentioned previously, only added to the fun of the night. Bonus: At the end of a long day, there's very little walking involved in sitting on a bus for two hours. Now, that may sound boring, but trust me, it wasn't. Seeing all of D.C.'s most famous landmarks at night was really cool!

Our only stop on the trip was a 20-minute break at the Lincoln Memorial, where we were allowed to disembark and visit Honest Abe up close.

If you've never stood there, gazing up at the giant marble likeness of our 16th president, it's highly, highly recommended.

Also recommended: Performing your own living interpretation of the work.

Then we finished up the tour, and were back to the hotel room for a quick night's sleep. As always, we've got another day filled with fun planned for tomorrow, so we better start getting ready by getting some shut-eye!

We also wanted to say a special thank you to the readers who've sent in notes of encouragement and thanks. While we may not be able to respond to your note while we're on the road, know that they ARE read and very, very appreciated!

Good night!

DAY 2 - A Sprinkly Good Time

Hello again, dearest blog readers. I was told by a reader of the blog (Hi, Julia!) that this has been the most humid summer on record in the DC metro area, and I can confirm that the air was so full of moisture today, it felt like walking through sprinkler mist for most of the day. But yesterday’s heat finally went away, and at most times, it was quite pleasant? Kinda? Definitely not what we’re used to in SoCal!

It was a very busy day for the Campbell family here in our nation's capital, as we traveled to and fro the length of the National Mall thanks to the miracle that is the Big Bus tour. It's one of those touristy "Hop on, hop off" open air double decker buses that goes just about every place you'd want to. But it really worked for us today! That, combined with some excellent Metro usage, has made getting around DC a breeze.

Coincidentally, "a breeze" was felt by us often today, as we made extensive use of that open-air top deck of the Big Bus. Better for seeing monuments, and a nice cooling mist on the face, to boot! (Calling it rain is an insult to rain.) One of the best parts of it, though, was watching how much fun the girls were having with each other. Sitting up in the open air, most gentle light mist on their face, surrounded by the history and majesty of Washington DC. You could see it all day long… These girls were loving it!

Two girls loving their sprinkly tour day!

To back up a bit: We started the day with breakfast next-door to our hotel at the Corner Bakery. And from sitting at the Corner Bakery, we discovered you can actually see Union Station just up the street! Astute readers of this blog will notice that we did NOT walk this very short route between Union Station and our hotel yesterday, but instead took a moderately circuitous path which veered toward the backside of the US Capitol. Thankfully, future travel between our hotel and Union Station - home to both the Metro and the Big Bus - has been considerably shortened, as we now use this direct path when appropriate. (Which is, frankly, every time.)

And, dear blog readers, we must make a confession: It's time for the Campbell family to upgrade its photo game. We were determined to get a good photo in front of the Capitol, but are still kind of figuring out how to get all of us into a shot with a giant historical landmark in the background. We will be passing this DC icon many more times during this trip, and we're determined to make it happen.

Note: you can play "find the Mackie" in these photos - our beloved rule follower was determined not to step on the surrounding lawn, which was, it should be noted, immaculate.

For a while now, ever since Mackie really got into the TV show The West Wing a few years back, the girls have also worked up a routine where between the two of them, they pose together in order to represent a national monument or memorial. And so we've been trying to get them to do their poses in front of the actual landmarks. Here's their first attempt: doing the Capitol at the Capitol. More to come as we visit the monuments!

Meanwhile, we made our way down to the Capitol visitor center, and hopped onto a tour which Emily had pre-booked. We ended up with a tour guide named Douglas, who was absolutely fantastic. Friendly, knowledgeable, and they hand out these little headphones so you can hear him at all times. Which only makes sense: you don't want every tour guide shouting to their group everywhere.

As you may recall, the Capitol itself is filled with all manner of statues, as each state sends two, but Douglas seemed especially excited about the eminent arrival of a statue of Johnny Cash courtesy of the good folks of Arkansas. He's pushing for Minnesota to send in a purple statue of Prince; and should the new president of the Senate (Timmy!🤞) also hail from Minnesota, well, maybe that's more than just a (let's go) crazy dream.

There's also a really fun space down in the Exhibition Hall called the Democracy Lab. On the Capitol website, it says it's good for younger visitors, and we almost steered away because we thought it might be for really little kids. But it turned out our girls were exactly the right age for a fun series of activities that involved federal budget compromises, delivering public speeches, voting on an issue before Congress, etc. In fact, the girls each got a chance to write their own bill, submit it for amendments from the rest of the family, and finally put it up for a vote. Mackie's bill had to do with climate control in classrooms, no doubt inspired by GALA's slow start getting every room in its new location air conditioned in a timely fashion. Daphne's bill concerned protection for endangered species that help the environment, such as bees and certain types of spiders. Eventually Mackie realized she had proposed an unfunded government mandate, so she quickly wrote a second bill to address the funding gap. Now that's Democracy!

All in all, our pursuit of knowledge at the Capitol worked out very well.

Next stop for us: the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, where photos and videos are not allowed, naturally. But we did learn the truth about the seldom seen 2 dollar bills: Turns out, they're not collectible or special at all! As our guide related, the 2 dollar bill was not printed for about ten years from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, and that made everybody think that they were collectible or in some way worth more than the other bills. But as our tour guide, the very lovely, very funny Jeffrey told us, the truth is, they are printed every day, just like all the other bills! They print about as many two dollar bills as they do $50 bills on any given day. The bank is dying to give them away! In fact, Jeffrey told us, to this very day you can take one $10 bill into the bank and get five 2 dollar bills in return. That's a bargain! 😛 (Note: Jeffrey's next gig is likely to be Jungle Cruise skipper at a Disney resort, because that was the kind of tour he ran through the Bureau's byzantine printing process. A true highlight, and yet another in a long line of extremely friendly, extremely knowledgeable tour guides that we've really enjoyed hearing from during this trip.) You have to get tickets on one side of the building, then walk around the corner to the other side of the building to start the tour, and you can’t book in advance, but our advice? Check it out! You’ll see literally millions of dollars and the whole currency making process is pretty fascinating. (Time to update that 1990’s SD 4:3 video which kicks off the tour, though…)

Daphne’s 14th attempt at getting a good picture of the Washington Monument. There will be more.

We then hopped back on the bus and took the rest of the route through DC, and ended up back at Union Station and our hotel, a newly discovered super short walk away. At the hotel, we took a short break and prepped for our evening at the Washington Nationals game! 

On our way to the ballpark, after a quick subway ride away from our hotel, Emily stopped to pick up Indian food at a restaurant called Rasa that she had read about. It was good, she reports, but after taking her chicken wrap into the ball game to eat, she suddenly had to grab the Cracker Jack to deal with some especially spicy lingering that kicked in after a bit. I was also concerned after tasting the mango lassi at this place that the girls would no longer have a taste for mine, because it was very very good. I had just finished saying that to Daphne when Emily walked up and said, "Colin, why can't your mango taste like this?" Indeed, fears realized!

The game featured the Chicago Cubs in town to play the home squad, and as usual, the Cubbies brought a huge fanbase with them. A post-game concert featuring the electro DJ act Two Friends was also on bill, at the conclusion of the game. And the game was pretty fun! On offense, the Cubs hung a seven-spot in the second inning, and that was it. We got to see a Cody Bellinger homer, and that's always welcome. But the plucky Nats chipped away (kinda), and after a three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth, had closed the gap to 7 to 6. With runners on first and second with two outs, their rally came up just short, and the Cubs escaped with a win.

Other highlights from the game:

- The fabled "Presidents Race" was won by Nats mascot Screech, after some low-grade WWE shenanigans.

- The all-beef hot dog satisfied only one of the three of us who tried them.

- Overall, the ballpark very nice - with an A+ walk from the Metro stop to the outfield entrance. It had a real "game day festival" vibe that got us pumped for a game between two teams we don't normally root for. 😛

- We also got bit by the "micro purse or see-through bag only" policy. D'oh! At least they were happy to rent us a $20 locker to stow our stuff. (We're tourists! In DC! They were unmoved.) Of course they were selling clear purses in the gift shop, once you got IN to the ballpark. Uh, Guys? Sell those outside… 😛😛

(Side note: can you put your emptied, unclear bag into a clear purse and bring it in?)

Threatening skies, sure, but mostly dry with only occasional heavy mist.

Overall, I'd grade it an A- experience at the old ballyard for this visiting family of four. And sitting next to my 13-year-old girl and teaching her how to keep score the old-fashioned way - with a $1 scorecard and a golf pencil whose edge was dulled to a non-sharpness that the TSA would likely have no problem letting us take it home - was priceless.

We stayed for a bit of the post-game show featuring Two Friends, which is their band name, not just a description, but it was pretty hard-core festival style electro dance music, which the girls were not super digging… until they played their electro version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." That's when Mackie and Daphne STARTED believing, furiously dancing, and singing, and loving it.

Then it was back on the Metro for a super simple, super easy trip right back to our hotel. Los Angeles, why can't you have public transportation like this?

Another big day on tap tomorrow, with some serious topics mixed in with our usual fun hijinks, so we'll see how the day goes. And thanks for reading this! If you have any other questions or suggestions, be sure to drop us a line.

See y'all tomorrow!​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

DAY 1 - A Travel Day: LAX to DCA!

Here are the girls at our gate early this morning - 22 - a great place for these “borderline Swifties” to start off their trip.

Colin and Daphne on the plane… they slept, watched Turning Red, and played Texas Hold ‘Em.

Mackie and Emily sat together. Mackie explained why planes have rounded windows - all you need to know is, be grateful for rounded windows.  They watched 5 (or maybe 6) episodes of Modern Family + 1 episode of The West Wing (and then Emily watched 2 more - just to get in the mood - while Mackie, our “Swift Curious” girl, listened to 13: A Taylor Swift Fan Podcast)

And, we made it!

The girls were troopers with all their luggage on the crowded D.C. Metro.  We then took the “scenic route” on foot from Union Station to our hotel, or, we got lost, but as Colin said, he’s like a moth to a flame when it comes to the Capitol, so we happily oohed and ahhed at the Capitol before we made it to the hotel.  We finally settled in our room and some of us took cold showers (man, that humidity!)...After a quick rest we were ready for an evening walk to dinner,  but when we stepped outside, we found that we were now at 100% humidity!  The skies had opened up - thunder, lightning, rain + a warm breeze!

Welcome to D.C.!

Tomorrow: The U.S. Capitol! The Bureau of Engraving and Printing! (Maybe) And a possibly wet nightcap at a national park… I’m sorry, I’m being told that’s “Nationals Park.” My mistake. 😛😛😛