day 40: not normal Easter

One of the two holidays that finds the most people at a church found me and my girls at the mall.

Not for shopping, silly.

The National Mall, to be precise, flanked at one end by the Capitol and the other by the Washington Monument.

Much to their surprise, the girls found that the Easter bunny had found them, even though they were not in a normal spot for Easter.

And there was no normal Easter attire for the day, but instead, jeans and t-shirts, as we were simply going to spend the day enjoying each other and the sights.

But before any of that could happen, Mom had to figure out the metro.

Luckily for us, I'd had some very brief metro experience from two DC trips with my 8th graders, but doing it on my own.....now that was a different ball game.

I checked, double checked, stopped strangers to ask them questions, and found the four of us on the correct train headed to the correct place. I had succeeded.

We emerged from the Smithsonian metro stop to find the weather a tad bit warmer than I had anticipated. Sunglasses were a necessity....as was the almost-empty carousel. Nothing can beckon a young child like a carousel.

On the way to lunch at the Air & Space Museum's food court, we stopped a few times to admire the spring flowers and to play in a fountain. McK made her own stops to chase the pigeons and talk to the occasional stranger. That child walks to the beat of her own drum, I say.

At the first street crossing we came to, one with the white lines painted on the crosswalk, the girls shouted to each other, "Let's do it like Buddy the Elf!", and they literally hopped from one white stripe to another. I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time! (no pics of that - I figured that if I even attempted and ASC found out, my name would be mud)

Then started the slow trek to the opposite end of the mall to the American History museum, which required many walking breaks and minutes spent in the shade and feet stuck in yet another fountain. ASC called, and we parked ourselves on some park benches. R entertained her waiting time by searching, on all fours, under a bench, for roly poly bugs. She was successful. McK chose a bench beside a lady, plopped herself down, and immediately struck up a conversation with her. The child doesn't know a stranger.

Finally we arrived at the one and only exhibit that I had wanted to show the girls for years: the First Ladies' Gowns exhibit. Kennedy saw Jackie Kennedy's dress, Reagan saw Nancy Reagan's dress, and McKinley found a pair of slippers worn by Ida McKinley.

Not your normal Easter, but a good Easter, nonetheless.