• Another mom took my four unused Pull-Ups, saving me the guilt of throwing away perfectly good pieces of plastic.
• A complete stranger who works in IT came to my house to help me sort out my modem situation.
• The library has every book in the Magic Treehouse series EXCEPT book 19. A neighbor loaned my kids her copy.
• I use my electric balloon pump ONCE a year for my kids' birthday season. This very niche gadget has since traveled to a couple of other birthdays and showers.
• I can rarely justify buying jewelry or cute shoes (99.9 percent of my life is spent in sneakers and leggings). A neighbor gave me hand-me-down ballet flats and a pretty necklace to wear to a wedding.
I could go on and on about all the ways Buy Nothing has helped me waste less and spend less. This group, which now counts 7.5 million members worldwide, started two moms on Bainbridge Island. I talked to Buy Nothing's founders for its 10th anniversary to find out how the project started and where it's headed.
Last photo dump from Virginia, saved the best for last: Colonial Williamsburg! Everyone I asked, "Have you been to Colonial Williamsburg?" The response was invariably, "Yeah, when I was a kid."
Governor's Palace
Now I can say, "Yeah, when I was 42." There was a whole chapter in our 5th grade history textbook dedicated to Colonial Williamsburg and I finally got to see it in person.
Patrick Henry!
The place was MADE for kids (and their nerdy moms). The best was wandering in and out of all the trade shops, each one was a completely different experience. The blacksmith, the weaver, the print shop, the silversmith, the cooper, the foundery, the milliner's. I think I may have been the most excited person in history to see Raleigh Tavern. Patrick Henry was hanging out on the porch in front and it was perfect.
We were there from open til close and it felt like we barely made a dent.
Home of George Wythe, a law professor, Thomas Jefferson's teacher, and a signer of the Declaration of IndependenceGovernor's PalaceSilversmithRaleigh TavernColonel George Washington and Mrs. Martha WashingtonInside the Governor's PalaceCooperA colonial boy teaching us how to play oak hoops.Foundry, where metal is melted to make spoons, bullets, teapots, candlesticks, sword handles and more.The bilbo catcher was a popular colonial toy. It's harder than it looks!Colonel WashingtonGuns and swards as decor in the Governor's PalaceUpstairs in the Governor's PalaceMilliner's shopIce cream at Raleigh Tavern
IN MY HAPPY PLACE! I couldn't stop smiling like a crazy person from the moment I walked in to the National Gallery of Art East wing and saw the giant Calder mobile in the atrium. My child is named for Calder, that's how big of a fan I am. His work exudes joy and playfulness and I love it so much. Upstairs, we found an entire room of Calder mobiles, sculptures, paintings, and wire line drawings.
(There is a Calder exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum opening Nov. 8. I CAN'T WAIT.)
You can't look at this and not feel happy.Another fun surprise: on the rooftop, there's a series of numbers by Robert Indiana (the guy who made the LOVE sculpture in Philly).
When court's not in session, you can sit in the actual Supreme Court courtroom for a 30-minute intro to the court, the justices, and the architecture of the building. Just line up in the lobby, easy peasy.
The Supreme Court used to be in the basement of the Capitol Building, but Taft asked for some money to build a separate court house.
Security is weird about photos: you can take pictures standing at the doorway of the courtroom, but not inside? And don't try to take a bottle of water or any snacks into the building. It can't be in your bag, but it can be in your belly.
Chief Justice Roberts sits in the middle, then Justices Thomas and Alito to either side. They sit in order of tenure, so on the ends will be Justices Barrett and Jackson.Looking up a marble spiral staircase.
Jamestown, est. 1607. First permanent English colony, home of Pocahontas... and it's now an active archeological site.
The original James Fort had been abandoned, overgrown and thought lost to erosion until archeologists found it again in 1994. They've been digging up artifacts since.
Statue of John Smith. Unlike the Disney version, here he's characterized as boastful and arrogant.
We got to watch archeologists at work, and they even let kids help sort some of the trash from inside the wells. (Fish scales, bits of brick, crab, burnt wood, copper.) Inside the museum, we saw one of the most shocking finds: the skull of a 14-year-old girl who'd been cannibalized.
We were allowed to handle some of the artifacts, like this piece of a German jug.This is the exact spot where Pocahontas married John Rolfe in 1614.When the wells dried up, the settlers stuffed them with trash and covered them up. Kids could help sort the trash to find clues about how people lived in the 1600s.This brick church was built on top of the ruins of the original brick church for the tricentennial in 1907.The AC in the museum was a relief. That little building is the cafe. (Ice cream!)The trail through Jamestown, where you can see brick reconstructions of the footprints of old buildings. There were multiple fires that destroyed the entire settlement.Turkey buzzard?Active archeological excavating!A blacksmith-made nail.Ferry boats look different in Virginia!Glass is made from a mixture of sand, ash and lime (crushed oyster shells) heated to 2400 degrees. Pretty toasty job on a sweltering summer day. Today that's a gas furnace, but in the early 1600s, it took the English settlers 2 weeks to stoke their fire hot enough to achieve a melt.Handblown glass made on site using 1609 techniques.
Unpopular opinion: the Air & Space Museum on the National Mall is... meh. The exhibits are nice, sure, but it was SO PACKED in there it was muggy inside from all the people bodies squished together. Ew.
This is the Air & Space on the Mall. SO CROWDED.
The Udvar-Hazy Air & and Space Museum by Dulles, on the other hand, was AMAZING. The second we walked in the door, Paul noticed, "This one is nice!" The very nice old volunteer at the info desk suggested we take a lap around over the catwalk, through the shuttle hanger, before joining a tour. (Always listen to the suggestions of nice old volunteers, they know what they're talking about.) A docent led us on a nearly two hour tour through aviation history. I'm not actually a big airplane person, but I love stories, and this guy could tell stories.
Highly recommend the museum by the airport. There's even a Shake Shack inside! Admission is free, $15 for parking.
The Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29, which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. The guy named the plane after his MOM. If my kids ever drop atomic bombs (they'd better not) they'd better not name the plane JiaYing Grygiel. Tip: You can see into the cockpit from the catwalk.The Space Shuttle Discovery!!!!! They built the hanger specifically for the space shuttle. It flew 39 missions into space, 365 days total in space. Every single one of those black tiles is a unique shape.WWI-era Sopwith Camel, AKA Snoopy's plane.You can watch the restoration work!This Lockheed SR-71 flew from LA to DC in 64 minutes! It's basically a big, fast camera (spy plane). But it used film, so pilots had to stop to process film.View of the Lockheed SR-71 from above (the black one).Our excellent docent.Life-size astronaut made of Legos!Ended our day with the requisite astronaut ice cream. It tasted like a cookie.
The evening before we went to Monticello, we bumped into a family at the hotel pool that had gone to Monticello that day. The dad told me, "Hey, Madison's house is on the way, and Monroe's house is right next to Monticello." Wait, WHAT.
That smelled like a giant marketing opportunity to me. The third, fourth and fifth presidents live within a couple miles of each other, and I missed this?? I LIVE for dorky things like the Freedom Trail.
The drive up to Madison's Montpelier house. It was a tobacco farm back in the day.
Jefferson, Madison and Monroe were basically the Three Musketeers. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, Madison was the Father of the Constitution, and Monroe is best known for the Monroe Doctrine (which warned European nations to butt out of the Western Hemisphere).
Jefferson's house was the spiffiest, with a giant visitor's center and hordes of visitors. At Monroe's house, the visitors barely outnumbered the staff. Madison's house fell somewhere in between.
This house looks like it was meant to be, but it was actually built like Tetris blocks over time. The original house is on the right. Madison added a separate townhouse on the left when he brought Dolley home. Later he joined the two and added wings. The Duponts owned the property and added on a couple dozen more rooms; those rooms have since been torn down to restore the house to how it looked when Madison lived here.One of the few original Madison artifacts. He sold most of his stuff before he died to pay off debts.James Madison was 5'3" and Dolley was 5'6" (and 17 years younger).A room on Madison's mom's side of the house.The tall instrument generates static electricity. This is what they did for entertainment, shock each other.Madison would have sat at his desk at this window writing the Constitution.Monroe's house. Monroe isn't buried here; he's buried in Richmond next to John Tyler.Our guide told us to look for an acorn to take home, then in 300 years we would have a tree just like this one.The original house burned down after Monroe sold it.Southern tradition of painting the porch ceiling haint blue to keep out the ghosts.Napoleon's stepdaughter Hortensia married Napoleon's brother (!) and was good friends with Monroe's daughter. The necklace was a wedding gift from Hortensia.
I knew I wanted to see Thomas Jefferson's Monticello; I did not know it would take two hours of driving on little country roads in rural Virginia. But, worth it. Monticello, which Jefferson designed himself, is filled with natural light. Big windows, skylights, mirrors everywhere. Absolutely gorgeous.
We met Thomas Jefferson!The image on every nickel.Some of Jefferson's many, many books. Apparently he would read 20 books at once.Jefferson put in the bed alcove, replicating the ones he'd seen in France.The antlers are original artifacts from Lewis and Clark.Taxicab yellow dining room. There's a dumbwaiter built into the spot behind the fireplace for bottles of wine to be sent upstairs.Replicas of the artifacts Lewis and Clark brought back in the two-story entryway. There's a wall calendar Jefferson designed (the 7th day didn't fit, so there's a hole in the floor).This is a newer tombstone, a replica of the one Jefferson designed for himself. It says "OS" after his birthday because he was born when Britain used the Old Style Julian calendar.
I am so glad we got another chance to see the giant pandas at the Smithsonian's National Zoo. In November, Tian Tian, Mei Xiang, and their cub Xiao Qi Ji, are all returning to China.
Baby Xiao Qi Ji, a miracle pandemic baby born in August 2020.Mei Shiang (mom) taking a nap in the AC inside.Xiao Qi JiXiao Qi Ji passed out for a nap.TianTian (dad) lounging in a tree. I was concerned about those little branches supporting his weight!Xiao Qi JiMei ShiangXiao Qi JiThere were other animals at the National Zoo too, not just pandas! California sea lions here.Free-roaming spoonbills in AmazoniaThese fragile PNW children rallied after an ice cream break. Oof, summer in a swamp!
The Smithsonian museums on the National Mall are always PACKED, but just a few blocks away, it was nice and chill at the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum.
Half the building is American Art, the other half is portraits. We went to visit our favorite presidential portraits, and had time to explore the third floor. You guys, it was unreal. Like stepping into another world.
Kehinde Wiley's portrait of Barack ObamaConservation lab on the third floorContemplating Albert BierstadtCourtyard between the two museums
