Return of the Buddy

The boy and I have safely returned from our trip, it got a little crazy there....and we used up ALL of our digital data.....so here is a recap! On the second day of DC, Buddy had really wanted to go to all of the Smithsonians, but we only had time for one because we had so much on our agenda, so he picked the Natural History Museum....

Gonna be honest, neither of us were huge fans. Maybe it was better when I was a kid, but it wasn't that great. At least there were a ton of ice cream trucks outside so we could eat all of our cares away! We then trucked it over to Ford's Theater where I had bought us tickets to get in....

We spent $3 for our tickets and it was the best $3 ever spent, although I'm not sure I should talk about money in the same sentence as talking about Lincoln's death.....it seems very wrong! The park ranger in the theatre was a fantastic storyteller, we learned a lot, and got a lot of pictures,

Buddy even got a top hat to commemorate the occasion. We then skedaddled quickly to Capital Hill where we had our next reservation (the awesomeness of Covid is now everything requires a reservation, and the non-awesome thing is I wish I had been smart enough to look at a map before making them....or had a crystal ball-that probably would have been more helpful)....

The Capital Hill tour was amazing...

Again the tour guide was amazing, however we lost all of our snacks that I had shoved in my purse because we weren't allowed to bring anything in. Not sure if they were worried that I'd feed the wild senators and get them hooked on my granola bars???? Oh well, it was all replaceable, but kind of sad that I lost it all. Anyway, after we were done with that, we took the subway to the Pentagon (seriously, the fact that you can just take the subway straight to the Pentagon to begin with is a little mind boggling), where a very old friend met us to give us a personal tour. Holy banana's, I think this was Buddy's second favorite thing! Obviously, we couldn't take a bunch of pictures since things are a bit hush hush around there, but at least we got to take a picture of our important emergency announcements....

and Buddy's presentation of his imaginary "Medal of Valor"

Afterwards we viewed the outside 9/11 memorial park....

It was so beautifully done, I'm not usually a fan of memorials (visually, that is) but this seriously brought tears to my eyes it was so gorgeous, then to see all the details that the artists put into each piece. Beautiful, really just beautiful. To think, we got to do a private tour because I had a crush on a little boy when I was 6.....

Although, I will say it's the least he could do since he crushed my school girl crush when we were 7. I think he's finally paid me back now! Buddy and Vincent (our tour guide) chatted it up all about the military, guns and all the "boy stuff" during our tour. I made Buddy pay for everyone's dinner at the Pentagon, since I thought that was the least he could do....he has kept the receipts in his wallet since it says Pentagon on it. I'm not sure who he's expecting to impress with his Pentagon cafeteria receipts, but he's ready!

The next morning we had to wake up super early (3:30 am) because we were trying to catch the 6 am flight out of DC to Salt Lake City. I say try, because we were standby...Flying standby during the summer out of DC after everyone has been cooped up in their homes not travelling for two years was kind of a mistake. Buddy and I didn't get on the first two flights heading west, and quickly noticed that everything was overbooked and the airport was PACKED!!!!! I hurriedly tried to buy tickets to get us out of DC and everything was sold out until Monday!!!! I  made the split decision to hurry and rent a car and go visit my Aunt Jean in Kentucky. I quickly reserved a car online, that is after looking at 4 different rental agencies and finally finding one lone, very huge SUV that was available for a one-way trip, and then we went down to the rental booth. Holy poo, were the rental agencies overcrowded and everything was booked out. Matter of fact, by the time it took us to walk downstairs and to the counter (less than 4 minutes), they were no longer taking reservations for one-way cars. Unbeknownst to me, the night before multiple flights had been cancelled and thousands of travelers had been stranded, and everyone was trying to make it out of there!!!! Thankfully, I had reserved the car when I did, and didn't dilly dally on whether we should drive or not. I mean, we could have stayed in DC, but then we would have missed this....

That would be a ramble in the woods above my aunt's house....Complete with blackberries

side note, Buddy refused to eat the blackberries until we confirmed with Jean that is exactly what they were because he didn't trust me (can't say I blame him).

Buddy loved the hike, he also loved pretending like he was trespassing.he's a teenager, who knows what they are thinking!

Jean even took us to go see the first school that my mom ever taught at Lower Millcreek School...

School is definitely not in session! Then my other aunt and uncle dropped by to say hi!

After our fiasco with overbooked, oversold tickets...and looking at the availability of flights and cars to get west, I bit the bullet and bought us tickets to see my favorite old man....we even got to see him on Father's Day. I told him that was the only present he would be getting from me!

I took Buddy and his cousin to a cat cafe, it's a cafe where there are supposed to be a ton of cats that want to hang out with you while you drink your drink and eat your pastry like in Korea...it was lame, unlike in Korea! To make up for the lameness, I took them out for sushi and then to Buddy's favorite shooting range! 

Sara tolerated it, Buddy loved it! Then Donna took us on a hike named the "Butt Crack"...

Best "Butt Crack" I've ever been up! We loved it so much we did it the next night...This time, Buddy took a film camera that Donna let him use (he loves it, I've got to find him one)

and of course our favorite model, Sara....

I've been needing to get a haircut for a long time, and since Sara took some cosmetology classes in high school, I figured she'd be the perfect one to help me out. Since she was doing such a great job, I asked her if she could style my hair AND do my makeup...

Talk about getting the royal treatment!!! It turned out to be the perfect thing, because later that night I got to attend an impromptu birthday party, with a very special guest....

I would like to say the special guest was the birthday girl, but she got sick and couldn't even come to her party. Sara and I made sure to make up for that downer by donning on our princess attire and taking full advantage of the photo ops!

To end the night of awesome animals, Donna added some lambs to her farm.....I'm sad that we left the next morning because the guy dropping them off suggested leashing them and taking them for walks to get them used to the place!

Talk about best advice ever!!!! Could you imagine going past someone walking their lambs on a leash????That would be amazing! Anyway, after a long day of flying yesterday (yes, I bought the tickets because everyone and their dog is flying and I wasn't going to chance not being able to get home until October), we are finally here! So all in all a super fantastic, happy to sleep in our own beds and our own rooms, day!

What's that smell?

Since we were checking things off of our bucket lists....mostly so we don't ever have to go back to smell New York City ever again, Buddy indulged in completing two more things I wanted to do. Eat a hot dog in Central Park. Ummm, we did it and the hot dog was not good. Hot dogs in general aren't that great, so I'm not sure why thinking eating one in the middle of Central Park would all of a sudden make it magically delicious....it did not live up to the hype! Oh well, now I know!

The other thing on my list was I always wanted to bike ride around Central Park...

Bike rides are always good, but I am not sure what I was expecting, but the bike route is on a road on the outskirts of the actual park, so it was like a regular bike ride, but at least with a few cool things to stop and look at. Then we scurried it all the way down to hop on the ferry to go see our favorite lady! Now she did not disappoint!

Of course she never does! I upgraded to the pedestal tickets and then the good momma I am, refused to sit and wait in line for the elevator, so I made the boy take the stairs with me. Thankfully, the view was well worth it so I didn't have to hear any teenage sass! After Lady Liberty, we went home and got our fancy clothes on so we could go to Broadway. I gave Buddy a list of shows that were currently on Broadway, and this is what he picked!

I think he was a little uncertain, since it was a musical, but seriously, the main actor (Beetlejuice) had him hooked within the first 2 minutes! It was great!

Matter of fact, it was so great that Buddy rushed out during intermission so he could go hurry and buy a souvenir cup, jacket and beanie (I think he forgot he lives in Hawaii! We went straight back to our Airbnb so we could sleep for a few hours, wake up way too early and hop on another train....

This time to Washington, DC. Buddy and I both find it strange that even though they are kinda close, they are so very different. There isn't a build up of trash or an overwhelming smell of pee. Interesting how the people in charge of getting things done have a clean place to live....seems a little divergent self-serving, but what do we know. I wonder what would happen if the Congress and Senate had to rotate around what cities that had to live in while they served. Anyway, enough of my diatribe. I got us reservations to tour the Library of Congress. Sadly, I was relying on Buddy for photos since he was going to town on the picture taking....then his camera basically deleted every single photo from today! I am so sad (I know he really is too because he LOVES architecture and this place is amazing)! So here is the sole surviving picture from the Library of Congress!

We hurried up and then took a Lyft so we could make it in time to Arlington National Cemetery. We took the hop on and off tour and made sure to see the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Errr....no pictures because of technical difficulties with Buddy's phone. It's most unfortunate though that the phone deleted everything because I thought it would be great to walk the 2 miles back to the Airbnb because we stopped at sooo many places for Buddy to get some cool pictures. Poor kid, he really likes his cool pictures, but I guess we'll find out if he wants to walk back tomorrow to do it again. 

We finally figured out his camera wasn't saving when I asked him to take a picture like this....

and it didn't save, then he looked back and nothing was there! Oh well, at least he got to take a picture of the world's very first meme...

Which I guess in teenage talk is really cool! When we got back to our Airbnb, we were starving! Thank goodness this place is on top of an Irish pub. Unfortunately, they didn't have any tables till 8 pm (it was 6). Fortunately, they do to-go orders!!!!

I got the corned beef and cabbage and it was soooooo gooood! Buddy loved his food too, so much so that he asked if we could eat breakfast there tomorrow. If we do, I'm making him order the Irish breakfast with bangers, baked beans, rashers (still not sure what that is), and black and white pudding! After we stuffed ourselves silly and rested our feet for a while, we decided to go bike National Mall to see the monuments at night! It did not disappoint!

Tomorrow we are going to try to hit up every Smithsonian we can before our ticket time to Ford Theater, then our timed tour of Capital Hill. Tomorrow night we have a very exclusive VIP tour....but I can't say where....at least quite yet, and Buddy has been jumping at the bit over this one! So all in all a super fantastic, but so very tired, day!