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Old 17 Aug 16, 01:28 PM  
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Boston and Washington - Spring 2016 - Day 15 - Botanic Garden, American Indian Museum, FLIGHT HOME

This is my first trippie (please be gentle)...


Trippie Index Here



Day 14 Here



What:


Boston, Washington D.C. and Baltimore


When:


Spring 2016


Who:


Me (April) Hungry for Fry Bread...

DS (Pooter) Aged 9 - Making Like Sherlock Holmes



Day 15 - Home to London (With a few hours at The United States Botanic Garden and The Museum of the American Indian)



One last hotel breakfast for us this morning. I was happy enough with the brekkie selection at the Residence Inn over the week - it is my strong preference to stay at a hotel that offers breakfast. Whether it’s true or not, it seems like you get an earlier start to your days.


I anticipated the usual conversation I have with Poot on all our last days in America.


Poot: Please don’t make me go back to England!


Me: But don’t you want to see Daddy?


Poot: Yes. But Daddy should come here to America. We can all live with Grandma!


Me (out loud): Hmm...well...we’ll see…



In my head I was imagining...this:





My DH and DM love each other, but it’s better that they love each other...from a distance. So far 4,000 miles seems just about right...



Our Last Few Hours in America



We left our luggage in the hotel’s baggage room and set off for the Museum of the American Indian. As I mentioned way back at the beginning of this report, DH and I had been to Washington before, but this particular museum wasn’t built until 2004 - and despite the (VERY) mixed reviews it’s gotten, I wanted to take a peek.


When we checked the weather this morning, we discovered today was going to be...warm, at last!...(sigh...the day we flew back to London)...


We left our jackets, hat and gloves (goodbye hideous Star Wars gloves!) in the luggage and we walked along. It was a bit cool in the morning air, but I determined that we would tough it out!


On the way to the Museum, I caught a glimpse of the Botanic Garden’s conservatory - I asked Poot if he wanted to have a quick look at the outdoor portions of the Garden, since the weather was finally cooperating. He did.





This is a lovely little corner of Washington.





They have created a small stream, surrounded by native trees, shrubs and flowers. It is obviously a refuge for local birds.


We saw the beautiful American goldfinch, purple finches and many other birds as they took turns bathing in the little stream. Aw...







There were only a few other people wandering around - it was wonderful.


Poot and DH do a lot of gardening together - so Poot loves flowers and plants. Seeing how happy he was, I thought perhaps he might rather go into the conservatory than the museum. He picked the plants. Surprise, surprise...


The initial experience here COULD NOT have been more different than the ones we had endured at the Smithsonian museums. “Good Morning. Welcome to the Garden.”





I am not really a garden person (I know, positively un-English!), but this was wonderful. Smaller than Kew, but similar in “feel”; all activities/exhibitions are free (very unlike Kew!).


If you have “nature kids” they will be in heaven. Leave your driving licence at the desk and the garden will issue your child a backpack jam-packed with specimens, tools, etc...(you can see how big the backpack is - Poot is 9 and it looked HUGE on him!).





Kids also get a folder full of activities to complete as they move around the garden. I will try to upload a photo of this later. It was massive!


I wish we’d come here sooner. The Botanic Garden was great.









Poot could have happily stayed all day completing the kids’ activities. These were pretty difficult - I would say for kids 7+ - at age 9 Poot was still REALLY challenged.

We saw a family with a six year old trying to manage the activities, but it really was too hard for littlies - he was getting frustrated and bored.


Eventually I had to call an end to Poot’s plant study - we needed some lunch.


I had read some good reviews of The Mitsitam Cafe (inside the Museum of the American Indian) and I thought if we had lunch there we could also take a sneaky peek at a couple of exhibits before we had to head to the airport.


Museum Exterior:





Security at the museum was again a study in misanthropy. I tried to think of it as preparation for dealing with the TSA later in the day...





The cafe is on the ground floor; it was busy.





“Mitsitam” means “Let’s Eat!” in one of the local Native languages. Truthfully, it’s more of a cafeteria than a cafe, but the food was good. The names of regions of the western hemisphere are displayed over different serving stations.





You choose between:


Northern Woodlands - Region that spans from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi and from Southern Canada to the Chesapeake


Mesoamerica - Home of the Papago or "Bean People" and spans from the American Southwest to Mexico and Central America


South America - Region that encompasses the entire southern hemisphere


Northwest Coast - Region that stretches from Southern Alaska to Northern California


Great Plains - Region that stretched over the great landscape from Alberta, Canada to Texas


We chose “Northern Woodlands” (because that’s where the fry bread was ). The main “main” in this region was maple-brined turkey.





There were also sides and desserts.


Prices here are high, probably twice what they were at the other museums. The turkey, for example, was around $21. I just couldn’t make myself pay that for cafeteria food. Poot and I chose two “sides” instead; we went for an order of cheesy fry bread and a celeriac salad.


Fry bread:





The two sides were about $4 each. They were delicious, though the fry bread could have been hotter (this is my issue with cafeterias in general).


While the cafe was busy, the museum itself was DEAD. I can’t imagine the money that went into this building/collection; it’s such a shame it sees so few visitors. The structure is beautiful, some of the individual artifacts are remarkable. And it’s free!


BUT (and it’s a big but) the museum has no real coherence. If anybody remembers the way the Tate Modern displayed its collection when the museum first opened - well, this reminded me of that.


Artifacts from each tribe are displayed SEPARATELY so you are constantly jumping back and then forward again in time as you move from tribe to tribe; I would have preferred one chronological “story” with different chapters. Hope that makes sense…


There is an interesting exhibition currently on (I think through 2020?) on the Great Inka Road (Yes, Inka with a “K”).










There was a great little activity book available (free) for kids.







This exhibition was interesting, curated a bit differently than the rest of the museum. Sadly, we couldn’t spend too much time enjoying it - we had to head back to the hotel to collect our luggage.

Edited at 12:29 PM.
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Old 17 Aug 16, 03:20 PM  
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Our hotel was very near a Silver Line station (Federal Center Southwest) - so we just got on a train and rode all the way to the end of the line.





Disembarking at Wiehle-Reston, we reversed our journey of the previous week. The Silver Line Express ($5 per person, plenty of luggage space, free wifi on the bus) took us back to Dulles Airport.





United check-in was very quiet.





It’s all self-scanning, etc...but my boarding pass wouldn’t print. The machine kept telling me there was a problem with my pass...and I began to panic a wee bit thinking that this was something to do with the boomerang (but we had taken all our segments so far!).


Eventually a United employee determined that for some reason the machine couldn’t issue our London-Dublin boarding passes (but - obviously - I didn’t care about that...) so was unable to issue us ANY boarding passes. Miss United eventually pressed some magic button and out popped our passes for the London flight. Phew!





Security at Dulles was crazy busy; even the priority queue took twenty minutes. The entire area (in the photo above) was double-stacked. I was glad to be through and done with all that for this trip.


There was an Arab toddler climbing all over one of the x-ray machine’s conveyor belts. As we left the security zone, we heard his mother (who clearly spoke no English) being given a real tongue-lashing…


I was so tired of listening to foreigners being chastised by security (), I felt bad for her - despite the fact that never in a million years would I have let Poot crawl on the x-ray machine when he was tiny


--------------------------------------------------------------


We had a couple of hours before departure, so decided to find a United Club.





Because Dulles is a United hub, the United Clubs are huge and well-appointed. We just checked into the one nearest our gate, I hadn’t researched which was the “best” one.


We found out upon checking in that this day happened to be United’s “birthday”...





Who knew?


No birthday cake was in evidence (bummer!), but Poot was given a little bag of shortbread biscuits to commemorate the happy occasion. The club was VERY busy, but we found a couple of chairs and I settled Poot in with his biscuits while I went to scope out the other snacks on offer.


There was hot vegetable soup, and lots of salad-y bits and crudite, as well as cheese and crackers (and some junk). I was pretty impressed, it seems like more “real food” is being served in the American lounges.


I made up a plate for us to share (I didn’t get any soup. Me being me, if I had gotten soup, I would have spilled it down my blouse and then spent a transatlantic flight stained and smelling of minestrone…).





We ate our snacks, and Poot read the Washington Post.


Poot is like my DH. He can sit down anywhere at any time and concentrate. I really struggle to read anything worthy at an airport, or on a plane. So instead I passed the time deleting all the blurry bird photos on my camera. SO MANY BIRD PHOTOS!
...lol...





I suppose we were in the lounge for an hour or so before we had to head down to the gate. When we got there, it was surprising (!) to see the Business Class boarding line tailing back down the concourse. I’ve NEVER seen that before. As I observed all the waiting businessmen, I saw that they all had the maximum carry-on allowance and figured that they queued up so early to ensure their bags would get in the limited overhead space…


Since we were also travelling with maximum hand luggage , I queued up with the businessmen. Poot sat down and made a friend at the gate - then a kind Englishman (from Surrey) gave him all his American coins. We don’t do pocket money/allowance at our house - so Poot received the coins gratefully!


I never want to ask people if they’re Dibbers (I did once - and the woman looked at me like I’d asked her if she had VD). So if you WERE a Dibber, and you gave your change to a young lad with a denim jacket and a (very) peculiar accent - Thanks again!


Boarding was quick and easy. Our (French) stewardess helped me find a safe spot for Poot’s “bag of many books”. The flight crew was a London-based one; they were a VERY international crew and did a good job.


Business Class on the (United) Dulles-Heathrow flight is HUGE. There is also a separate “First” on this flight; tonight it was full of million-milers. The chap sitting across the aisle from me received his million mile card on the flight - but even HE didn’t have enough “status” (I hate that word) to get upgraded. I was sorry about that later...:angry:


So back to Business () . Business was full with frequent-flying businessmen upgraded from economy. I did NOT like the layout for this flight. It was 2-4-2 and meant that people had to climb over each other to get to the lavs.





Poot and I had a window and an aisle, but there always seemed to be a lot of climbing and re-arranging going on in the cabin.


The seats were narrower than on the Dublin flight, and they did not recline to become completely flat beds. In future, I would think carefully before booking this flight on United.

On a night flight, I want to eat my dinner,





watch a sloth documentary,





then sleep until London.





The layout and sheer number of people in the cabin made that difficult tonight.


For dinner, I *think* I had beef and Poot had salmon.

Dessert was sundaes, as it was on the flight over. I passed, and Poot didn’t fancy vanilla ice cream. A helpful stewardess went back to economy and got him one of the little ice cream tubs (it was mango and ginger flavour; Poot said it was good).


We both watched a documentary called “Making North America”. It was REALLY interesting, and has since been shown here on PBS America. It told the “story” of America’s geography - The Grand Canyon, Lake Superior, etc...Well worth a watch.





I then called up my own personal sleep aid: Ancient Aliens.

This programme always seems to be available on United, and it puts me to sleep EVERY time (sorry Ancient Aliens fans…).





Blah, blah, blah...pyramids, blah, aliens, third eye, blah...ZZZZZZZZ…..



Poot stayed up a little longer to watch something about sharks, but then he fell asleep as well.


I woke up about 90 minutes before landing - because the moron across the aisle from me decided that a plane full of people trying to sleep was a good place to do his DICTATION!





Even with my noise-cancelling headphones on, I could hear EVERY word he said. He was a banker (I could tell from the dictation) - and something else that rhymed with “banker”, too.


Poot slept until I had to de-bed-ify his seat for landing. Neither he nor I felt hungry, but I made sure the both of us had some pineapple and a few grapes for a little sugar boost. I also had a cup of TRULY terrible "plane coffee".





We landed at six-something - the airport was already pretty busy.


We didn’t have to collect luggage - so only passport control now stood between me and my lovely, soft bed…





OK...I occasionally post about needing paperwork when only a single parent is travelling with a child...because of situations like the following:


Now...my DH is desperately old-fashioned, and he didn't want to take my name when we got married.


So...that means that Poot and I have different surnames, and this occasionally means additional questions when we travel without DH. And I am GLAD about this; kids' safety is priority one.


I always travel with copies of Poot's birth certificate, my marriage certificate and a letter from DH - just in case. And I needed them this morning. The woman at passport control asked for every document.


She was actually kind of snide about our situation...she asked where Poot's father was, and I said that he was waiting outside but that I had a letter from him with me. She looked at it and then asked sarcastically, "Are you sure he's your HUSBAND?".


It was weird...she said that if I was married then I would surely have my marriage certificate with me (which I did). I handed it to her - it was really a strange interaction...I never did figure out what she was implying, or hinting at...


She also told me that I was "lucky" not to be taken to an interview room (WHAT? I've lived here for fifteen years, I always travel with all my (many) documents, I have NEVER had any problem at passport control...). I just stood silently and let her go on. Thankfully Poot was quiet as well...I never know with that boy...


I felt pretty deflated after this interaction - having spent the last week feeling rather proud about the civility/courtesy of the border/security officers here in England - compared to many of their counterparts in D.C.


I hope that she was a one-off, and that we aren't heading in that direction...

------------------------------------------------

On a happier note, DH was waiting for us at Arrivals. It's only a 45 minute drive from Heathrow to our house. I was SO ready for a shower and some sleep...and 45 minutes later that's just what I had.


I woke up after a couple of hours. Poot hadn't even managed to change his clothes; he had fallen asleep on top of his quilt.


Oh, dear...this is another quite emoji-heavy post...sorry...


continues in next post with Poot's Day 15

Edited at 12:30 PM.
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Old 17 Aug 16, 06:54 PM  
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continued from previous post



Today we decided we would go to the Museum of the American Indian. But first we decided we would have a quick look at the National Botanic Garden. There we went and looked at a stream, where there were several starlings bathing, as well as one robin.

Mother nearly fell off the bridge and into the stream! That would have disturbed the birds, haha.

Within about ten minutes, the bird activity started to jump up. First we saw an amazing purple finch, which flew from the stream to a bare tree nearby. Then along came a warbler, with a yellow spot on its forehead (I never managed to identify it). Then came a goldfinch. American goldfinches are really bright and yellow, not drab like English ones.





Finally a white-crested sparrow came along. On leaving the "stream of birds", we saw a large mockingbird.


We then went inside to see what there was. I got a package full of plant-related activities to do.

The package was called Junior Botanist and it was a great way to see more of the gardens. I would say it is for 8-12 year olds and is quite extensive.


We went straight to the “Garden Primeval” where they keep all the plants which grew in the age of the dinosaurs.





My favourite plant was the plant you could hear (!). If you touched it - it made the most amazing chiming noise. The activity book TOLD me to touch the plant as part of an experiment, I didn’t just molest it.

There were also plants called sawgrass palms which had warning signs on them saying not to touch (they were sharp, which is why they are called sawgrass).

Of course there are signs which mark where the plants are. They have huge eyeballs on them and say “Look Here!”. You can see one in this picture.




Then we went to the Hawaiian (endangered) plants section. There was a large plant in a pot called a mimosa. If you touched it, its leaves rolled up!





This is a sensible strategy because if an animal wants to eat it, it will be put off by the leaf rolling up.


We then went through the main conservatory and looked at all the plants.


We went back to the Museum of the American Indian for lunch. Most of the food there was very expensive, but we picked something inexpensive. We had fry bread and celeriac salad. The best one was the fry bread. It had melted cheese inside.

Then we went upstairs and bought a postcard. I also looked for a book on the Anasazi drought, but they didn’t have one.


After that, we went back to our hotel and collected our luggage. We got on the train at Federal Center and rode ALL THE WAY back to Wiehle-Reston. Unfortunately, when we tried to get on the train at Federal Center, the ticket gates wouldn’t open because our tickets had expired. We had to get new ones. I also found a wheat penny.


We went to the airport, where we cleared security.

At the gate, a nice Englishman who wasn’t planning to go back to America gave me all his change ($2.67). We got on the plane, where we ate our dinner (sorry, I don’t remember what it was). Then I watched Making North America and Monster Shark, which was about the shark with the largest jaws ever recorded (only known from one photograph).





Finally we got back to Heathrow, where Dad picked us up. The end of the whole holiday.



Final Thoughts and Washington/Baltimore Shopping Report Here

Edited at 10:16 AM.
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Old 17 Aug 16, 06:59 PM  
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Originally Posted by cracklepop View Post
Boston's a great place to visit. So much history there, you can see old New England from the colonial period. Soundsl ike you had a great time too!

Yes, we loved Boston and are all quite keen to go back!

It was a VERY fun holiday, despite the (often) miserable weather and the (again, often) miserable security guards.

Thanks for reading and commenting.
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Old 17 Aug 16, 09:32 PM  
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I have thoroughly enjoyed your reports - both yours and Poots. You sound as though you had a great time - entertaining, educational, adventurous and fun. Thank you for sharing
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Old 17 Aug 16, 10:05 PM  
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I've really enjoyed your reports, and Poots comments too
It's great to get both perspectives.

Edited at 10:13 PM.
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Old 17 Aug 16, 10:11 PM  
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Originally Posted by Dissie View Post
I have thoroughly enjoyed your reports - both yours and Poots. You sound as though you had a great time - entertaining, educational, adventurous and fun. Thank you for sharing
Thank you for your kind remarks.

And wow - you have SOME countdown going!

I remember when Poot was born, I knew then that my DH would have to agree to go to WDW - only took SIX YEARS of waiting - lol...
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Old 17 Aug 16, 10:14 PM  
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Originally Posted by BevS97 View Post
I've really enjoyed your reports, and Points comments too
It's great to get both perspectives.
We all see things so differently, even in the same families...

Thanks so much for reading and for your thoughtful and interesting replies.
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Old 17 Aug 16, 10:47 PM  
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I have loved reading about your trip, and have looked forward to Poot`s comments at the end of each day. You both have a lovely way of writing, I shall miss your updates.
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Old 17 Aug 16, 10:50 PM  
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Thanks April for a fabulous report - I have thoroughly enjoyed both yours and Poot's conntribution!
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Index of my trip reports
2016 Quebec - Kuala Lumpar - New York City 2017 Dubai - Eurocamps France - Ontario and Quebec - So-Cal 2018 Montreal - Bangkok - New England 2019 Argentina - Quebec City - Hong Kong - 2020 Switzerland 2022 Arizona - Costa Med Cruise - Oslo 2023 Hong Kong - Gothenburg
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