Last week, I gave you a rundown of our recent family trip to Washington, DC. Of course, that wasn’t our whole trip; vacations – and probably everything in the universe – are always as much about the moments in between the Capital-M Moments, and ours was no different. For example, I told you we flew to Reagan National; but what I didn’t tell you is that we first stopped in the Delta Lounge for breakfast and instead of getting normal food I decided to eat 400,000 cornichons and then I was grossed out by anything pickled (plus, thirsty) the entire rest of the trip. The Entire Rest of the Trip.
Kyle and I were discussing these in-between moments while sitting on a bench in front of a fountain in the National Sculpture Garden watching a photographer get chased by a duck who wanted his picture taken. The photographer had already taken the duck’s picture several times, but the duck remained unmollified. The photographer would walk down to an area of the fountain where other ducks were ducking (there are a lot of ducks in Washington, DC). The Main Character Duck would follow, swimming directly in front of the camera and saucily cocking his head in pose. The photographer would sigh, take the Main Character Duck’s photo, and then move to another position, and the whole thing would start again. For our part, the Kosiors watched intently for the better part of a half an hour.
“You should write a story about all of the animals we’ve seen,” Kyle said. “And call it ‘Accidental Tourism.’”
“Maybe I’ll write about the Poop Cup and our unexpected restauranting, too,” I said.
“Good idea,” Kyle said.
W, NATURE
As you may recall, my fourteen-year-old – who will be fifteen on the Fourth of July! – loves discovering wildlife in its natural, or unnatural, habitat. He was the first to notice the duck photo shoot, and was more focused on a flock of birds bathing in a small pile of sand on the sidewalk than a multi-multi-multi-car motorcade on the street. We were walking by the White House (which was invisible behind construction fencing and VERY disappointing) trying to find even the tiniest peek of the building when Fourteen exclaimed,
“Hey, a raccoon!”
“That’s Senator Raccoon to you,” Kyle said.
“Ha,” Fourteen said, which is a big compliment from a teenager.
We toured the National Mall at night, and reached the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool about 10:30 PM. It was really quiet – it was the eve of The Algae Situation so I’m guessing it was much busier the next day – and we had the place to ourselves. Kyle took a few photos of the water with the Lincoln Memorial in the background. I took a few photos of the water with the Lincoln Memorial in the background. Eleven took a few photos of the Lincoln Memorial in the background.
“Look! A duckling!” Fourteen exclaimed, pointing to the middle of the water where a baby duck was zigging around. He took a photo, and then a video.
“Look! Another duckling!’ Eleven exclaimed, pointing to another duckling. Fifteen took another photo and another video.
“Look! There’s a whole family of ducklings!” Fourteen said, pointing to a brood of eight or so ducklings making their way across the Reflecting Pool, followed by their mother.
Fourteen watched, photographed, and videoed those ducklings until we guided him away to the World War II Memorial.
This week, as we were scrolling through our vacation photos, we came upon a picture of the ducklings.
“Hey, the ducks!” Fourteen said. “Those were great.”
UNEXPECTED RESTAURANTING
Prior to the trip, I spent an unhealthy amount of time researching restaurants in the Washington, DC area. The first three restaurants we visited were the first three on my list, and my review of all three was, “Meh, not worth it.” We were on the way to the fourth when we realized we were going the wrong way and too hungry to turn around, and so we stopped at the first restaurant without a line – the reason why, we discovered, was that everyone was already inside because it was Trivia Night – and had an awesome dinner and an awesome waitress and an awesome go at trivia and left much happier than we had at any of the restaurants prior.
We had a similar situation the next night – on the way to the critically-acclaimed restaurant; waylaid by a hungry and tummyaching Eleven – when Fourteen suggested we pop into a Seoul food fast food joint instead. Eleven was so miserable and we were so miserable because of Eleven’s misery that we agreed. Again, the food was awesome, the staff were awesome, and when Eleven (now fully recovered) complimented “the chef” of the white rice, they gave him a giant bowl of white rice for free. Again, we left incredibly happy.
The next day, we were driving from Virginia to Maryland to visit Fort McHenry. There was a lot of traffic, and so Waze shifted our route and we suddenly found ourselves driving through the Maryland countryside, dotted with fancy horse farms and dense forests. We had planned on stopping for lunch at a different spot along the journey, but our departure had taken us so far off course that we needed to make new plans. Our new plan was to follow our new plan of just letting the wind take us where we need to go – and, as we drove out of the forest, we drove directly into a Mexican restaurant on a random corner in a random tiny town in Maryland. So, we stopped.
You’ll be unsurprised to hear that we loved it. The food was awesome, the service was awesome, and the restaurant décor was awesome (and not at all on theme; if you’ve seen the TV show Suburgatory, imagine if the crystals-and-velvet-loving character “Dallas” owned a Mexican restaurant).
Oh, and Eleven had S’mores French Toast, which he later declared to be his favorite meal of the vacation.
POOP CUP
The Kosiors are great at museuming, and even better at gift shopping. For Kyle, his gift shopping was focused on two things: refrigerator magnets (his travel collection extends to every metallic surface in our house) and an “America 250” souvenir. He specifically wanted a t-shirt, and he specifically wanted to pay $25 for it…which we discovered pretty quickly was an impossible feat.
We were walking from museum to museum in the sunshine when Eleven, and then everyone, realized they needed to use the restroom. If you’ve been to DC, you know that “the next building” is quite a distance away from wherever you are, and Eleven started to panic.
Blessedly(?), we came upon a line of porta potties – all of which had been locked closed, except for one. Eleven, and then Fourteen, and then Kyle went inside, and I chose to hold it. Kyle emerged, I pulled out the hand sanitizer, and went down the line sanitizing everyone until I came to my husband.
“What is that,” I said in a way that was not a question.
“It’s a cup,” Kyle said, holding up a metal cup with the “America 250” logo on the side.
“Where did you get that cup,” I said because I knew the answer.
“It was just sitting in there,” Kyle said, gesturing to the porta potty.
“It was just sitting in the porta potty filled with poop particles on a 95-degree day in Washington, DC,” I said.
“It wasn’t in the toilet,” Kyle said.
“Yes, it was,” I said. “The whole thing is a toilet.”
Kyle looked sad.
“That is not coming with us,” I said.
“But it’s a souvenir,” Kyle said.
“It is not,” I said.
“I will wash it,” he said.
“There isn’t enough soap and water in the world,” I said.
Kyle looked even more sad.
“We do not need a poop cup,” I said. “We will find you an un-poop cup.”
“But this one’s free,” Kyle said mournfully, throwing the poop cup into a garbage can. “And it’s a memory of the trip.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, dousing him in hand sanitizer. “We will have to remember the poop cup and this trip in another way.”
The photo above was taken by Fourteen of Kyle and me in the Sculpture Garden. This was post-Poop Cup and, yet, we remain en amor.
This week on North Dakota Today, we talked about the McQuade Softball tournament, the NDDOC, and the USA Patriots, all my Nice People of the Week, as well as a free way to keep your kids rockin’ and rollin’ this summer. (Valley News Live)
Two veterans were unable to make the Honor Flight trip to Washington, DC, so the Honor Flight brought Washington, DC to them. (Valley News Live)
I love the headline of this post: “Priests can hit dingers, too!” (Facebook)
My friend Matt works for the railroad and I’m constantly giving him crap when I get stuck at a train, and so I’m including this story for him. (KFYR TV)
Grand Forks’ Josh Lunak in the newest member of the North Dakota Tennis Hall of Fame. (Grand Forks Herald)
Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest (after the bullet hit his eyeglasses case and speech) while out on the campaign trail and continued to speak while bleeding all over the place. The glasses case and a page from the speech will be on display at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. (Pop Sci)
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