DC - What We've Been Doing...

Picking up where I left off... Here is a picture of the same flowers from the previous post. Previous post was taken in the morning, and this one was taken in the afternoon. I know the one in the back that isn't open yet is a Hyacinth. Not sure about the two in the forefront.

Here's a Hyacinth with the blooms opened up. LOVE all those little blooms!
On to rehearsal. Doesn't the director look a bit like Darrell Waltrip. Definitely doesn't sound like him, though. He's from Minnesota... The concert is going to be AWESOME!!

After a LONG day of rehearsal on Thursday, we (me and two other moms) decided to take the girls to the Hard Rock Cafe to eat dinner. Along the way, we passed a Starbucks. It was better than a White House tour for them. And we didn't even go IN then... Weird girls...

Eating at the Hard Rock Cafe. No big deal for them. They had fun, though. Bear wasn't crazy about her food and Bit, well, let's just say they ended up "comping" her meal when we found something in her salad... Other than that, it was fun and the service was excellent.

Of course, we stopped back by Starbucks on our way back to the Metro.

Next day, the rehearsals were only half day, so we decided to go to the Smithsonian.

Would you believe - we got dumped out of the Metro two stops early because of some issue!? A feeling of dejavu swept over us. So, we took off walking. And it was a COLD walk! (I tried to remind the girls of how HOT the walk had been last summer.) We THOUGHT we were closer to the White House than we were. But, by that time we had already committed ourselves to see if we could see the new swing set or something like that in the "backyard". No swing set, but Queenie there with us was happy for her first view of the south lawn.

So, then we took off toward the Washington Monument heading for the Mall and Smithsonian Castle. And we found a street vendor selling gloves! Life was better.

Oh, and would you believe that as we were almost to the castle, some people walking along side us asked us where the Mall was? (Just FYI - the Castle is ON the Mall.) At first I wasn't too sure about them and really was leery of saying anything, but then I realized they were serious. The "wife" was still looking around for the stores she had dreamed of shopping in. They had accents and looked like they were from another country somewhere. Bit felt better knowing that someone else had misunderstood "mall" besides her. (I still laugh when I remember her disappointment last summer when she saw the Mall for the first time...)

We walked by a Smithsonian sculpture garden and outside was this statue. Not sure what it was, but there is a dead rabbit up there on the top of his backpack!

This picture turned up sideways on here. No idea why...

We finally went in at the Air & Space Museum. To thaw out. And find a restroom. And go to the gift shop.

Bit & Queenie went on one of the flight simulators. Not as exciting as they thought it would be.

Here they are with Orville and Wilbur Wright. We spent a couple of hours walking all around the airplanes and space stuff. They had fun. And knew their brothers would have LOVED to have been there with them.

They look tired here on the Metro ride back to the hotel, but it was actually still early. We ended up heading off to bed anyway so they could get some much needed rest in preparation of concert day. (They even pulled out their music and ipods to practice some of their songs before bed!) They'll be taking buses to Constitution Hall for rehearsals (3 - one for each choir) and pictures. Hopefully they'll get naps before heading back out for the concert. Tonight will be a late one. So glad our flight is later so we can sleep in!