We did our public transportation thing in the morning. While on the subway, Nole realized he didn’t have the proper identification for the White House tour and that he misplaced his phone on the bus.  Oh no!  He called and reported it to the bus company but it looks like someone took it and turned it off.  I’m not sure a locked phone is much good to anyone except the owner and it’s a real bummer to be without a phone when traveling. 

We passed the Washington Monument.  We wanted to see it this week but it’s been closed due to the extreme heat. We passed it on the bus and maybe that will be all we get. 

We stopped at the WWI memorial on the way to the White House.

We got to the White House about an hour before our scheduled tour time.  Nole and I took everyone’s bags since no bags are allowed inside.  I was also not able to go on the White House tour because of a mistake months ago when we first signed up and submitted our personal information for vetting.  All visitors need to be vetted months in advance and I accidentally forgot to sign myself up!  Nole and I went to the White House visitor center where we helped the girls get a head start on their Junior Ranger booklets. 

When we entered the visitor center, we had to go through security (and with extra bags because we had everyone’s purses/backpacks).  Nole got stopped because of a “forbidden item” in his possession, a tweezers in Nova’s bag.  Nole had to take the tweezers outside and leave it by a tree then reenter and go through security again.  This incident became known as “Tweezergate”. 

Those who went on the tour enjoyed it.  

These are some pictures Esme took on the tour:

Here are some pictures my mom took:

This picture shows Ray who went to the “naughty tent” when they were checking in because he put the wrong year down for his birthday when he was doing the vetting pre-check two months ago. 

The others returned from their tour and the girls got their badges.  The visitor center was informative, had a film, and best of all was highly air-conditioned! 

We went outside to catch the bus to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  You need to reserve tickets in advance and I thought I did but I didn’t get a confirmation email.  Half were reserved to Nole, who no longer had his phone to pull up the tickets on either.  So instead we decided to go to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, which does not require tickets, instead. 

First, we saw this squirrel “splooting” on a window sill (or so we told the kids because it actually appeared to be dead).  Much to my surprise, the squirrel got up and walked away shortly after this picture was taken.

We waited for a bus but then decided to walk when the bus took forever to come.  It was a 12 minute walk and we broke it up with a stop at a food court at Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center where everyone was able to pick whatever they wanted for lunch. 

We got to the museum and it reminded us of “Night at the Museum”, especially when we saw “Dum-Dum”.

This was a HUGE piece of quartz.  There were other large gems too.

Esme especially liked the gems and spent a lot of time looking at them.

This is the Hope Diamond!

Flame Topaz

Cat’s eye gem

Geological olive loaf on rye?

Esme took these pictures.

Each girl had to have their picture taken with their favorite mammals. 

Nova:

Raccoon and opossum

Esme:

Foxes and giraffe

Asa and I were the only two brave enough to go into the Insect Zoo where we got to hold Madagascar cockroaches and lubber grasshoppers.

Can you see the leaf bug in this photo?

Bird-eating tarantula.  It was huge!

We made dinner – chicken and salads – and went for a swim.  There was more Harry Potter on TV so Esme and Asa watched one and half more movies tonight rather than go swimming.