I wanted to take the kids out somewhere because they were driving me crazy so I looked at the map of D.C. and the Metro map to see what was inside that we could easily get to in the middle of the day, in the rain. I found Union Station and figured at least Andy would like that one, and right next door was the Postal Museum. Double point bonus for Mom!
We hoofed it the 4 blocks to the Metro station (it' really not that far, it just seems like 10 blocks). We sat in the drizzly rain and waited patiently for our train to arrive.
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| E apparently smuggled her Harry Potter book along for the ride under her jacket. |
We arrived at Union Station and couldn't get out of the Metro station. Apparently, somewhere between our home station and here our cards had become de-magnetized. The station attended was very nice and let us pass through and told us to be back before she left at 4 and she would help us get back through. Mini-crisis averted! Whew!
We walked up into Union Station and I was amazed, let alone the kids were in such awe. There is a whole mall inside of this train station. And it is still a working train station with Amtrak and cummuter rails heading out all day and night. We stopped for lunch and of all the places to eat in this amazing place, what did my kids choose? McDonald's! The boys weren't too happy with their choice once they were informed that there were no more boy toys, hence Andy's mad look.
We took a short tour of the station and then headed out to towards the museum. I wanted to stay and hang out looking at all of the beautiful architecture but we needed to get moving.
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| Inside Union Station |
We headed next door and to my surprise the kids took in alot of information. It's so much nicer now that they can read for themselves and are motivated enough to read and learn on their own. I had to keep calling Ellie along because she was reading EVERYTHING! But that's Ellie for ya. And to think, she didn't even want to come because she thought we were just going to the regular old Post Office.
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| The original Post Office. |
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| sorting the mail |
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| International Stamps |
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| my 2 bookworms. |
Of course, when we were finished in the museum, we headed back into Union Station and down to the Metro to see the nice lady that had helped us earlier. We waited patiently while she helped other travelers and when it was our turn we learned that this was not the same lady. To be fair they both had the same hairstyle and (duh) same uniform. This new lady was just as nice as the previous and gave me my instructions on what I needed to do to get home and sent us on our merry way. Why can't everyone be so nice?
We had to stop off at Metro Center and visit the Sales office to get new tickets so that we could get home. The attendant here was very patient with me and my need to have things explained to me a few times before I get them. The fair to get home was $2.40, which I had already paid when I purchased the tickets. The attendant could only issue me new tickets in whole dollar amounts, meaning I had 2 options. I could either take 5-$2 tickets and pay the additional $0.40 once we got to our final destination or I could pay her the $3 ($0.60 X5) and get 5-$3 tickets. The only problem was that I used my credit/debit card to purchase said tickets as I don't usually carry around cash, and didn't have any cash on me (they would only take cash here). So after much confusion on my part and alot of patience from her, I settled on the $2 tickets and resolved to pay the extra once we hit our exit thinking I could pay there with my debit card as I did before. We went on our merry way again.
When we got to the "Exit Fare" terminal at our station, my heart sank when I noticed that it didn't accept debit/credit cards. I dug around in my wallet and only had enough change to add the extra to 2 of our tickets. I apprehensively knocked on the station attendants window and asked what to do and wouldn't you know it, the wonderful Metro Gods shined down and he told us to just walk out the emergency exit gate and not to worry about it. With all of my headache with worrying and trying to figure out how to get home from downtown D.C. with de-magnetized Metro cards and no cash, we just walked right out the gate and up the street back home. God Bless the D.C. Metro!!!!
p.s. My favorite part of the day: Benny got in trouble on the Metro for being ugly to his brother and had to come sit by me. Not 2 minutes later he looked like this:
