Being our further adventures in the nation’s capital.
My son and I flew to D.C. last Friday afternoon. Helen, my spouse, had been away on business for the week and was coming directly from Taiwan on a later flight. Luckily, my son and I flew into Reagan International, so getting from the airport to the hotel was a cheap and easy Metro ride away. Having grown up in a fairly rural area myself, I never really learned to use public transit until I was an adult. Taking my suburban son on the Metro seemed not only convenient, but a way to teach a useful life skill. . We’d also been clever the last time we visited the city, and kept our Metro SmartCards (still with a few dollars value on them) clipped to our D.C. map, so we had them ready to go.
We settled in to the Residence Inn on Vermont Avenue, just off Thomas Circle. I’ve been helping them on some LGBT outreach, and they were kind enough to provide us with a room. It was the first time I’d been in one of their studios, instead of a one-bedroom suite — but even the studio was far bigger than most hotel rooms, with a queen bed, desk, dining table, pull-out sofa, armchair, and full kitchen (stove, microwave, dishwasher, full-size fridge, dishware, and pots). Sure, part of the fun of vacation is dining out, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to sightsee longer and just bring takeout back to the room, especially if the kids are tired. (They’ll also deliver groceries free of charge, if you want to cook or have kids with specific food needs.)
Having said that, my son and I decided to go out that night, and ended up at the nearby Zentan, where we had great sushi and homemade ramen that blows the lid off the instant stuff (and I say that as a long-time fan of the instant stuff). Also, just by coincidence, the front desk at Zentan was proudly displaying a lucite award for participating in HRC’s Chefs for Equality event last fall.
Saturday was for sightseeing, after the complementary breakfast buffet at the Residence Inn. (I was convinced my son would be all over the make-your-own waffles, but he decided scrambled eggs with shredded cheese and salsa was the way to go.) The weather was clear and heading to the mid-60s, so we walked down past the World War II Memorial to the Tidal Basin, hoping to catch a glimpse of the famed cherry blossoms. Alas, they were well past prime, but still made for a lovely walk down to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. For my 10-year-old, outdoor memorials of any type are just an excuse to balance along railings and jump from bench to bench. We nevertheless got him to read a few of the quotes from Dr. King engraved around his statue.
In many ways, that was a good complement to our next stop, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. We’d debated whether to go there; it is a necessarily grim place and we weren’t sure if it would be more scary than educational for a 10-year-old.  His fifth-grade class, however, is reading Number the Stars
Lunch was at the National Museum of the American Indian, which has the best and most interesting food offerings of any of the National Mall museums. We’d been to that museum’s exhibits on our previous visit, however, so we popped next door to the U.S. Botanic Garden, a peaceful and lovely glass structure filled with orchids, giant-leaved jungle palms, and other floral wonders.
After that, we were all pretty tired (especially jet-lagged Helen), so we headed back to the room for a rest before dinner at Birch and Barley on 14th Street, just a short walk from the hotel. We hadn’t chosen it for its LGBT-friendliness, but were happy to see that the front desk displayed a small rainbow flag. Their food was exquisite — American fare with an eye to local and sustainable ingredients — and the list of 555 artisanal beers was outstanding. We didn’t have reservations, but they found seats for us at the counter overlooking the kitchen, which was in fact an exceedingly cool place to sit. I wouldn’t call it a “kid-friendly” place, since there was no kids’ menu per se and few families with kids, but we’ve been blessed with a son who has adventurous tastes and we’ve learned that often, a couple of appetizers can make for a decent meal for him.
Sunday was more sightseeing. We went first to the National Museum of Natural History, even though we’d been there several times on previous trips. Our son loves science, and each time we go there, he gets different things from the experience. This time, we mostly wanted to see the dinosaur exhibit, which is about to undergo renovation and be off limits until 2019. We also saw the spectacular gem and mineral collection, where the natural stones rival the cut ones for sheer beauty. A newer exhibit on genetics was also pretty fun, if only because it’s an area of science I know little about. (Helpful hint to the NMNH, though: Use the terms “biological father” and “biological mother” instead of just “mother” and “father,” so you’re respectful to adoptive and LGBT families.) Then we were off to the Air and Space Museum for a planetarium show narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson (a family favorite) and some browsing of the exhibits.
Dinner that evening was at Ted’s Bulletin on 14th Street, a diner that serves breakfast all day and also offers such delicacies as peanut-butter-bacon burgers. My son tried the latter (I demurred), but was mostly enamored of the homemade pop tarts. (Both were, I hasten to add, a vacation break from the normally healthy food we usually have.) In keeping with the diner’s old-fashioned aesthetic, classic movies played on televisions around the room. When we arrived, it was Breakfast at Tiffany’s, followed by Mary Poppins (making me wonder who loves Julie Andrews most: lesbians, gay men, or our kids).
We walked back to the hotel (with a bonus bag of pop tarts in hand) and made it an early night in preparation for our early morning at the Egg Roll the next day.
Short of Disney World, I don’t think there’s any place our family has enjoyed visiting more than D.C., with its plethora of things to see and do within a relatively small area. The fact that most museums are free lets us dabble and mix things up before our son gets tired, and lets us easily visit both old favorites and new exhibits without committing to going through an entire museum again. Throw in some wonderful spring weather (not to mention the Egg Roll), and it made a great getaway for a long weekend.
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