PTA VI Day 1: Friday, July 25, 2014: Washington DC

Phew...we made it--barely!  We had a 7:10 am flight, after a late night at the Twins game with Noah's Baseball Team.  Needless to say, we did the impossible, got everyone and nearly everything we needed to the airport with plenty of time to spare.  So far, Noah had to purchase a powercord for his phone, Guy had to pick up a couple of casual shirts (he packed for work, but didn't get things together for hanging with family), Leah had all of her essentials, including, but not limited to three stuffed animals, her favorite fuzzy blanket (full sized) sunglasses and her flip flops.  (What else does a girl need?)

We are staying at the Marriott Marquis in Downtown DC.  It is a brand new hotel that Guy has stayed at, it is really nice and certainly perfect for the business traveler.  The only irony when we checked in is that there are 100's of US Junior National Girls Basketball Players staying here, as they are playing in the US Junior National Championship Tournament in the Convention Center right next door.  No Mpls Lakers players spotted...and they seriously have taken over the hotel!

After we got our "bearings" we decided we wanted to grab a bite of some local DC fare and we scored an original that we all liked!  We visited Busboys and Poets for lunch!  Guy was able to meet us for a bite between his meetings.  It is a really neat restaurant, that is part bookstore, part restaurant, part stage, a place where you can take a "deliberate pause and feed your mind."  It was named after the Poet Langston Hughes, who was a Busboy at a local hotel, one night he wrote a number of poems and left them on some local restaurants tables, never intending to become famous, merely wanting to share his poems with others.  We all gave it a thumbs up!

While Dad was off working...we decided to head out to take in some sights.  We visited the National Portrait Gallery.  While we had visited here before, we have enjoyed their exhibits.  The highlights for us were:  "American Cool"  Amazing cool portraits of so many people that we knew, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Murray, Madonna....just to name a few.  Leah was disappointed, "no Disney?"  "He's clearly the coolest!"

Noah also correctly pointed out the most famous painting in their collection of George Washington, while Leah tried to study some of them.  (She is the real artist in our family). 

Leah pondering how she would have drawn George...

Noah pointing out that this is the MOST FAMOUS painting of George Washington.

My favorite quote from Leah came, when I was so excited to see the very new and iconic painting of all 4 women justices.  While I am taking a picture, she says...who are those nuns?  Ugh...at that point, I decided another visit to the Supreme Court was in order!

New Painting that was completed in 2012 of the Women of the Supreme Court. 

Souvenir Tally:
Guy-0
Penny-0
Noah-0
Leah-2
(After day one, we decided this could be worthy of tracking...)