A Pretty Good Day With My Dad

Mom and Carissa were planning on spending the day planning for the party that evening, so I was in charge of Dad.  I thought that it was in part to keep Dad out of their hair, but also in part so that Dad could spend a day walking around since Mom can't go too far with her foot problems.

I admit that I was feeling a little rough today - a little TOO much wine with Carissa last night.  We also had been eating a lot of pretty rich food which I try not to do, so that was probably contributing also.  Not to mention that I never sleep very well while on vacation.  The trifecta of travel-related woes.

After a quick breakfast with the family we split up.  Dad and I headed downtown to the Newseum - I hadn't seen it yet and heard that it was really interesting.  It is not one of the Smithsonian's so there was an admission charge.  I think that maybe helps to both up the content and interest of the people attending - less people who were obviously just killing time or trying to get out of the heat.

I have been to museums with Dad before and know that he tends to dawdle as he feels compelled to read every single placard in detail.  I knew that we needed to be headed back on the Metro by 4:00, this left us about 5 hours in the Newseum.  This left less than one hour per floor.  Some floors have a lot more content, so plan those around a 1/2 hour and on hour for the others.  So long as I make sure Dad keeps pace, we should be able to see a lot.

Your admission is technically for two days, and in order to see most of the Newseum you really need both days.  Each exhibit has a short film and/or several TV clips/short features.  We admittedly did not get a chance to watch most of those due to our time constraints.  I will say that it was very interesting and well done.  A really good mix of funny, with thought-provoking, with tear-jerking.  Well done, Newseum, well done.

About 3:30 I realized that we hadn't eaten lunch.  We did have a later breakfast, but by this point I was starving.  We had just enough time to stop at of sports bar and have a beer and some nachos before heading back.  I really enjoyed the day and I think that Dad did too.