We went back to our hotel from our morning of monument hopping, and watched from our window as Lori walked back to the hotel from the convention center. We flashed the camera so she could see which window was ours, and waved back and forth like fools. Veronica thought this was awesome.
When we left the hotel, we made straight for the Spy Museum. Pictures are not allowed inside the Spy Museum. Here's the one photo I had to take:
The Spy Museum was wonderful - it's honestly everything one could hope for. After the initial razzle-dazzle, you walk into a room filled with every kind of spy gadget you could imagine (provided your imagination stops at about 1985). They have a section of ductwork set up so you can crawl through and spy on the folks below. There are a number of interactive exhibits, but since they don't allow strollers inside, we didn't really have the option to check those out. After the gadget rooms there are a number of exhibits about historical, not just theoretical, spies; they've got a neat little exhibit about ninjas - they actually refer to spy skills throughout the museum as 'ninja'. Because ninjas are awesome (much more so than pirates, the thieving, murdering rapists of the briny deep1).
The Spy Museum's gift shop has no cool T-shirts in toddler sizes, I'm sorry to report.
After the Spy Museum, Veronica took her second nap of the day, which was a shame because we rode the Metro to Georgetown, and Veronica loves the choo-choos. Now, the Metro in DC is freakishly strange: instead of paying a flat rate per trip, you pay based on how far you go. You have to scan your pass both to enter and exit the subway, and it bills you when you leave, instead of before you ride. Also, there are no unlimited passes that are good for more than a day. Also, the day pass is good for that day only, not for 24 hours. So my unlimited ride pass is now worthless, despite only being about 7 hours old. Oy.
I say we rode the Metro to Georgetown, but that's not quite right. We rode the Metro to GWU and then walked a mile to Georgetown. The distance we rode on the Metro, had we walked it, would have been just over another mile.
Georgetown itself was neat, or at least M street was neat, because that's all we saw. We were hunting for, among other things, Big Monkey Comics, but since they've moved to 14th Street, we were out of luck. Darn Google text message information.
Veronica woke up on our way back to the Metro, and she was thrilled with riding the trains. I knew she would be. We met Lori at the Convention Center and made our way back to the hotel. Soon after, we met up with my sister Lorin!
I dragged Lorin, Lori and Veronica to the real Big Monkey Comics, which is about a mile down 14th from our hotel. It was win-win for me! I got to go to the store I wanted to see, and I had to buy something to make the walk worthwhile!
The four of us then went to Chinatown for some wonderful Chinese food. There was a bit of a fiasco with finding somewhere to change Veronica, which involved a Legend of Zelda-esque puzzle quest. But afterwards, dinner was awesome, Veronica was happy, and we walked back to the hotel, with Veronica waving at DC in general the whole way back.
Once back at the hotel, we split up. I took Lorin home, by way of Target (blister supplies and bibs), while Lori put Veronica to bed. When I got back, Lori was busily cutting out giveaway coupons for the ALA vendor booths we're going to visit tomorrow.
1 - When Dora the Explorer hitches a ride with the pirate piggies, the mystique is all gone. I'm sure Dora 2099 will be goose-stepping with the Nazi newts.
Previously: