Washington, D.C. With the Boys, Day #2 “A Visit to the Smithsonian and Georgetown”

We greeted the boys at the entry of the hotel last night. Owen, Charlie and Julian were excited to see Patrice, Lindsay and me. David and Robyn seemed relieved. Travel from SF to DC with 3 young children and have your flight delayed?  My reaction would be  “#^+%{{” but David and Robyn seemed to be handling things just fine.

This morning Patrice and I were awakened by young children screeching next door. No, it wasn’t our crew but some other people who obviously were not on California Time. I finally had had enough. I banged on the wall and yelled “Keep quiet, my wife is trying to sleep and I’m playing Words With Friends”. That seemed to do the trick.

After resting a little longer we headed down to breakfast. This hotel (St. Regis 923 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20006) is very special. It is old so you would expect some things like poor insulation between the walls (we learned the hard way) but it is extremely classy. All the employees are falling all over themselves trying to make us happy. The hostess in the restaurant pulled the chair out for me and I thanked her and then she thanked me (not sure what I did other than thank her and sit down).

The check-in people were also great. They informed us that breakfast is included with our room. Then they said since we are platinum level guests, breakfast is included. Does that mean we can have breakfast twice? It was obvious we the only Californians in the dining hall. There you had a bunch of men wearing suits and ties. Then you had me (See below)

Breakfast was great. I had Salmon Benedict (see above) and Patrice had Crab Cake Benedict. Yes, we are not at the Residence Inn this trip.

This morning I got a text from my sister-in-law, Fayla, asking the plans for the day. I said “I don’t know, I just do what I’m told”. To which she replied “Another perfect Reiss man. Do what you’re told”.

Dobyn and crew joined us along with Lindsay as we were finishing breakfast (they are much better sleepers than we are).

After breakfast I was told I wanted to go to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  We had a great tour and saw the Spirit of St. Louis (Charles Lindbergh), Glamorous Glennis (Chuck Yeager), Friendship 7 (John Glenn) and host of other historic aircraft.  I have seen all these vessels before but I really enjoyed seeing them again.  Also visiting a place like this with young children takes advantage of my vast experience.  Yes, I am an invaluable travel partner.  See below.

After the Smithsonian we headed to Georgetown.  This a lovely area of the city and the home to Georgetown University (who would have guessed it?).   We happened onto a sign that explained some of the history of the area dating back to meetings between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.  The sign also noted that a young U.S. Senator from Massachusetts and his wife (John and Jacqueline Kennedy) used to live there. see below.

More tomorrow but first I need to decide what I want to do.  I will be told soon.