Old Enough For the Smithsonian

The very early years of our marriage were spent in the Laurel, Maryland area which is about half way between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. We spent a great deal of time exploring our nation’s capital and one of our favorite places to go was the Smithsonian Museum. The museum is actually made up of several buildings near the center mall area. The Aeronautics and Space building was always fun as was the building that housed all the historical artifacts from the entertainment world—like Dorothy’s ruby red slippers. When our kids were old enough to appreciate the history and the importance of the nation’s capitol, we took them on a trip to D.C. and of course the Smithsonian was on our agenda.

In the years between our residence in Maryland and our vacation in D.C. with our kids, Bob had worked for Addressograph Multigraph and had helped to design a credit authorization terminal. The equipment was nothing like the little card readers we see in the stores today. On the contrary, it was the size of a small microwave oven. (I would say the size of a large electric typewriter but today many people don’t know what a typewriter looks like.) We still have one of the originals in our basement (Ours obviously sat too near someone’s art project.) It was innovative and the first step to technology for credit card authorization that soon took off and became very sophisticated.

As we visited various parts of the Smithsonian, the kids were duly impressed and/or bored with our stories of the things we saw from our childhood. Eventually we reached a section of “modern” technology and as we walked along one of the kids stopped in his tracks and pointed.

“Isn’t that the thing we have in the basement, Dad?” he asked.

Displayed with several other units was the very credit authorization machine Bob had worked on. Right there in the Smithsonian Museum. Yes, we felt old. So take care when you visit those museums. You just might find a little piece of your personal history collecting dust along with all the other historical artifacts.

Planning for D.C.? Tips for the Trip

Please welcome my daughter-in-law, Lori, as guest blogger today. She has some great tips on planning a trip to Washington, D.C.

This past February our son’s 2nd grade class did a unit about national monuments. Each night our son came home and shared with us a long forgotten fact: The Washington Monument is 555’ tall. The Lincoln Memorial has 36 columns around it, one for each state in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death. There’s a tomb in the US Capitol but no one is buried in it. He really seemed to enjoy learning about the monuments, so we decided to take the kids to Washington DC to see some of our nation’s monuments in person.

I started researching our trip in March, thinking maybe we’d go for a long weekend over Memorial Day. As I started to research our destinations, I quickly discovered a vacation to DC is not something you can plan in just a month or two if you want to actually go inside the buildings. A lot had changed since I visited with my 8th grade class! We adjusted our calendar and planned a Labor Day trip instead. Here are some things I discovered that visitors to Washington DC should know in advance:

Requests to tour the White House should be submitted through your member of Congress 3 to 6 months in advance. You will receive notification of your approval (or denial) 1 to 2 weeks before your requested visit date, so have back up plans in case you’re denied. (There are a limited amount of tickets for each day, so it is quite possible that you will be denied.) If you’re lucky enough to be approved for the self-guided tour, don’t plan on carrying anything extra with you that day – including your camera.

Requests to tour the US Capitol should be submitted through your member of Congress at least 30 days in advance. Our representatives had request forms for both the White House & US Capitol on their websites.

You must have tickets to enter the Washington Monument. Tickets are free, but not necessarily readily available. You can wait in line at the Visitor’s Center for tickets, but they frequently run out within an hour or two of opening and the line forms early. Your best bet is to order tickets online. There is a $1.50 convenience fee per ticket, but the cost was well worth it. The day we were there, the line at the Visitor’s Center was quite long, and the tour tickets for the entire day were gone by 10am.

You must have a timed-entry ticket to tour the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, depending on the month of your visit.

Many other sites around Washington offer tickets you can order online before your trip. Google each of your destination sites to verify their tour times and ticket availability. We found it convenient to pay a couple dollars per ticket in order to guarantee we got to see everything we wanted to see. By ordering the tickets, we were also able to select our own tour times and better plan our days.

As our kids marveled at the bird’s eye views of the White House, Jefferson Memorial, and US Capitol from the observation deck 500 feet up in the Washington Monument, I was glad I had taken a little extra time to plan their first visit to our nation’s capital.

Visiting Washington, DC

Tomorrow, depending upon whose predictions you use, there could be as many as 3 million people descending upon our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. When we were young marrieds, and before having kids, we lived near D.C. and took advantage of many of the free sites and activities that took place there. Later, with our children, we returned and again enjoyed many of the freebies that abound in the city.

The largest and some of the most impressive of the free things to do and see are the Smithsonian Institution Museums. The Institution is composed of 19 museums, 9 research facilities, and the National Zoo. The museums do not charge admission fees and you can spend days trying to see them all. Art, history, culture, and science and technology abound throughout the mall area that is surrounded by the historical museum buildings and their modern counterparts.

When we visited, the things most remembered were the ruby red slippers from Wizard of Oz, the Mercury capsule from early space flights, and of course, the Giant Panda at the zoo. But the exhibit that brought the biggest smile to my face was the one we saw in the American History museum tucked among some of the technical communication products. I recognized it immediately because when it became obsolete, Bob had brought one home to save for posterity. Afterall, he had a hand in designing it. It was a credit card terminal--a very early model that was larger than an old typewriter. Today, it's that little box where you swipe your credit card.

Panda Birthday

Happy Birthday, Tai Shan!

The National Zoo's baby panda is one year old today. From a tiny four ounces to a whopping 56 pounds, Tai Shan has certainly been well nourished by his mother and zoo officials. The tiered birthday fruitsicle must have been a real treat for his young taste buds.

Tai Shan's name means "peaceful mountain." I remember the angst when our grandchildren were due and needed names. Somehow Anglo Saxon names just don't translate as poetically as the Asian names. I wonder if the name was wishful thinking on the part of zookeepers? After all gaining 56 pounds in one year, he's on his way to becoming mountainous and wouldn't you want something that big to be peaceful?