This week Jamie and I did the biennial Marshall Chamber of Commerce trip to Washington D.C. - our first in about twelve years we decided. But there were a couple of twists - first as we took Grayson (as we did on the Chamber Austin trip last spring) we went two days early to do the Washington thing with him, complete with tours of sites and museums, and on the end, we surprised Grayson with an early birthday present by taking him to see the Black Eyed Peas in concert in Dallas last night.
We drove to Dallas Monday and caught a late afternoon flight to DC, then went straight to our hotel, the Churchill at 1914 Connecticut. (Unfortunately, it was across the street from a statue of General McClellan, but you can't have everything). We had a great late dinner at La Tomate a couple of blocks down the street, and then got a good night's sleep before a busy Tuesday.
Tuesday started early with a rush (including Grayson's first subway ride on the Metro - I particularly enjoyed showing him how that worked) to stop by Sen. Cornyn's office in the Hart building to get our gallery passes before our 9:10 Capitol tour (arranged by Sen. Cornyn's staff - thanks to Olivia Vickers for setting that up) at the new Capitol Visitor's Center.
The center is beautiful and well-designed (except for the fact that you have to make two trips up to see the House and Senate galleries even if you have passes - you have to check your bags in on the first side, go up three floors and see that gallery, then go back down, get your stuff and recheck it in an identical bag check ten yards away, go back up the same elevators, and then you can go to the second gallery. Absolutely idiotic - adds 20 minutes to tour time and doubles the load on the two elevators to the gallery level. But with this minor exception, the tour and the new CVC was beautiful (see G next to statue of Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert). It was also the first time I'd been in the Capitol proper since working there in 1988, and I was disappointed we didn't get to see the Old Senate or Old Supreme Court chambers on the Senate side. But on the tour we saw the latest statutes, including the new Ronald Reagan in the Rotunda, and of course Sam Houston in the old House chamber (yes, G got to hear the cool echo).
After we finished with the Capitol, we headed for the Smithsonian's Air & Space Museum (Grayson's #1 goal) where we had a quick lunch, then sent Jamie back to the hotel for a nap while Grayson and I spent the whole afternoon going over it top to bottom. The highlight was seeing the original Star Trek Enterprise model from the 1960's series on display up close. 
(Apollo 11's Columbia, the Wright Flyer 
and the Spirit of St. Louis were also noteworthy but, frankly, not nearly the thrill). That night we feasted again, this time at Otello, acroos the street from last night's dinner.
Wednesday we started with a frantic dash from the White House Visitor's Center to the American History museum to put Jamie's purse in a locker. The second major foulup in the DC tourist system is that while there is a beautiful, spacious White House Vistor's Center in the Commerce Department building across the street, it doesn't have lockers, but the WH tours no longer allow even purses - so you have to run basically six blocks each way to ditch a purse. We then rushed back to the WH visitor's entrance, where of course we waited for half an hour before getting in for a self-guided tour. It was great getting to take Grayson, but Jamie and I were a little amused by the contrast with our last visit in 2001 (which included a visit to the business side of the building - see attached). You also start tours another maybe fifty yards from the building compared to 2001 - there's no longer even pedestrian access to East Executive Avenue (the street between the Treasury Department and the East Wing). There's also a massive dark green metal warehouse just southeast of the East Wing that wasn't there before, and on the first floor of the mansion proper the windows have all been beefed up - 
the original double doors with original glass that would have opened onto the south portico (which was never completed) from each of the south-facing windows had been backed up by a solid wainscot topped by glass (bullet-proof or explosion-resistant I presume) 
that's at least an inch thick - all the WH's windows now have a distinct green tint, we noticed). Which made me feel a litle better - it bothered me a bit in 2001 that from the right angles south of the mansion and outside the fence you could actually see into the Oval Office, yet the windows didn't appear to be reinforced - they definitely appear to be now. 
Anyway, as soon as we finished the White House tour we went back to the American History museum, where we did the Star Spangled Banner exhibit together, then split up with Jamie going to the First Ladies gown collection while Grayson and I covered the Presidency, Abraham Lincoln, the military exhibits and the gunboat Philadelphia, then it was back to the room to change for the first of our meetings with the Chamber group that afternoon in the CVC, starting with Sen. Cornyn and his staff. We just missed seeing the senator, but did get to visit with with staff, including Holt Lackey, who I'd worked with for some time on pending patent legislation. We had a long afternoon of meetings, then had dinner (with Grayson in coat and tie) at the Prime Rib on K Street.
Thursday was another morning of meetings with the Chamber, starting with Sen. Kay Bailey Hitchison in the Russell building. Funny story here - Grayson took a picture of Sen. Hutchison talking with his Nintendo DS, and after we took a picture with her 
she mentioned she saw him playing with his DS while she was talking. Not to be deterred he pulled it out 
(you can see it in the picture) and showed her no, he was taking a picture - 
which she was interested in, since her son (who's about Grayson's age) has a DS, and she didn't know it had a camera. Not often you get to watch your ten year old son brief a U.S. senator on how something works. (Actually I'm getting used to it - Grayson would tell the Pope how the rosary works).
We then rode the Senate tram 
over to the Capitol where we had more meetings. We then left the group, which headed out to Luray Caverns in Virginia for the afternoon and evening. Jamie, Grayson and I had lunch at Good Stuff, Spike's burger place on Capitol Hill
, and then we split up, with them going back to the AH museum to finish it, while I headed back to the Senate side to talk with Senate staff about the pending patent legislation. I then met them at AH and we headed over to the Natural History museum, where he hit dinosaurs
, sea life, mammals, and big old honkin' gems. Then it was back to the hotel for a nap before our last dinner in DC, this time at Odeon, a couple of blocks down from the hotel (any dinner preceded by an hour's nap is a good one).
We had to leave early Friday so we were not able to hook up with our group, but instead headed straight for Reagan National. We got to Dallas in plenty of time to Priceline a room and have dinner at El Fenix downtown (great chips) before heading to Grayson's surprise - the Black Eyed Peas concert at AA Center. 
(Grayson LOVES the Black Eyed Peas). We figured we'd be the only parents (or old folks) there, but were startled that a huge number of people of our age were there - a lot with teenage kids, some with kids Grayson's age, and some by themselves. Grayson absolutely loved it, and we all had a great time. The Dallas paper reported that we weren't the only ones! Apparently this is "mainstream urban pop" I learned. Didn't know what to call it.
So, a great trip, but it was even better to get home yesterday and see Collin and Parker, who liked seeing us almost as much as their new DS games and 'Rock Obama shot glasses.
