1. Yesterday was the granddaddy of all field trips. Tommy and Travis had a day trip to DC to visit the Air and Space Museum and no, JJ wasn’t along for the ride because our kids have been in separate classes since kindergarten which has been oh so fun when it comes to parent teacher conferences, open house night, and every field trip we’ve ever been on.
But I digress.
We left the house at 0 dark thirty and hadn’t calculated the amount of time I would need to get the three of us ready to go so I didn’t eat breakfast. This would become an important fact by 7:00 later that night when I hadn’t had anything to eat in 24 hours except for a packet of cheese crackers from the vending machine, a Dr. Pepper and the crumbs to the Nutty Buddy that I licked off Travis’ shirt when he ate the lunch I’d packed for him and neglected to pack for myself.
All of this information was not available to me at 6:00 in the morning so for the moment, everyone was happy.
Some were happier than others when they stole Mom’s iPad and played with it the whole way up to DC.
2. The bus was chartered and fairly comfortable but I made the rookie mistake of sitting in the back of the bus and while this wasn’t a problem going up, by the time we got back home at midnight and 40 children had been using the on-bus lavatory which was for emergency bathroom use only, I was having to hold my breath every time the kids would open the door to go in there.
And that was a lot because it smelled so bad they were daring each other to go in there.
And I’ve never met a middle schooler that wouldn’t take a dare.
But the bus also had wi-fi and a good movie selection so who am I to complain?
3. The cherry blossoms were at their peak in DC so that meant we and a million of our closest friends were all down on the National Mall.
We slogged through the choking traffic and got dropped off at the Museum where Travis had me take important pictures like this hot air balloon and a box of Red Baron pizza.
It’s at this same museum that I saw Tommy for about six seconds. Apparently when you’re in the 6th grade and on a field trip with your mother, it’s uncool to be seen with her.
4. We loaded back on the bus after spending a few minutes trying to get the lift to work and then spent over an hour driving out to Dulles Airport to see the Air and Space Annex (Udvar-Hazy).
Because of the time we lost in traffic and because we were running up against the amount of time our bus drivers could be on the road, we had a grand total of exactly THIRTY-THREE MINUTES to see the entire museum. That was about enough time to get off, get down the elevator, and get a picture made with the shuttle.
5. But it was worth every single second of the ELEVEN HOURS spent on a bus to get to spend a precious 10 minutes with NotNed and Momologuer who also drove an hour so we could be together.
Oh, sweet friends. I love you so much.
And then we piled back into the bus and drove FOREVER AND A DAY and got back home at midnight and it was without a doubt a long run for a short slide but totally worth it.
And a good time was had by all.
Have a nice day.