DC with Kids Day 6: The Air and Space Museum

As we approached our last full day in DC for our week long vacation, we had already dreamed about the next time we will visit this fun-filled-family-friendly city. We hardly scratched the surface of what DC has to offer us. But today, we couldn't go home without visiting the most visited museum in this country - The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

We had planned only one stop today knowing how big the museum is. We started our day early and headed to the metro. After a quick breakfast on the bench along the Mall, we headed to the museum entrance. The line was long but it moved rather quickly. After we got in, we found out that we just missed the 11am tour. A quick stop at the information desk was very helpful. A volunteer pointed us to the 'How Things Fly' room. This room is amazing and perfect for kids of all ages. Kids get to learn about what makes thing fly with an interactive hand-on exhibits. Each one teaches them the concept of air and space. We spent almost an hour in this room alone.

The next stop was to check out the Skylab space station on the second floor. Along the way, we also checked out the Apollo 11 and the Man on the Moon displayed. Do you know that all exhibits in the museum are the original items not replica. It made the experience even more surreal to see all these amazing items that had been out in the space. A line to the Skylab was long but don't get discourage. It moved rather quicky. The kids got to walk through the space station and check out what living and working in the space was like.

By the time, we walked through the space station, it was lunch time. We went outside to grap a quick lunch from the McD stand next to the museum. We had a nice time eating there with the structure outdoor that was a great playground for the kids. Then we headed back to wait for the 1pm tour.

The tour started at the Wright Brothers & the Invention of the Aerial Age exhibition. A gentleman who leaded the guide was very knowledgeable and nice. We got to learn about what it took for the Wright brothers to get that first plane up in the air. It was a long tour so it might not be suitable for younger kids. We stayed for half the tour and figured that it was enough for Miss J and Mr. Z so we headed down to the Museum store. The Museum store was a fun place for them in itself. Don't forget to go down the basement to check out the original model of the U.S.S Enterprise Model, used in the filming of the first Star Trek series. I think it was the highlighted of the trip for Mr. Rojo..

By this time, we were done as in.. physically tired and couldn't check out any more exhibits. This museum would require more than one day to fully explore. And we would have to save them for next trip. :) We walked outside to take a quick snack break on the lawn in front of the museum. The weather was perfect. It was such a nice day and everyone enjoyed sitting there and peopel watching for a while...

Photo Friday: Lincoln Memorial at Night

One of my favorite spot during our spring break trip to DC was the Lincoln Memorial at night. We went there during our walking tour with DC by Foot tour guide.

It was one of the highlighted of our trip. It's a must-do in my opinion. The tour was fun, educational and very affordable. We walked from the corner of 15th and Contitution Ave to the Washington Monument. From there, we got to learn about the history of the monument and the Capitol Hill in which we could see from the distance. Then we walked to the World War II Memorial. Along the way, we heard the story about the White House and the Jefferson Memorial. My most memorable part of the tour has to be the Vietnam Veteran Memorial Wall. Do you know that it's not the War memorial because Vietnam war is not official war?

Once we got to Lincoln Memorial, the Sun had already set. The memorial was well-lit and had a lot of visitors even during night time. I love to just sit on the steps and look out to the reflecting pool.

Check out other travelers' Photo Friday at Delicious Baby.

DC With Kids Day 5: The National Zoo!

When traveling with kids, we plan our trip around them. This trip is no difference than our other family trip. With that in mind, we took them to the National Zoo for a break from all the museum and history. The weather during our visit was so varied from day to day. The first day we were cold and pulled out our sweater and jacket. But today, it was a nice sunny day.

We got on our train from our hotel and hopped on the Yellow line and connected to the Red line at Gallery Place/China Town stop. We felt so comfortable traveling around DC with the Metro now that we could figure out our stop or even exchange to different line. Then we hopped off at Cleveland Park stop. The Zoo is actually located between Cleveland Park and Woodley Park stop. But if you got off at Woodley Park, you will be walking uphill to the Zoo instead of walking downhill from Cleveland Park stop. A little tip I received from the Tripadvisor forum..

It was pretty busy at the Zoo today. I guess everyone came out when the weather was really nice. We checked out the map and decided to start from the back. We stopped by the stroller rental booth to rent a double stroller. Eventhough Miss J and Mr. Z are already capable of walking on their own, we knew that the amount of walking today would be too much for them. The best decision we had made that day!!

The Zoo itself wasn't that impressive in my humble opinion. But the kids enjoyed them tremendously. We checked out the baby gorilla, the Ape House (make sure to hold your breath.. The smell was the worst I have ever experienced!!), the Tigers and the Lion.

At lunch, we ate at the Mane Restaurant. It was packed by the time we got our food. The food was pretty decent for the park food. Afterward, we walked around to check out other animals and of course the Panda and the Elephant.

By the afternoon, we were wiped out. We headed out to the Woodley Park station and stopped by Open City for early dinner. This is a great restuarant with the neighborhood feel. They had breakfast all day so I satisfied my craving for pancake and ordered the Organic Wholewheat Oatmeal pancake. It was delish!!

I originally planned 2 stops today. The Zoo and the Air and Space museum.. However, things never go according to plan. We were so tired from the walk all day. We decided to do the Air and Space tomorrow and headed back to the hotel for an early night.

The China's Terracotta Army in Atlanta

The Terracotta Army from China is probably the second most recognized Chinese treasure after the Great Wall. Mr. Rojo and I were fortunate to visit China many moons ago but we didn't have enough time to visit the Terracotta Army. And it's probably almost impossible to make a trip to visit China anytime in the near future. So we were pretty excited when the High Museum in Atlanta had an exhibit of the Terracotta Army on loan from the British Museum.

To fly to London and see the exhibit there ourselves is probably doable.. but the cost saving of seeing it locally is uncomparable. We were so procasinate that we waited till the last weekend to visit. If it weren't for Mr. Rojo who pushed for it, we might have missed it and I might have kicked myself for not taking this great opportunity.

So we packed up the kids after soccer practice and tracked downtown to visit the High. I guess a lot of people felt the same way of the last weekend before they left.. It was pretty busy.. We decided to join the High membership which allowed us to go through the express lane.. Now this is my kind of membership. :) We spent extra money to get the audio tour. I'm glad we did. Both kids enjoy the audio tour so much. It kept them interested and entertained throughout the exhibit.

The exhibit started with the history of the First Emperor and his time. We learned about the life of the chinese during that time. Once we got to the life-size terracotta army, I was speechless. The details and the expression on each figure was remarkable. This was probably the first assembly line in existance. They created the figure individually and each part was created by different group and then it was assembled and then customized to distinguish and make each figure different from the next. It was just amazing!

It was very mind-bloggling to see the map of the tomb and to learn that the excavation is still on going after 30 years after the first discovery. Not only, it's an on-going digging but the main tomb has yet been reached. I just can't wrap my little mind around how many men they will need to make something in that capacity. What kind of tool or technique they have to use.. ah.. I love history!

If you live in Santa Ana, CA then you are in luck. Don't miss a great opportunity to see one of the most amazing exhibit! You won't be disappointed.

The World of Coca-Cola

When you live in Atlanta metro area, you can't help but see or hear about Coca Cola. After all, it's the birthplace and headquarter of this mega company. The new World of Coca-Cola has been opened for quite sometimes. Until recently, we had a chance to visit on a nice sunny Saturday.

The new World of Coca Cola is conveniently located next to the Georgia Aquarium and the Imagine It! Children's Museum. Across the street is the Centennial Olympic Park. So it's a perfect location to have a full day of all Atlanta favorite tourist spots. When we got there, there were a few field trips but the line to get the tickets was short.

Once we got in, we waited at the lobby area and checked out the amazing Coke bottle artwork around the world. The detail and representation for each of this bottle is amazing. A short wait and then we were directed to see the short film 'Inside the Happiness Factory'. It was pretty nice and fun short film to give you the glimpse of what Coca Cola wants us to know about their factory..

Then we walked to the Hub which we waited in line to meet the Coca-Cola Polar Bear. I think it was well planned that they timed the guests in group so there wasn't a long wait and if you aren't interested in the picture, you can head directly to the next gallery.

One of the things I always do when I go to the World of Coca-Cola is to hunt for the Coke sign in Thai. Coca-Cola is pretty popular in Thailand so I'm sure we are a pretty good customer. And they didn't disappoint me when I found a sign in Thai language. It was amazing to see how globalize Coke is.. It's everywhere!

My next favorite part was the Bottle Works. This is where we got to see a real bottling line and see Coke being made right in front of us. Having an industrial engineer background, I love to see all these machines come to life. We probably spent a good 20 minutes watching the Packaging Robot doing his job. And do you know he has a name.. 'Fizzybot' is his name..

We then headed to the 4-D theatre to watch 'The Secret Formula' show. It was pretty interactive and I don't think small children will enjoy it much. The chair can shake pretty violently and I heard a few small kids cried. But Mr. Z and Miss J did enjoy them. The 4-D effects was really thought out.. the water, the air, the movement.. It felt like we were at one of the Disney ride.

After the theatre, we headed to the most anticipate room.. the Tasting room.. This was the room that the kids got to drink Coca-Cola products from all around the world. They group the drinks into regions.. Some were pretty good.. some were not so good (ok.. it was really bad). But you have gotta try them all, right?

Each guest can pick up a bottle as they headed out to the gift shop. It was one of those place that you have to visit once..

DC With Kids Day 4: Capitol Hill and DC by Foot

Today was the day with great plan and great expectation. I had secured tickets for the Capitol Hill tour and planned for the evening tour of the monuments from DC by Foot. But things don't work according to plan...

We started of early enough (or what we thought..) and hopped on the Yellow line to head to Capitol Hill. Once we arrived at the Visitor Center entrance we found out that there was a long line to go through security. Our tour time was 10:15am and now it's 9:50am. I was hoping that they might be a little bit flexible with time.. Oh.. No.. We missed our ticket time by 5 minutes and there was nothing they can do. If we still want to do the tour, now we had to go wait in the walk-up line that can be anywhere between 30 mins-1 hour wait. So consider yourself warned, if you have your Capitol tour, be early!

Since we didn't have any other big plan till the evening, we decided to wait. Mr. Rojo was an ever loving dad waited in line for us while Miss J and I walked around and checked out the information room. It was a great place to spend time there. There were so many information of the House and the Senate, short movies to tell you about the history and what the Senate and the House do.. We didn't walk around and check out everything. I went back to check on Mr. Rojo and Mr. Z. The line was moving along but it was still a long way to go. So I took them to have a quick snack at the Capitol Hill cafeteria. It was a really nice cafeteria. I would think we probably would enjoy our lunch time there if we had a chance. But before we could even finish our snack, the fire alarm went off!!! We headed to meet up with Mr. Rojo and followed the evacuation route out of the Capitol Hill. So that was pretty much our Captitol Hill experience. :)

Well, it was a nice day so we took our time in front of the Capitol Hill and the Union Station park. Then we headed to the Union Station for lunch. It was crazy busy there. Too many food to pick from... After a fulfilled lunch, we decided to head back to the hotel to take a quick break before heading back to town again for our walking tour.

I found out about DC by Foot tour from the TripAdvisor forum. It was a FREE, tip based walking tour of Washington DC. The tour took us through the heart of National Mall by visiting Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, Lincoln Memorial and Korean War Memorial. It was such a great, high energy tour that was full packed with history that won't bore you to sleep. The walk started from the corner of 15th and Constitution Ave. NW and ended at the Lincoln Memorial.

We learned a lot of fun facts like the current Washington Monument wasn't original design. Or if you look closely, you will see 2 different color stone. That's because the construction was stopped for a long period of time before they finished the monument.

One of the highly recommened activity is night tour of the monuments. We didn't plan but by the time the tour ended it was already dark. But the Lincoln Memorial was still packed full of visitors. And it was breathtaking indeed! We just took it all in with all the beauty and sense of pride for the history of this country.

It took us approximately about 2 hours for the whole tour. I highly recommended anyone who will visit DC to check them out. After the tour, we walked through George Washington University to take the Metro back to the hotel. By that time it was already dark but we felt pretty safe walking in DC. It's one of the thing that we really love about DC. It feels very safe to walk around even at night in the downtown area. I'm sure there are certain areas that not safe but as far as the popular tourist places we have no issue there.