Good grief! This morning Aral and I left the apartment with Tess and stopped for coffee and a pastry. Yep still working on my waistline (although I got up this morning and did 100 sit ups). Nothing so lovely as LE PAIN QUOTIDIEN, but, you know, serviceable coffee. Or at least there weren’t flavor crystals in it.
We parted ways, Tess went to the office, and Aral and I walked to the Metro. We rode it north and across the Potomac back to the National Mall. We rode a bit further north this time and got off at the National Archives.
The Archives were not open so we walked around the area for a while, visited the Naval Heritage Museum and then started on several gardens and galleries.
Much later and after many steps we wondered back north again in dire need of sustenance. The Pavilion at the National Post Office seems to be closed or under construction or something (it looked sort of derelict actually), so we ended up searching for a place, any place. Aral wanted a “cheese burger” and so with some trepidation I entered the DC Hard Rock Cafe.
The food was actually really good and I’ve had no appetite since we left. I thought of my older son Justin a lot looking around at the walls and listening to the music. The people were even cooler, our waitress seemed to like Aral and talked to him directly. You know, like a little person who just happens to be hanging out with his SAHD.
And that there was pretty much the whole day. More photos in the flickr. feed of course. We came back on the Metro and then crashed hardcore. My foot has been giving me little twinges since I woke up from that nap on the couch, but otherwise I’m none the worse for the wear and Aral is sitting next to Mommy on the couch watching Lunar Jim solve a mystery.
FeetForBrains 
Sounds like a fun adventure around the city! I was at a few Hard Rock Cafe’s when I was younger, the food is surprisingly decent. I think my sister worked at the National Archives for a while, she’s got her degree in Library Science.
Everyone is down for a nap at the moment, but today we made it back to the district. Ended up spending a lot of time in the American History Museum. I was particularly enthralled by the conestoga wagon and all the early engines that they had on display (although I couldn’t find a Sterling, go figure).
I love librarians, I think its just working day-in, day-out soaking in all that knowledge, but they are some of the most interesting people in my experience.