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.

Not something you usually want to see parked outside the National Archives

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.

Outside the Naval Heritage Museum

We now know where to get a sage fix should it be needed

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.

DC Hard Rock

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.