Part two: Weekend with my Mom!

Friday my Mom came down for the weekend! She was supposed to get in at 3:37, so I left work early to go meet her. However, I still had to do a lot at work before I left. Friday was also Mars Day. From 10 to 3 everything at the museum had to do with Mars. Us Space History interns had been volunteered to work shifts. My shift was from 11:30am to 1pm. I had to hand out 3D glasses along with two of my fellow interns Jaleel and Marcus. It was fun because it was a change from the normal routine, but by the end I was exhausted from acting happy for so long and my face hurt from holding a smile. However, it was worth the pain because we got some awesome red polo t-shirts that say Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Mars Day on them and the following Monday the gave us chocolate! It was worth it for other reasons, but nothing beat the shirt I got! The three of us were handing out 3D glasses so that the public could look at images of Mars. With the glasses they could see the mountains and the valleys. I only got to see a bit as we were cleaning up, but it looked interesting and some of the public was getting so into it that they were pushing the pictures over. After my shift I got cornered by a fellow intern while I was trying to leave to get lunch. By the time she was done talking to me I just grabbed my stuff and left. I stopped for lunch and then got on the Metro to go to the airport to pickup my mom! My mom's flight was almost 40 minutes late getting in and I had gotten there early, so I stopped for coffee and read my book as I waited. I was so happy to see my mom! I could barely contain myself when I saw her! I'm not very good at describing my feelings, so just understand that I was overjoyed! We went to her hotel and then headed over to We the Pizza for supper. I made my mom get the spinach and artichoke pizza along with an old fashion Italian cream soda. She loved it! At least that's what she told me, but who knows. Moms say and do stuff in order to make their kids happy. After our yummy supper we grabbed some clothes and souvenirs I wanted my mom to take home with her and we headed back to the hotel for the evening.

Saturday was a day so packed with fun and awesomeness that my left foot started to bleed because we were walking so much and I've already worn out my new pair of shoes. We started off the day by going and getting crepes at Point Chaud Cafe and Creperie. I've been there multiple times and every time it's delicious! After we walked over to Union Station and bought tickets for a 12:30 ride on the Duck boat. That gave us just over two hours to go to the Eastern Market, grab lunch and come back. We hustled over to the Eastern Market and wandered around. We bought my brother even more souvenirs if that's possible, but they were pretty cool. When we were done wandering we realized that we weren't that hungry, but we were quite thirsty because of the heat. I suggested we stop in at City Java for an iced drink thing. It was my mom's second cup of caffeine that day and she was wired! Well, it wasn't to bad. She just had a bit of a headache. With wandered back to Union Station with our drinks to catch the Duck boat. The Duck boat tour was so much fun! It took about an hour and  half and they did actually take us into the water with the boat! The tour guide was fun and told us facts that I didn't already know which was nice! After the boat tour we stopped and got frozen yogurt in a corn and started marching over to the National Botanical Gardens. Our yogurt started melting all over our hands and soon we both were a big mess! Luckily on our way to the gardens we spotted a drinking fountain that we could wash our hands in. We got to the gardens a bit before 3pm. We wandered around outside until my friend Erin showed up at three. The three of us wandered through the garden. We saw the now dead corpse flower and a lot of other plants that I don't know the names of! At one point we went into the outside garden and there was a hummingbird. I think it's the first time I've seen one in real life. I was so cool! I got a pretty good picture of it which I'll put below. After the gardens we went over to Merzi for supper. We were going to have a picnic, but it looked like it was going to rain, so we ate inside. That was a great decision! It started to pour so hard! It looked like a typhoon was happening outside! Luckily by the time we were done eating it was only sprinkling. The weather in Washington really confuses me sometimes. After supper Erin left us and my mom and I headed back to the hotel to watch cute dog videos on the Animal Channel for the evening.

Sunday started out the same as Saturday. My mom and I went for breakfast at the crepe place, but that's where the similarities ended! Well, not really. After breakfast we walked over to the Tidal Basin and went on the paddle boats for an hour. It was so much fun and a pretty good deal. It was 12$ for the two of us together for an hour. Anyway, we paddled around the basin. Those things can be so hard to paddle! Sometimes we didn't seem to have any momentum or our paddles weren't hitting anything because no matter how hard we tried we wouldn't moved! It was the most difficult trying to get back into the dock! We eventually had to make our way back by going at an angle towards the dock. If we tried to go straight on we would work really hard but go no where! It was really pretty out on the water and the weather was nice. It was a bit clouded and there was a breeze which helped us cool down while we were working our butts off to move the boat! I can't believe how much harder it would have been if there had been normal Washington weather. We probably would have keeled over from heat exhaustion! After paddle boating we started making our way to the National Geographic Museum. On our way we stopped for lunch and then an iced tea. We met my friend Erin again, but this time at 2pm. The National Geographic Museum isn't huge and you have to pay for it, but it was still interesting. They had an exhibit about real life pirates which was cool and an exhibit about the history of National Geographic. It took us about two and a half hours to get through the two exhibits. After the three of us walked back to the hotel to pick up some of my things that  had to take back to my place. We then headed to my place and then went out for supper. We ended up at Pain Quotidien for supper which was a nice light supper since none of us were that hungry. Following that Erin left my mom and I and the two of us again headed back to the hotel for the evening. 

 Monday was the day my mom left me. It was also her 49th birthday! I had the morning off so that morning we went somewhere different for breakfast. We went to Teaism which is a tea shop. Their chai tea was delicious and the breakfast food was pretty good, not the best and not the worst. After eating we went and hung out in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden for an hour. We just chatted which was the reason why my mom came down in the first place. About 11am we got on the Metro and I dropped my mom off at the airport. I was quite sad to see her go and I think I'm still depressed from being left behind. After leaving my mom at the security gate I headed over to the museum making it just in time for the farewell intern pizza lunch. They had a lunch at NASM to thank us interns for all of our hard work. Because of the lunch I didn't get to start working until 1:30. However, I did something really cool in the afternoon. I contacted the first Canadian woman astronaut in space, Roberta Bondar, and asked her if she would make a comment on the mission for the spread I'm writing. She got back to me in 45 minutes agreeing! I'm still waiting for the comment, but it's really cool to think that me, a normal 21 year old, had contact with an astronaut! My job gets more and more exciting everyday! I can't believe that it's going to end soon!