The Country Mouse and The City Mouse

Friday 11 August 2006

GR, Bob and I took the children on the Metro to DC to tour the Capital (arranged by Aunt Elspeth). I am so glad we didn’t try to go into DC during rush hour… the kids were so cute the first time we entered the station. It took us a couple of tries to teach them how to put their Metro card into the reader, so the gate would open and they could walk through to find the train. They loved riding the train and looking out at all the different sites along the way. They really thought it was cool that we let them ride the train standing!

It was about 3:30 when we rode the train home, and since it was a Friday the trains were much more crowded. The first train we got on (right off the Mall) was very full, with only single seats open here and there. GR had Alex in the stroller, and I had Sam on my lap with the girls at my side. I found three single seats all next to each other (one in front of the other, and across the isle) and told the girls to sit down. I must have told them to sit down four times before the train started to move and they reluctantly sat down next to two complete strangers. In less than 10 seconds, both of them turned to their seat partner and said, “Hi, what’s your name?” Emily was sitting next to a woman about the age of my mom, who smiled, told her, her name and asked Emily what her name was. Rebecca was sitting next to a 14/15 year old African American boy, who wasn’t exactly prepared for her question, but very politely and quietly answered with his name. We were only on that train for two stops before getting off and getting on another train.

While we waited for our transfer train to arrive, I explained to Rebecca and Emily that I needed them to sit down wherever there was an empty seat, and that people in Washington, DC simply aren’t use to talking to others on the train, so it might be best just sit quietly.

We had a great tour of the capitol, ate lunch in their caffeteria and discovered our tour guide was LDS too!