Birthdays: Double-digit and ALL boy!

Lego Maniac turned 10 (!) today and we had a marvelous day: the big boy and I spent a good few hours at our favorite museum, the National Marine Corps Museum, including lunch at Tun's Tavern and a visit to the gift shop to pick out some birthday treats. It was wonderful to actually SEE the museum without the other two as LegoManiac and I really get into it and String Bean and Bam-Bam think the faster the trip through the better.

We then did afternoon Mass (LegoManiac was on the rota for this afternoon) with an absolutely stunning sermon about FOCA and what we can do to fight it. Then a run through Quizno's to pickup up subs for dinner and home again to open gifts, talk to older brother Brikhead AND big sister Volleyballer on the phone, and generally revel in being 10!

Happiest of birthdays, dear Lego Maniac!

Where should you go today?

How 'bout the National Museum of the Marine Corps? Well, if you're interested .... read on, McDuff!

We went to this fabulous museum a couple of weeks ago.

Here's the first thing that met us at the entry -- you gotta love a museum that mentions knitting from the get-go! If you sign their guest book, they'll send the pattern for the balaclava with additional instructions for where to donate the caps for active duty marines! That might even get Lego-Maniac, our little prospective Marine, knitting his little fingers off.


This is an AMAZING history, military-history, political science, social science, technology museum all rolled into one. There is a huge atrium in the center, with real helicopters, planes and other dioramas making it very easy for the kids to really see these items. A gallery allows a bird's eye view of the two-story museum.

We had a blast learning about boot-camp (including hands-on exhibits to test you skill such as trying to lift a "typical backpack" - some 100 lbs - on your back!). There are exhibit rooms showing all the wars where the Marines were involved -- from the Revolution thru to Iraq ... with lots of great photos of the Marines' part in not only the battle but also in the re-building of countries.

The museum is open daily and is FREE! Additionally, there is an awesome playground tucked behind the parking lot ... with tons of shade trees and some walking paths. The museum is still working on the overall grounds, but it will eventually have walking paths all over the site.