Several guides and experts had told us to skip the Washington Memorial, but our kids were absolutely determined to go up. We had tickets for 9:30 am yesterday, and we'd also planned to bike the monuments. We had three bikes here and were planning to rent three more downtown. Then logistics kicked in.

No bikes on the Metro until 10 am. The bike rental shop opens at 9 am. You have to pick up will call tickets at 9 am for a 9:30 ticket. Don't forget the Metro parking rules. We can split up, but at least one adult has to go with each group. Three people have to ride the bikes to the Metro and take them on. Neither adult cares whether or not they go to the top of the Monument, and Nigel can be coerced into almost anything, but the remaining three children are all passionate about this experience. Oh, and we have no bike locks, so the bikes can't be left unattended at any time.

We worked on that knot for quite some time, and our ultimate solution had every child in tears. Fortunately this vacation seems to be blessed, because although Alex, Nigel, and I arrived at the Washington monument at 9:30 with me desperate to use the bathroom, we still got our tickets and made our group. And just as we were sitting down in line, I heard the ranger telling a grandma and her two grandchildren that they needed to go over to the 10 am line. I ran up to her and asked her if she would trade her 10 am tickets for 9:30 tickets and she went along with it.

I did have to leave the tickets with a nice family at the end of the 10:00 line, but they successfully found Tom (he's about 6 feet tall with a goatee and a red Cougar hat...) and we made it back down seconds before they had to leave the bikes. All this for an attraction we thought would be dumb. Fortunately, it turned out to be beautiful, and the kids were excited to see their vacation laid out at their feet.

The Air and Space Museum (where we went after picking up bikes and extra locks, lest any of you remain distracted by our bike problems) was as advertised. We've gotten into the rhythm of turning the older two loose and splitting the younger two between us. Nigel has been Tom's leech (as you would be if you were normally stuck with Mom every day), so I got to trail Tim around as he discovered the Wright brothers, the Space Lab, Apollo 11, and the forces of flight. We were both amazed to discover all the Wright brothers' experiments. Their motto was PLAN TO FAIL! LEARN FROM IT! THEN SUCCEED! Tim wanted to sketch the flyer on the back of a Washington Monument brochure. I told him we could save time by buying a copy in the Museum Store. He replied, "But this is cheaper. And they might have left something out."

We decided to skip the Spy Museum in favor of more time at Air and Space, so we let the kids go on the flight simulators. Tim was floating afterward. "Sorry if I seem weird," he said. "I'm just a bit giddy from flying!"

Biking Washington was one of our very best decisions. Yesterday was cool with a fresh breeze, and it was heavenly to float around the tidal basin, to Jefferson, to FDR (kids named it best monument), to Arlington. It was like escaping a cloud of gnats, leaving the crowds behind. People clump up in these things, and I guess we tend to clump with them. If you can get into your own rhythm, the monuments can be quiet--almost deserted.

Well, except occasionally when we had to pass through the crowds of pedestrians. Then I was riding on Tim's back tire, spattering him with word globs, 90% of which I later discovered he never heard. "Tim, TIMTIMTIM!! Nononononononono!! Right! Keep right! Other right! Go over! Watch that man--TIMTIMTIMTIM!! Stop! Walk your bike for a sec! Okay, honey, we've got to keep a careful eye on the pedestrians." ("Aren't we pedestrians? We're pedaling!")

At one point, a brusque man yelled "On your left!" and sped past me. "Tim!" I yelled! Keep over!" He immediately started to drift left. "No! Tim! No!" I yelled. "Nononononono! Keep over! Tim! Turn!" He later said that "Turn!" was the only instruction he heard. Which was made obvious when he DID turn right into the guy's path. The guy yelled at him thoroughly, which he fortunately mostly disregarded, although I was tempted to yell at the guy, "Can you see he's a nine year old kid?!"

I will do a flash forward to 10 pm, us pedaling our weary bodies into the gravel drive at 8005, and just let you know that no sightseers, locals, or Metro riders were harmed in the making of this vacation. It was close at moments, though.

Arlington, 6:45. Last changing of the guard, 7:00 pm, and this place runs on military time. We threw our bikes in a pile, wrapped the krypton cable around them, and moved off crisply up the hill. I rode the tour bus last time I went to Arlington and I STILL remembered that it was a ways. We were moving fast, and in fact our sweaty, drooping bodies were in sight of the tomb when the clock bonged. I hope I didn't ruin anybody's experience with my last minute stage whispers--"Tim! (pant) Run! (pant pant) Runrunrunrun! (pant) C'mon Tim! You can do it!"

The changing of the guard is a precision operation, as most of you know but I had forgotten, so all that running at the end was extreme. We made it fine. And the kids definitely got a feeling of solemnity and reverence, as well as the sense of the human toll of war, from Arlington. Our exit was solemn, reverent, and much slower.

And, though we didn't get to dinner (our first dinner out, which I view as a digestive as well as financial blessing) until 8 pm, violating all rules of touring with five boys, somehow we got away with it, though there was nothing to take home in the doggy bags.

Our trip home with six bikes on the Metro was hair raising. We learned a lot. Pick the wide ticket lanes. Move to then end of the train. Dismantle trail-a-bikes before attempting the escalator. Hang on to all screws, nuts, and essential parts before re-assembling said trail-a-bike. Metro platforms are slick and you really don't want to go down onto the tracks looking for a nut. If you choose to box in a whole bunch of tired Metro passengers, make sure it's in DC, where the locals have an astonishing tolerance of tourists.

I also choose not to remember pedaling home in the pitch black, through a local park and past some slightly questionable local hang-outs. All's well that ends well, right? Last DC day today!