Perfect Blue Buildings: Mini Golf at the National Building Museum

This has been the hottest ticket of the summer -- we've officially tried to go twice and been shut down by the crowds.  Seeing as this is one of the few weeks between summer camp and the start of school that we are in town, mom was determined to make it happen.  To ensure we were out of the house bright and early, mom first decided that we needed to pick up a mystery package from the Post Office when it opened at 9 a.m.  None of the following story actually has anything to do with mini golf, but it was too choice not to share.

Every now and again, mom's online shopping habit ensures that we receive a package pick-up notice, but have absolutely no idea what it is.  And this time, mom was really stumped.  We headed to our local post office branch with 10 minutes to spare, only to realize that it has been closed down as part of the condo-conglomeration of 14th Street.  We then turned back around and headed back up by our house to the post office that purportedly had our package, parked, spent ten minutes in line with mom hissing for us to keep our lovies off of the grubby floor, and then were told that our package had now been sent to the new post office back down by the old one -- at the Frank Reeves Municipal Center.

Have you ever been to the FR Municipal Center?  It's in mom and dad's old 'hood, which appears to only have gotten grubbier.  When mom pointed out their old apartment building, Kane and I both said "what?  that's not right.  that doesn't make any sense."  We lucked out on a parking spot, walked past the MPD Truancy team doing some serious shake downs, and through the metal detectors at the muni center (which was a miracle given Kane freaks out at all metal detectors because he thinks he is going to have to take his shoes off like at the airport).  And were then told that there is actually a separate entrance for the post office that didn't require any metal detecting at all.  Of course.

We finally had the mystery package in hand and everyone buckled back in the car.  Mom opened it to find a package of Ravensburger Octonauts puzzles she purchased a LONG time ago that had been held up at customs.  She's pretty sure her morning was karmic payback for all of the German wooden toys she has made daddy assemble, but Kane was pretty psyched.  I was not -- I wanted to know where my Dora puzzle was.  Kane tried to explain that even if mom had ordered me a Dora puzzle, which she had not because his was a "special present, right mommy?," a Dora puzzle wouldn't have been held at customs because it wouldn't have come from Germany.  And on the morning went.

We actually did arrive at the Building Museum right before its 10:00 a.m. opening hour and scored a pretty sweet parking spot there, too.  We bought our tickets and were pleased to find only a handful of others were playing.  Then the clerk told mom there was a "six stroke maximum for each hole."  And she laughed out loud (for a variety of reasons).  If your kids are a bit older or, well, just not us, this would be a pretty cool mini golf.  We liked it, but we have our own way of doing things that was just not conducive to this kind of restrictive mini golf -- Watkins Regional Park is much more our speed.  We were out in 20 minutes, which did not line up with mom's plans to head over to the nearby Kogod Courtyard for lunch -- it doesn't open until 11:30.  So, lucky us, mom took us to see a movie at Gallery Place just a few blocks away.  Sometimes, things just have a way of working out for everyone.