Back in September we thought to ourselves, "Wouldn't it be cool to visit Washington D.C.? It's easy to get around, there's lots to see....."
So, we planned a trip.
The day before we were to leave, I was thinking to myself that it was curious that our airline didn't send a message saying something to the effect, "It's now time to check in for your flight!"
The reservation I made back in September was never completed by United and my credit card was never charged. Oooops.
The day before we were due in D.C., we had no flight.
Last minute reservations got us there on time.
We got to sleep in a little due to our outbound flight being later than our original flight, but that was NOT worth the up charge we paid to get there. Yowza.
Sigh.
Anyways.....we made it!
Highly recommend this hotel, by the way.
Room size was pretty nice. The air conditioner was REALLY loud.
We got in late and didn't really eat dinner.
The next morning, we were up and ready to go see some monuments.
We met Huzbend's parents in the lobby of our hotel.
They were staying a few blocks away.
We hopped on the Metro and headed to The Mall.
First up, Washington Monument.
The elevator is broken, so you can't go up it.
It was very, uh, monumental.
Brought back good memories of camping out underneath it back in the day on July 4 with friends to see the fireworks. Good times.
The kids thought it was pretty cool.
There was a National Park Ranger stationed at the base to answer peoples questions.
Mikey took the opportunity to ask him if there was a secret Hydra base underneath.
There's a Hydra base there in the Lego Avengers video game he plays.
The Ranger answered in the affirmative and told him that he was an undercover Hydra agent.
I think that made it even cooler for him.
Next up, Lincoln Memorial.
The kids thought it was a long walk to get there.
It was.
It was also very hot.
Midway between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial is the WWII Memorial.
It was very picturesque.
There was a band playing while we were there.
Huzbend and the GParents hung in the shade while the kids and I wandered around looking at the different features that were centered around this beautiful fountain.
After the quick stop, we walked down past the Reflecting Pool and made it to the steps of Lincoln.
Here is what the kids had to say about the Reflecting Pool:
"It doesn't reflect anything. It's dirty and BROWN!"
It was really hot and really sunny this day.
We had to take a break before conquering all the stairs.
Before entering, we stopped and took a moment to talk about Martin Luther King, Jr. and his speech.
The kids have learned about him at school. They thought it was cool to stand in the same spot he did and look out and imagine talking to all the people gathered.
The Lincoln Memorial was cool.
Like, really cool.
Like, it had air conditioning.
It was hot out.
It was a nice respite from the heat, even if we were in there with about 200 other tourists all trying to take an unobstructed picture of Lincoln.
It was time to stop for lunch.
"The Cranks" were making their appearance.
Just say NO to hangry kids.
We stopped at a National Park Service food/souvenir place.
I'm not sure what Katie ate...fruit, maybe? Not much.
I do know there weren't many options and she wasn't too happy about that.
The GParents took Mikey to grab a hotdog at a cart nearby.
All Katie's grumpiness was resolved when she was able to have ice cream.
Ice cream makes it all better.
After lunch, Mikey decided to look for four leaf clovers.
It was back to more walking after lunch.
We visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Korean War Veterans Memorial.
There's no picture of these as I thought it would be disrespectful.
As you would think, they both had a serious/quiet vibe.
The kids didn't have much to say or any questions about the Vietnam Memorial.
They were more intrigued by the Korean War Memorial because it had statues of soldiers on patrol and their memorial wall had laser-etched pictures of soldiers.
As if we didn't do enough walking yet....we decided to walk all the way around the Tidal Basin!
First up, was the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.
It was in a beautiful spot that had lots of shade and a nice breeze coming off the Tidal Basin.
The statue was impressive and inspiring.
The carving on the side said, "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope".
We continued our tour by taking a right out of the MLK, Jr. Memorial.
The cherry trees had already blossomed and dropped by the time we got there, but we could imagine what a lovely sight it would have made just a few weeks earlier.
Mikey had to get a closer look at these "famous" trees.
We took a detour into the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.
He was president for four terms and they had four terms worth of waterfalls.
The kids LOVED this place.
Not only was it pretty, a great place to learn and discuss history, but it was shady.
The mist coming off the waterfalls was very refreshing.
From there it was still a ways to our last destination...The Jefferson Memorial.
We had to cross over the Tidal Basin/Ohio Drive Bridge.
Which was interesting in its own right due to these really whacko details.....
(I looked it up when I got home. These are a joke played on a retiring regional director for the National Park Service's National Capitol Region named "Jack" Fish.)
Phew! Finally.
We made it.
Jefferson Memorial.
It was nice and cool in here too.
Annnnd, did you know there's a gift shop underneath this building?
We purchased some Cherry Blossom/D.C. souvenirs here.
Time to hoof it back to a Metro station.
On the way we spotted what we thought were the last cherry blossoms on the whole Tidal Basin.
Oooooooooo. Preeeeeetty.
Katie wanted a picture.
Mikey wanted one too.
We did A LOT of walking this first day. It was exhausting. But, we sucked it up and walked some more to find dinner at a place called District Taco.
We ordered Katie nachos when we were assured that the chips were gluten safe.
We also brought our Nima so we could test them.
The chips came with queso dip that was also safe.
At first, Katie didn't want to try it.....
...but, then she couldn't stop eating it.
She even ran out of chips and was STILL eating the queso.
After a successful dinner we walked even MORE to a Whole Foods to find some snacks for the kids to eat during our trip.
Then it was back to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool.
I would recommend the hotel, but not the pool.
It was super tiny, and that wouldn't have been a problem, but the lining of the pool on the bottom was rough concrete and Katie scraped herself up pretty good.
We didn't hit the pool again during the trip.
The kids didn't even ask to go again.
I fell asleep in a deck chair while they swam.
I was exhausted.
The next day, we met up with the GParents and headed to the Museum of Natural History.
It was another beautiful (and hot) day.
Since it was Spring Break, there were looong lines to get into the museums.
We made it into the rotunda and took a moment.
Everyone has to say HI to Henry, the Smithsonian elephant.
Mikey looks a little tired in this picture.....
First stop was up to the second floor to the Earth Sciences exhibits.
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Hope Diamond.
Katie was FASCINATED.
Look at her face.
She wanted me to take pictures of ALL the gems in here.
See?
Here the kids are creating an earthquake by slamming their their hands on the targets.
Granma looks impressed.
Then it was on to Bugs, Bones, Mummies, Dinosaurs and Korea.
Quite a collection of subjects!
(the big Fossil Hall was closed due to renovation, bummer).
BIG bugs.
Huzbend wanted nothing to do with this part.
He parked it off to the side with Granpa.
I tried to convince Mikey to hold some bugs and he said no, but then Katie did it and he changed his mind.
But, unfortunately, by then, the cart was rolling away.
The caterpillar was Katie's favorite.
The locust was a bit too "pokey" for her taste.
I thought he was tickly.
This is a fossil of a baby triceratops.
It made Mikey sad.
Some guy donated his skeleton to the museum.
"That's, like, a dead guy in there".
Yes. Yes, it is.
We decided to take a time out/sit down break and see an IMAX movie about "Cousteau's Secret Ocean".
After that, it was time for lunch.
We ate at the museum café and were able to find stuff for Katie to eat.
I think it was a hotdog and fruit?
Whatever it was, Nima said it was okay.
I'm afraid that I didn't take many pictures after lunch.
We wandered the Ocean exhibit, headed to the Human Origins exhibit and ended with the Mammals exhibit.
I was busy talking Mikey's ear off in the Human Origins exhibit.
That's what happens when you bring an anthropology-loving nerd to a Natural History museum.
I didn't have time to take pictures 'cause I was talking too much.
The exhibit was FANTASTIC!
No museum visit is complete without a stop in the gift store.
While wandering the shop, Mikey found a new version of his favorite stuffy, Tiger.
This one was nice and fluffy.
Not as loved as Tiger.
We literally spent the ENTIRE day at the Natural History museum.
The whole day.
We had a bit of time to kill before our dinner reservations, but not enough time to tackle another museum.
We headed over to Smithsonian Castle (aka Visitor Center).
There was a really nice garden out back with some smaller art museums.
We wandered.
I call this picture, "Tired Yet?"
We walked to dinner after that.
I thought it was the best place we ate at all week.
Mexican food (again) and most of it safe for Katie.
Then it was time to hop on to the Metro to go back to the hotel to watch Disney Jr. get some sleep.
Mikey had a tough time sleeping that night.
Tossing and turning etc.
I felt his head and he had a fever.
He was also complaining that his throat hurt a lot.
We decided to let him sleep in the next day.
Huzbend ran out and got him some Kids Ibuprofen to bring his fever down and hopefully help with his throat.
While Mikey slept, Huzbend, Katie and the GParents went to see the White House.
This is the back of it and the closest you can get.
I guess they walked around the whole thing, because this is the front.
I think they went into some art museum and a gift shop too while they were out.
For a while, Katie was in charge of the camera.
Here's one of her best shots entitled.....
Squirrel Butt
They came back at about lunch time bringing with them waffle sandwiches (yes, you read that right), one of which was gluten free!
They were quite yummy but sick-Mikey wasn't impressed.
The medicine brought his fever down and made his sore throat manageable.
Allowing him to sleep in helped too.
We thought he'd be good to go.
And, so, we headed back out for the day.
Both kids were tired of walking.
Did I mention there was A LOT of walking?
Here they are waiting for the Metro.
I think we overshot the Metro stop and had to walk a ways to our destination.
We ended up walking through D.C. Chinatown.
Our destination was the International Spy Museum, but the line was obscenely long to get in.
So, we went across the street to the American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery.
My kids LOVE museums.
They're not big fans of art museums though.
That's okay.
It was cool in there.
So, we went across the street to the American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery.
My kids LOVE museums.
They're not big fans of art museums though.
That's okay.
It was cool in there.
As we waited for the line to the Spy Museum to calm down, we ate some McDonald's ice cream.
After we finished, we hopped in line.
Mikey liked the Spy Museum.
It took him a while to wander his way through there.
He had to play with EVERYTHING.
I think the kids favorite part was climbing in the air ducts.
Here's Mikey decoding submarine transmissions.
We found a place across the street from the museum for dinner.
The GParents headed off early to their hotel.
We waited FOREVER to eat (longer than it took Mikey to wander through the Spy Museum).
It was late when we finished dinner and decided to hoof it back to the hotel so that Mikey could see the White House.
Spotted Ford's Theater on our way back.
Our path back took us past the Dept. of Treasury.
Mikey was obsessed with the guard out front because he had a machine gun.
He wanted me to take a picture of him, but I thought that might be considered "suspicious", so I didn't.
The Dept. of Treasury building is right next to the White House.
We stopped for a quick photo.
We decided against dessert at the restaurant because it was late and the kids couldn't eat anything there anyways.
So, we let them have pre-bedtime cookies when we got back.
The next day, we headed to the Air and Space Museum in the morning.
We only had an hour or two to wander before we had to leave for an appointment elsewhere.
That was definitely NOT enough time to see all the stuff here.
There were lots of rockets there.
Really.
My kids LOVE to play with everything. That's why it takes us SO long to go through museums. Every hands-on display must have hands on it.
The kids even took a minute (okay, like 20 minutes) to do a free craft - make your own solar system book.
There were airplanes too.
We could've spent all day here.
But we had to high tail it outta there to visit the National Archives.
This is the National Archives building. Housed within are many, many documents relating to the history of our country.
But the most important and popular ones are the original Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
We couldn't take pictures of the documents, so you just have to trust me when I say that we saw them. You can barely, just barely, read them.
It was impressive and a pretty powerful experience getting a glimpse of them.
Next, we headed over to the National Museum of American History.
We headed downstairs to their cafe for lunch first.
There were a lot of closed exhibits at this museum and that was a good thing.
We STILL didn't see everything in there.
They had lots and lots of stuff for the kids to play with.
All sorts of interactive goodness.
Like this bike....
I took some other random photos of the stuff we saw there, but the main reason for going was to see the original "Star Spangled Banner". Yep.
The original huge-ass flag that they flew over Fort McHenry back in 1814 that inspired our national anthem is on display.
Of course, you can't take pictures of it.
But, I don't think the pictures would do it justice.
The thing is HUGE. And old.
This was our last day with Granma and Granpa. We ate a super expensive (ouch) and pretty yummy meal at Carmine's, a family-style Italian joint.
Then we headed our separate ways.
Thanks for exploring D.C. with us, GParents!!!
The next day, we headed to the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
We did not have tickets to enter the main exhibit, so we walked through the children't exhibit called "Daniel's Story".
Again, no pictures of this as it would have been very disrespectful.
The children's exhibit was still very powerful and left myself and Huzbend in tears at the end.
The kids walked through and absorbed.
They didn't want to talk about it when we got out.
So, we just left them to their thoughts after checking in with them on a bench outside the exhibit and giving them each a hug.
We needed to move on and decided to head to the National Gallery of Art.
We started in the West Building, which houses the "good stuff".
Renaissance, Impressionists, French guys....that stuff.
It was a beautiful building.
And, MAN, what a collection!!!
So many famous pieces!!
Buuuut, someone was not impressed.
Remember what I said earlier.
They like museums. Just not ART museums.
So, we gave them something to do.
I gave Katie the camera and Mikey my phone and told them they could take pictures of things that they liked or found interesting.
Here are some of their shots....
This one is my favorite.
Submitted by Mikey.
It was time to take a break from "boring" art.
Mikey said his favorite part of the art museum was that they had comfortable couches to sit on.
Food seemed to do the trick and got their energy back up.
Katie's tip for D.C.:
The most boring museums have the best cafe's to eat at.
You would think that we felt sorry for the kids at this point because we had dragged them through the entire West Wing of the Art Gallery....
...Nope.
We made them walk through the East Wing too.
That wing was all modern art.
My opinion: Yuck. Not my favorite.
But, we went anyways.
Of course, this side had a more modern layout.
You could go up one side of the museum, to the roof, and then back down the other side.
On the roof, was a small sculpture garden with trees and benches.
We took a break from walking up all the stairs and Katie took my phone.
On the roof, as part of the sculpture garden, there was a HUGE. Blue. Chicken.
Katie loved it.
She couldn't get enough of it.
After we made our way back down the other side, it was time to find the restaurant we were going to eat dinner at.
Mikey had purchased a compass as a souvenir during our D.C. adventure and showed us the way.
We did not visit the Capitol building, but we walked by it a bunch.
We ate dinner at another Mexican food place.
Mexican food usually has a lot of gluten free options in case you're wondering why.
This place was just okay.
Mikey tried "limeade" for the first time.
He wasn't a fan.
He also wasn't a fan of his dinner that night.
So, we had to stop at a McDonald's on the way back to the hotel so he wouldn't starve.
"Ohhhh yeahhhhhh! Burger, baby!"
We got back to the hotel and everyone crashed.
The next day was our last day in D.C.
We decided to head back to the Air and Space Museum as we didn't get to spend as much time there as we wanted.
Metro time!
We got there early, and didn't just jump in the first line was saw (which was the longest) so we didn't have to wait too long to get in. Yay us.
There are lots of lines for the free museums in D.C., especially in April.
Huzbend was VERY happy we got to go back.
This museum was his #1 must-see.
We got to look at the rockets close-up this time.
And learn about all things nerdy.
We didn't' really look at the airplane sections as we have the Boeing Museum of Flight just a short drive away from us.
We also made time to watch a planetarium show about "Dark Matter" narrated by Neil Degrasse Tyson.
Highly recommend watching a planetarium show.
It wasn't the average star show, it was a movie projected on the dome.
Pretty neat.
We left and ran over to the Museum of the American Indian for lunch.
We wished we could have wandered more in this museum, but our flight was later that afternoon and we had little time to spare.
The outside of the building was beautiful and had lots of calming water features.
The food we had was pretty good.
Expensive and different than the average museum cafe food.
Then, we pretty much had to run back to the Metro to get back to our hotel to grab our bags and go.
This day was Tax Day and there was a GIANT protest on the steps of the Capitol building.
We saw it as we walked to the Metro, but I didn't get a picture.
We grabbed our bags......
....and were on our way to Reagan National.
Katie was sad to be leaving.
Because we got our seats at the last minute, Huzbend and Mikey were sitting across the aisle from us with a few people in between.
We did have this little guy with us for the first leg of our trip.
Katie was in love.
Reminder to self: NO MORE CONNECTING FLIGHTS. ONLY DIRECT!!!
It felt like it took FOREVER to get home.
I guess I DO sleep on airplanes.
D.C. was a fun, whirlwind trip.
I'm glad that we went.
There is so much to do there that I think we could've spent a whole 'nother week exploring.
The kids learned a lot, saw a lot, hung out with Grandparents, and walked a WHOLE lot.
We were exhausted when we got home.
Phew!
