Spring Vacation Day 3

Our third day in Washington D.C. began with Breakfast at Lincoln's Waffle House which is located directly across the street from Ford's Theater. It was good to start the day with a good meal.

We walked a few blocks down the street to the National Museum of Natural Science. This was a huge facility filled with so much cool stuff. There is no way that we could see everything in the few hours that we had so we picked the areas that we were most interested in which included the dinosaurs.

As we walked back to Ford's Theater we found this great photo op on a cement island in the middle of a busy street. We were taking pictures when a nice family came along and agreed that it was a nice spot. They snapped a shot for us and in return we took a picture of them.

(Ryan chats with President Lincoln)

We were able to get tickets to the Abraham Lincoln museum which is located in the basement of Ford's theater.

Ford's Theater is operated by the National Parks Department. We all sat in the theater while a park ranger talked about the events surrounding the assissnation of President Lincoln. It was very interesting and we all learned a few things that we hadn't learned in History class. The picture above shows the balcony where he was sitting. The Hard Rock Cafe was right next door so we had lunch before continuing.

You can't go to Washington D.C. with out seeing the White House. We were able to see the garden that the First Lady has had planted on the grounds.

Vietnam Memorial

The day was beautiful over 70 degrees. We took advantage of the good weather by spending the afternoon visiting all of the outdoor memorials and monuments.

Lincoln Memorial

Korean War Memorial

World War II Memorial

The Washington Monument (Ryan's favorite)

The Cherry Blossom Festival was in full swing and the trees were beautiful especially as we walked toward the Jefferson Memorial.

The Jefferson Memorial was our last stop of the day. Can you tell the kids were a little tired?

We had promised the kids that we wouldn't be walking as much but that turned out to be wrong. We figured that we walked more on this day than any other because there was no subway service in the monument area. It got dark as we walked to the subway from the Jefferson Memorial. We found a pizza place for dinner that ended up being a little more gourmet than we had bargained for; we would have preferred a nice big Round Table Pizza.

Spring Vacation Day 2

We started our second day in Washington D.C. looking for a place to eat breakfast. We started walking with no idea where we were going. We stopped and asked a city worker where a good place for breakfast would be, she told us to go to Lincoln's Waffle House. She gave us directions and we headed that way, unfortunately when we got there a line was forming outside the door. We were hungry and not willing to wait so we walked a few more blocks and settled for a sandwich at Subway. The Metro station was just across the street so we found the train that would take us to the Holocaust Museum. We were not permitted to take pictures; the museum was amazing. We learned so much about that period of history. The kids got pretty tired after about three hours but I could have spent another three hours there; it was so interesting. Our next destination was Arlington National Cemetery. We saw the eternal flame at John F. Kennedy's grave.

We also saw the graves of Robert and Edward Kennedy. We toured the Arlington house which was built by the step-grandson of George Washington and later became the home of Robert E. Lee and his family.

Next we visited the grave of the unknown soldier and watched the changing of the guard.

At this point we were getting pretty tired. Even though we had been able to ride the subway there had been a lot of walking and it had been over eight hours since we had eaten breakfast. The Marine Memorial also known as the Iwo Jima Memorial was nearby (1/2 mile away) so we walked or dragged ourselves the distance.

Ryan remarked that our day seemed to be focused on dead people, he was right. We were officially exhausted and facing a long walk back to the subway. We wondered if there was a subway station that was closer. We spoke with some people at the memorial who had a better map than we did which showed another Metro station which was possibly a little closer. We headed in that direction and then decided that maybe we should try to find a place to eat before we went back to Washington D.C.. Again we asked some people on the street who recommended a place called Red, Hot and Blue. Several blocks up a hill and we were finally rewarded with a great place for dinner. They served barbecued ribs and all kinds of yummy food along with pitchers for drinks and place to rest our weary legs. It was just what we needed to revive our bodies and spirits.

After a stop for some Ibuprofen for our sore muscles and some Oreo's for our sweet tooth we made our way to the subway and back to our hotel where we crashed. We promised the kids that we wouldn't be walking as much the following day.

Spring Vacation-Day 1

We just got home from an amazing week on the Eastern side of the United States. We first headed to Washington D.C.. We got there late and took a taxi from Dulles airport in Virginia to our hotel in D.C. When we got there we were hungry but it was after midnight (It was only 9:00 Pacific time). We called the front desk and they didn't have any good recommendations for a place to eat so late that was within walking distance. We decided to order room service; just a few appetizers to hold us over until morning. We felt so fancy when the food was delivered on the little rolling cart. The next morning we were ready for some serious tourist action. Our first order of business was to find out about the tourist busses that do various loops around the city. We walked several blocks down to their headquarters and learned that when you buy a pass for one day you get the next day free but they are closed on Sunday so if we bought the pass it would be good for only one day. We decided to wait until Monday to buy the pass so we could get the two days. This meant we were "hoofing it" as Steve said. We had reservations for a tour, so after a quick McDonald's breakfast we had to make our way about 10 blocks to the Capital.

We arrived just in time for our tour. We got to see the routunda and the old senate floor but there was alot we didn't get to see. It had started raining so we took an underground tunnel to the Library of Congress. Our tour guide was very knowledgable and it was much more interesting than I thought it would be. The kids were a little less impressed and even though our guide offered to continue the tour for as long as we wanted we decided to move on. We found a cute Mexican restaurant and stopped for lunch. One of the waiters told us about the subway system and how to use it. This ended up being very valuable information. For around $50.00 we were able to get around the city and see the sights we were interested in. Ultimately we decided not to do the bus tour because it was expensive and we had already seen on our own much of what we would have seen on the tour. After lunch we made our way to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. We stayed until it closed and didn't even get to see all of the exhibits. This was one of Ryan's favorite things in Washington D.C. We found a nearby Metro station (That's what they call the subway) and headed back up to our hotel. We found an area with some restaurants and had dinner. Our legs and bodies were so sore from all of the walking and we were tired because of the time difference. We were happy to get into bed for a good sleep.