Washington DC

We wanted to tour Washington DC while we were close by (only 7 hours away) and we figured the perfect time would be for our Anniversary.  September is the perfect time to go!  No crowds and perfect weather. We overloaded on the pictures, so we could show our kids the history.  I definitely won't post them all, but it may still be overloaded with pictures.

Monday:  First stop after riding the Metro into the city was the White House.  We walked up to the back side of it first.  It looked a lot smaller and the yard was smaller than I thought.

It all made sense after we made it to the front, that this is the image that is often shown of the White House.

 Right next to the White House is a corner park, called "Sherman Park."  We tried to find a sign to show the proof, but there was nothing there!  We sent Tyler's mom the picture and mentioned we were in Sherman park.  Her reply was "Where's the sign?"  We just had to laugh, because Wendy loves getting pictures of the family in front signs.

We did a bus tour that allowed us to get to all the places faster.  It was great to get an overview of the what the city has to offer. There are so many magnificent buildings!

The Washington Monument was closed due to earthquake damage from 2 years ago.   

 We also went to Ford's Theatre, where Lincoln was assassinated.  Tyler and I read a book last year on this, so it was good to know the details before we went.  They still hold performances at the theatre.   

 Oh, and Tyler got to rub elbows with the man himself. 

 We ran into a few famous people

 at a wax museum.

We had a little too much fun there.

It was hard going through it because you didn't know who was real

and who wasn't. 

 

Photo bombing the Kennedy's.

 

 Tuesday:  We continued with our bus tour.  We had a free ticket to the National Aquarium.
                  We visited the Holocaust Museum.  No pictures were allowed to be taken.  (This happened in a lot of the museums.)
We went to the Printing and Engraving Museum, where they make and print our dollar bills.  (No pictures were allowed in the production line.)

So how much are we really worth?

  If they stacked $100 up to his height, it would be $1,747,500.

I was $1,537,800

You could buy misprinted money.   I think it's funny that you would spend money on money.  The bills are not "official" until a serial number is printed on and the Federal Reserve puts them into the system.

   

We made it to the Arlington Cemetery in the evening.  It was breath-taking to be there and a very sacred site.     The grounds are never-ending.   We were there for about 45 minutes, so we only covered a small amount of grounds. 

We made it JFK's grave.

 Wednesday:  We covered the Smithsonian's.  Well, we only got to two of them.  They are huge!

Here is a picture in front of the Smithsonian Castle.  This was the original Smithsonian, but now there are like 15 buildings and museums that incorporate the Smithsonian.  


We went to the Air and Space Museum, and somehow we got out of there without one picture?!?!  Tyler said the Dayton Airforce  Museum is better.  He went last year with the boy scouts.  We then headed over to the Natural History Museum.  The kids would have loved this place.  We got way too many pictures from this place.

The architecture of the buildings were always a sight in itself to see!

This stuffed tiger was in the gift shop. It was $700!  It was a nice thought for Makenzie :)

Our anniversary trip wouldn't be complete without a trip to the temple.  

(I gave Tyler a hard time that his big head covered practically the whole temple.)

Thursday:  We started out at the Postal Museum for a short time.  You got to always take a picture when you find your name!  What is the Jenny, you may ask?  It was the first plane used for airmail.

They had a stamp made to commemorate it's role in history, but it wasn't noticed until the stamps were printed that the plane was printed upside-down.

We spent the rest of the day at the Capitol and the Library of Congress.  It was recommended to get a tour requested through our local representatives.  That was the best thing we could have ever done.  We got a personalized tour with no waiting in lines, and we sure passed by a lot of lines and a lot of people waiting.

The Library of Congress

We made it to the Botanical Gardens for a half hour before they closed. 

Tyler decided that he had to see the Lincoln Memorial in person.  It was the end of the day on our last day there, and the Memorial was on the other side of town.  I was beat!  We walked a marathon I'm sure and I was done.  So I sat on a park bench while Tyler made the trek over to it.

So I couldn't help but notice all the horses that we saw while we there.  I had to take some pictures for our horse-loving girl.  This is probably just a third of what we really saw.

So I have to say that we were pretty lucky to make this trip when we did, with the "government shutdown" happening 4 days after we left!  It was a great trip and its something that everyone should do sometime in their lives!  I'm glad to have checked that off our list.