White House, Memorials, American History

We had an 830 tour time for the White House, which meant an early morning. We have been taking the metro to the mall area each day, but today we took a bus. The bus stop is super close to our rental (3 minute walk) and would let us out just .4 miles from the White House. We debated taking the metro, but it would have involved a lot more walking. And, I don't know what I was squeamish about. The bus was super nice and very easy to navigate. We got to the White House around 8:10 and they let our group in promptly at 8:30. There were several security checks and I was glad we had read the instructions and did not get stopped at the gate.

The tour was very quick. It was self-guided. I had downloaded the app and listened to the narrative for each room, but most were around 30 seconds. We have only done the White House once before, and the big kids were tiny then (3 & 4 I think). And, it was Christmas time, so things looked a lot different. It was nice being there and we enjoyed the experience.

I really liked the cross hall.

After the tour, we went to the Washington Monument and after we told them about getting bumped for weather on Monday, they let us get in line. None of us had ever been inside before and the views were amazing! We enjoyed looking out all 4 sides and seeing the landmarks from a different perspective.

Views from all 4 sides. Jefferson, Lincoln, Capitol and White House. Everything looked tiny!

And, collage of obligatory silly photos (Thomas was purposefully off)

From there, we walked to the WWII Memorial and then Lincoln. Both were inspiring. 

Each star represents 100 killed in WWII. There are 4048 stars.

Then, it was back to the mall area for lunch and American History. We walked close to the Vietnam Memorial, but I could not bring myself to visit. It makes me very sad and I always cry. There is something about seeing all the carved names that just hits hard and I wasn't in the mood to be sad, although I do feel a little guilty about skipping it. There were lots of veterans everywhere, maybe because of Memorial Day?

We also saw lots of baby ducks and geese on the walk. So sweet!

We spent several hours in American History. It is probably the museum we visited most when we lived in Maryland. It was fun to revisit our favorites and see some of the new exhibits. A good time was had by all! Our favorite exhibits: Anna-trains; Jack-The Philadelphia; Luke-the Modern Technology; Thomas-the Civil War area or the Philadelphia; Kara and Kori-the First Ladies Exhibit. 

Anna liked this doll house when she was little and was happy it was still there.

Favorite part of the day:

Luke & Kori-Washington Monument

Jack, Anna, and Thomas-American History (Anna also noted that she enjoyed seeing all the handsome Secret Service agents and wondered if attractiveness is a job requirement)

Kara-the White House

Total walking: 9.4 miles.