DC day 3

Our final morning we ate breakfast at Two Sisters.  It was a bit of a hole in the wall, but the food was good and it was close to The Botanical Garden, or first stop of the day.

 

The garden was beautiful.

And we enjoyed the conservatory when it opened (most things don’t open until 10:00).

After that we got to see what I thought was the most beautiful building of our trip: The Library of Congress: Thomas Jefferson Building.  We were required to have timed entry there (I’d scheduled that before we arrived in town).

The reading room, unfortunately we couldn’t see the stacks or go into the reading room.

The ceiling in the reading room: I did overhear a tour guide telling her group that some of those rosettes are hiding sprinkler heads.

The hall is so ornate.

Upstairs: the girls are facing the Capitol building with their backs to the stairs leading to the observation space for the reading room.

I don’t think any of us got a picture somehow, but we saw a Gutenburg Bible—Gabby and I knew enough Latin to recognize the passage (which was super fun).

We still had a bit of time, so we went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  We definitely didn’t make it through all of the exhibits there.

Vietnam Era helicopter and uniform

John Bull Locomotive

 

A ration card from my mom’s hometown (from before she was born); a cousin who still lives in the area recognized the family name.

Katie loved the First Ladies’ dresses

We found a display for her last AHG level award’s namesake

A piece from the Twin Towers

This ship, The USS Philadelphia, had been in Lake Champlain from the time of the Revolution until 1935—that was the cannon ball that sunk her.

I remember my family talking about making clothes from flour sacks, so it was delightful to see one in the fashion section.

The girls loved The Count.

We stopped for ice cream on the way out.

After that we headed back to our hotel (where we again left our bags for the day), rode the shuttle to the airport, and headed home. 

We flew into and out of Reagan.  It is set up with many of the gates in one large room, which made it quite loud, but it was certainly convenient to DC.

Just waiting—thankful that our flights both ran on time, both actually landing a smidge early.  Another six mile day.

A great trip, but we are thankful to be home!

DC trip Day 2

The next morning we went to Founding Farmers, which Katie found to be near where we were heading (Lafayette Park) and thought it looked good.

I splurged on beignets to share.  They were very good!

Katie kept up with our food in photos (except the night we were out with other people).

We walked from there to Lafayette Park, enjoyed the little park, saw Lafayette himself,

and crossed the street for a view of the White House.

We had timed entry tickets to the National Archives that afternoon, but we had plenty of time before that.  We opted to go to the National Gallery of Art (West) at my cousin’s recommendation.

 

There were many beautiful pieces.

Then this one, that I had to convince the girls that the dog was helping the fellow, not contributing to his demise!

While we were waiting a few more minutes to go to into The Archives, we caught this picture.

(It became a bit of a game…this one was from the day before, stopping for a break before dinner, as we got there too soon.)

Our next stop was The Archives, but no pictures may be taken in there.  The Declaration was faded so as to be illegible, but the Constitution was more clear.  Ironically, The Magna Carta was very legible, though older.  My favorite unexpected find in that building was Almanzo Wilder (Laura Ingles Wilder’s husband)’s homestead claim.

We stopped at the Navy Memorial after we finished to make our plan for where to go next.

We opted for Kramers: a bookshop and restaurant in one.

It wasn’t my favorite, but Katie especially loved the fries (I think they added sugar).

We headed back a bit earlier, and had put six miles in that day.  We got dessert from room service, since it was less than at the restaurant—Gabby and I split bread pudding and Katie got cookie ice cream.  Last night there!

DC trip Day 1

The older two girls and I took off to DC for a three day trip.

We got up at o’dark early, aka 3:00 AM for our early morning flight.

I got a cup of coffee in the airport.

And another on the plane.

We took the shuttle provided by out hotel from the airport.  Our room wasn’t ready, which wasn’t surprising—it was only nine in the morning local time, so we dropped off our backpacks (our only luggage, so it was easy to transport) with the staff who tagged and locked it for us.  We tucked a day pack into my bag, so we stowed our visitor’s guide and water bottles in there and took off to explore.

The Metro station was about a block away.  We bought three day passes so we could ride as much as we wanted.

Our first stop was The Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum.

A fun find in the stairway

The Egyptian exhibit was the reason Katie most wanted to go there.

My mom’s parents loved polishing stones and gems, so I thought of them as we walked through these rooms.

Oh dear!

One big geode!

The Hope Diamond

Then we set off to The Mall, looking for the Washington Monument.  In trying to preserve our cell phone batteries, we were using the little map.  Here is where we discover that though the monument is very tall, and surely we can’t miss it, trees close by actually can obscure it, so we walked well past it.

We walked a bit to get a better view of the Capitol Building.  We turn back and find we were off to the side (the sidewalk just to the other side of those trees) for quite some time, so back we headed—with a fresh bottle of water from one of the many food trucks!

From the Lincoln

We also saw the WWII Memorial

This is another view of the WWII with Kentucky and Ohio showing—my mom’s dad was living in Ohio when he joined the Navy.  I wasn’t sure, but was guessing my dad’s father was already in Kentucky at that time (instead of his native Tennessee).  Neither saw combat (joining/being drafted late in the war), but both served.

View of Lincoln from WWII

And the Lincoln

We took some time off to the side outside the Lincoln Memorial to rest a few minutes and Katie wanted to play around with taking some photos:

After that we met up with one of my cousins, who lives nearby in Virginia with his family, for dinner at Oyamel.

We were wiped out and headed back to the room with nine miles walked for the day!