DC Adventures

Every time I go to Washington D.C. I love it more than I did before. I don't know what it is about that city, but I really enjoy visiting there. Like NYC we were only there for 2 days and we did everything we could to cram the most important things into a short amount of time.

 

We started out with lunch at Nando's, a restaurant that Bret, my brother, ate at a lot on his mission in Australia. There are only a few of them in the U.S. and one happened to be in DC. The menu consisted of chicken, chicken, and more chicken. Good thing the chicken was AMAZING! 

After lunch we started walking and passed by a free art museum and decided to go in. One special exhibit they had was The Art of Video Games. Of course we had to check it out!

 They had a few games to play and Kobe stood in line for over 20 minutes to play pac man. He was nice enough to split his turn with Lily.

We also walked past Ford's Theater where President Lincoln was assassinated and then headed to the Smithsonian museums. First we went to the Air and space museum, I didn't take any pictures because we had been there before. Next we went to the Natural History Museum, which is my favorite. I'm pretty sure the highlight of the day was the butterfly exhibit.

Bret walked in a sat down really still so the butterflies would land on him. It took awhile, but pretty soon they started flocking to him. Lily really, really, really wanted a butterfly to land on her so we told her she needed to hold out her hand and not move.

She tried to be so still,

and eventually it paid off!

After we were in the room for a while they were landing all over us, it was pretty fun.

Kobe wasn't sure if he wanted to have one land on him, but in the end he got brave and by the look on his face I'd say he liked it!

Jaxon even got in on the butterfly action!

We had walked sooooo much around the last few days that by the end of the museum we were all wasted.

We only had enough energy to let Kobe stop for one more picture with his friend!

Day two started out at Arlington Cemetery.

There was a feeling of reverence and sacredness at the sight of all the graves of those people who have served our country. The rows of headstones were endless, it was quite a sight.

 We were able to watch the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was another memorable experience.

 We saw the gravesite of John F. Kennedy, his wife, and two children who died young. And also the eternal flame.

After leaving Arlington Cemetery, we went to find parking near the Capital and Library of Congress. As we were walking from our car to the buildings, I saw this:

 A box that looked like it would hold brochures or pamphlets, but was empty. On the outside it said "FREE." Definitely a good reminder that "Nothing is Free"

 The Capital (which we just saw from the outside)

 The Library of Congress (which we decided to go inside of)

 The architecture was beautiful!

 Although the building itself was astounding, we were all a little disappointed that there was no actual "library" there. I was expecting to see shelves of books at least somewhere but there was only a small window you could look into that overlooked the "reading room" which had a small number of books. However in the basement there was a small children's area that helped entertain the kids for a little while.

Next we ate lunch and then went to FDR's original memorial.

Apparently, President Roosevelt told someone, I don't remember who, that when he died he only wanted a memorial the size of his desk, no bigger. So that is exactly what was made, a memorial the size, and shape of his desk. Although years later a much bigger memorial was made in his honor.

That afternoon, my parents, Bret, and Kimberly had tickets for the Holocaust Museum. Since the kids were too young to go, I took them to The Mall and they loved taking a break from all the walking.

 They ran around and dug in the dirt,

 While Jaxon and I just sat and enjoyed the break!

When we all met up again, we hit up a few last memorials before calling it a night.

 The Washington Monument

 The Lincoln Memorial

And we also saw the WWII Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial.

As we were walking to the White House Kobe saw the most exciting sight of the day.

 Can you tell what it is? It's over his right shoulder. His right, not yours!

 SPIDER-MAN!!!!

And our last stop of the trip,

The White House.  Aren't they a cute couple? I love my mom and dad and am so glad we were able to see so many great things together. But I must admit, by the end of this trip I never wanted to walk again. Between NYC and DC we walked sooooooooo much my body was aching, not to mention my shoulders and back from carrying Jaxon in the carrier so much. But it was so worth it!