Since Erin had been learning about our early Presidents I thought this might be a good year to spend a few days during Spring Break exploring Washington DC. She's been particularly obsessed with Abraham Lincoln and the the Lincoln Memorial. I haven't done the tourist think in DC in a while so we headed up for a few days.
As usual the weather was not necessarily our friend. We missed the Cherry Blossoms by two days but not the crowds. My weather forecasts said it would be in the mid 50s with one rainy day. We planned to head to the newly opened American History Museum on that day and tour DC the other 2.
The American history Museum opened last fall after a 2 year renovation. I've been excited to visit so the whole crew....mommy, Erin, Jeffrey, Noni, Uncle Jonathan and Oma headed to the Museum. Problem is so did the rest of the tourists in DC. We did get the chance to see Dorothy's Ruby Slippers, and a new Abraham Lincoln exhibit as well as a transportation exhibit, but the lines for the exhibits were crazy. I've never seen it that way before. Erin was excited by Lincoln's hat, and the pictures of his funeral train (the one that carried his body but not his head according to Erin). Jeffrey had fun exploring the trains and cars in the transportation exhibit. And oddly enough, the rainy day didn't end up that rainy and we were able to eat lunch outside at a nearby cafe.
On Tuesday Noni had to work so Uncle Jon and mommy took the kids on a Duck tour of DC. We took the Metro into Union Station (for those of you wondering...yes the Metro was the highlight of the whole trip) and bought Duck tour tickets. The Duck tour is cool because it's a WWII era amphibious vehicle that can drive on land and float in the water. So the tour runs along the monuments of DC and then heads into the Potomac for a float by some of the other sites. We had a little extra time before the tour so we wandered over to the Capitol building to explore some fountains and reflecting pools.
Weather issue No. 2....when I checked the forecast in the morning it was calling for low 50s. So I made sure we had long sleeved shirts layered with T's as well as jackets. Unfortunately I must have missed the section where it mentioned the 10 degree wind chill. It was down right cold and blustery, but we still had fun -- and oh yeah. I dropped my camera and busted it right before the Duck trip :(
Day 3 Noni came along for our Monument tour. We had hoped to get tickets to go up the Washington Monument but they were all out. So we went to plan B (something mentioned on the Duck Boat) and headed to the Old Post Office Building to get another cool view. This day it was supposed to be close to 60, but apparently that only counted when standing in direct sunlight under a heat lamp behind a wind shield. It felt more like 40. I gave in a purchased new ski caps for us all to stop the whining. A might cute bunch we made after that. The view from the Old Post Office is really cool, and I recommend it if you're ever in DC again.
Next came the most awaited portion of the trip...the Lincoln Memorial. We hopped the Metro in that direction and headed over. Erin was really excited to see it close up (we'd seen it several times on the other 2 days, but not closely). She begged Noni to take some pictures (remember I busted my camera the day before). So Noni brought out her fancy-dancy camera..only to find the battery was dead. Off I went in search of an overpriced disposable camera so we could take pictures of Erin at the memorial. From there we wandered down the reflecting pool, past a few other memorials and headed over to get a glimpse of the White House. After a long day and a few pictures of the White House, we stumbled back onto the Metro and back to Noni's house.
Despite the cold weather we had a great time exploring some of the DC sites. We might head back for a day this summer to spend some more time wandering outside when it's not quite so cold outside.
And now that I've written a novel, here's a picture overload. I'm also working on a little slideshow so keep your eyes out for that post too.
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