Our D.C. home was at a Residence Inn in Bethesda, MD two blocks from the redline Metro stop. The Bethesda escalator down to the Metro is one of the longest in the world, and pretty cool for our first "ride". Metro cards worked well being handed out to all then quickly returned to Dad for safe keeping. Our plan for the day was to hit the American History Museum, then over to the White House, and finally a walk to all the memorials.
We began at the American History museum and first went to see the Star Spangled Banner. We then headed upstairs to what I knew would be the girl's favorite, so I took them right to it...the First Lady china and dress exhibit. And it was easily their favorite, and I enjoyed walking with them for a bit hearing their excitement about the dress colors and china decorations. Then immediately I ran back to the boys to see "cool" stuff like NASA space suits and military exhibits.
We had a 12:30PM appointment for the white house, so we went a little early to get in line...and wow, what a line. I had to write our congressman to get a slot for the tour, and so I thought they would have this running pretty quickly...but apparently hundreds of others also wrote their congressman for the tour also, and we got in a 2 hour line for a 30 minute tour. And it was almost a tour we did not get to have as we got to the first security check...and Magan and I showed our IDs, then for ID of the kids, they asked each one their birthday...the girls are a little shy and were quiet, then Davis told them his birthday of 2/19/07...I noticed the officer check and do a double take...and then I realized that I messed up...and looking over at Magan scowling at me, she realized in that instant the mistake I made as well. So it is a long standing mental block that I seem to have that makes me think Davis birthday is on 2/17 mainly because it is the same as our anniversary of 5/17...which in both of these cases is completely WRONG. Both are on the 19th, yet my brain does not seem to comprehend this fact even tho I was filling out very important information to get into the white house. ...and back to the officer...He next asked Sam and confirmed that all dates were confirmed except for Davis. And as he checked his computer and I recognized we were about to be placed into the group of people in another longer line that messed up information...the officer looked at Davis and said "Your birthday is on February 17th, right?" Davis again replied "No it is the 19th"...I caught on quick and helped Davis out with "No Davis, your birthday is on the 17th, RIIIIGHT???" Davis understood, and repeated this fictional birthdate, and we were allowed to continue. Before the next officer security check, I verified that Davis remembered his new birthdate, and he answered correctly this time...February 17th. Magan was upset at me, and Davis is still trying to figure out why his dad will not remember his birthday. After that we had a single file line for a dog to sniff us, and then we were in for the tour...wow, long line.
In the White House, we toured most of the rooms on the main level, and it was pretty cool. Not something we ever have to do again, but neat to be inside and get some pictures of what Presidents see in the morning. After our tour, we took an Uber over to Hill Country BBQ, which is my new favorite in D.C. and a very quick delicious meal...I ordered a lot of meat, and these Junkins took it down.
It was still super cold, so we Ubered over to the Lincoln memorial to begin our memorial tours. We visited the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam memorial, the Korean War memorial, MLK, FDR, and finally the Jefferson Memorial. Ruby was so funny at these memorials, and I guess they really can be confusing for a 5 year old. She was amazed by Lincoln. She could not believe we had a giant president. I told her that this was just a statue, and he was already dead. "Did God make this statue" "Is he sitting inside his giant statue"...And when explaining that all the names on the Vietnam memorial were people that died for our country..."Are they all buried behind this wall"...She was funny...and the rest of the trip, periodically asked about our "giant president". An uber ride back to the metro for a metro ride home ended our day. I think we grabbed Panera for dinner. This was our nicest hotel room the whole trip as we had a 2 bedroom suite, and got to spread out abit...the last picture is just one of our bedrooms. And this was the last of our 2 bathrooms...from here on out it was 6 people and one toilet...not very good ratios.
Some of these pictures below are very similar to ones we took back in 2010 with the kids...but to much work...that will have to be a future blog post.
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