Three Day Trip to D.C.

 Danny had a conference in D.C. last week, so we tagged along.  I planned out 3 days of non-stop fun (well, the girls may question the walking part as being fun).  We were so lucky to have our hotel right behind the White House, so that was our first stop. I personally, like the front better than the back, but they had cranes out fixing something, so this was our best shot. 

 Next stop, American History Museum and Natural History Museum.  We loved the ruby slippers, Kermit the Frog, the Star Spangled Banner, the First Ladies dresses, the trains, and the super hero drawing wall in the History Museum.  At the NHM, we went into the Butterfly Pavilion. It was so much fun!  Here's Anabelle with a butterfly on her head and one landed on Elise's hand.  I had a photo of one on my foot, but who wants to look at that...haha. 

That's one big shark!!!

Future presidents...haha

On our way to the carousel.  Love the poses.  That's my girls!

These sculptures were awesome.  Here's Sadie with her monkey :0).  This was right after the girls got in trouble for touching the water in the fountain.  A screeching whistle blew from out of no where and two security guards yelled, "Get out of the water!!!!!!!"  Yes..that's my girls, too.

After the sculptures, we hit the Air & Space Museum.  Honestly, it's never been a favorite of mine.  I tried to keep up my enthusiasm especially at the Apollo 11, but they were done with museums.  I'm glad we went, but maybe I pushed them too far.  Their feet were aching and we had a long way back. So since we couldn't touch the water at the first fountain, we searched for one we could touch.  Ahhhh...this was a perfect spot to cool off and enjoy the sites.  It was the National Sculpture Garden.  It was a big circular fountain with awesome sculptures around it. 

The next day, we took at cab to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This was their first cab experience and I think they were a little freaked out. At one point, I was sitting in the front and the driver started yelling in a different language.  I said, "Excuse me?"  with no answer from him and turned around to the girls who had a look of fear on their faces.   I can only guess he had a blue tooth on the ear we couldn't see and he was talking to someone on the phone.  If not, he may have been a little unstable...haha.  Thankfully, we arrived safely to our destination.  Here are the girls with 1,000,000 bucks! 

It was definitely interesting to see paper money being made and it was free!  Look...Sadie is worth over a million dollars...haha.

After our tour, we headed to the memorials.  Washington Monument, World War II Memorial (which I really enjoyed), and then the long walk to the Lincoln Memorial. 

We made it!  We were sad though because the reflection pool was under construction.  We definitely could have used a little cooling off again.

Now here's where the grumbling started.  It was getting hot, the girls were getting tired, yet they wanted to see Franklin Roosevelt's Memorial with the waterfalls (I think they thought they could climb in).  Here they are at Martin Luther King's Memorial...almost there. 

Thankfully, we could take the path in the shade along the Tidal Basin with lots of puddles for them to jump over.  We made it, but getting wet was out of the question (I did let them put their hands in when no one was looking). As you can see, they liked Franklin's little dog the most.

We can't forget Eleanor!

Beautiful!  Notice Elise's position on the stones...as close as she could get to the falls.  She wanted to move to the wet stone right in the middle, but I told her no. 

Here's the only picture of me with the girls.  Yes...I was with them the whole time I promise :0).

Now this is where it got ugly.  We had to walk all the way back to our hotel which was on 16th & K (behind the White House).  That's a good distance from the Tidal Basin.  So the complaining began.  The the crying began.  Then the fear of fainting began.  By the time we reached the Washington Monument, I was forcing them to drink water and keep moving. We found a clump of trees and collapsed.  Our goal was to get to the American History Museum for lunch which was right across the street.  After a much needed break, we made it.  Pizza was in their bellies and they were ready to go.  On our way back, we hit the National Aquarium.  The girls really liked the crocodiles and the octopus.  Then we walked 7 blocks or so, took a wrong turn, figured out the right direction, and made it to the hotel.  All of us had blisters.  We decided to soak our feel in a nice cool bath.  Ahhh...  Here are the girls after the walk.  They were ready for bed!

Last day!  We only had a few hours, so we decided to go to Ford's Theatre.  It was incredible!  I was worried it would be a little morbid for the girls, but it's a part of history and they seemed okay with it.  Even the gun used to assassinate Lincoln.

So here they are with Lincoln and the close he wore the night he was killed (they're still smiling).  I found the pillow displayed with his blood to be a little creepy. 

After touring the museum downstairs, we went into the theater.  Wow.  We sat right next to the presidential box where he was shot and listened to a ranger tell the story of that night. 

After our tour of the house Lincoln died in across the street, we walked back to the hotel and headed home.  This was the most I've ever done in D.C.!  I hope the girls will remember it~