Spring Break DC-White House, Museums, and Monuments

Tuesday we were up early to walk by the White House on our way to the Archives.  We stepped out of the Metro and discovered a White House welcome center that was just opening for the day.  We loved the model that showed all the rooms and learned lots of cool stories about different First Families.

We had to stand in line to take our pictures in the recreated Oval Office.

We tried to walk by the White House on our way out but fencing didn't let us anywhere near it.  Stopped on the sidewall for 15 minutes or so we saw a large cavalcade of black suburbans and police vehicles escort someone important to the White House.

All the fencing had taken us far off our path so we chose to visit the American History Museum first.

Lily found Trudy Ederle's goggles.

We had just learned about the Battle of the Sexes tennis match listening to Rivals! 3 on our drive to Monticello so the girls were excited to see Billy Jean Kings outfit from that match.

And Captain's Shield!

The First Lady's exhibit was fabulous. 

Fun to learn about the Teddy Bears named for Teddy Rosevelt and sit on a bus showing transportation through the years.

Then on to the Natural History Museum where Emily was in her element and Lily and I only lost her once.

Hope Diamond.

Next we headed to the Washington Monument - our tickets for the day before were canceled due to the tornado warning so they honored our ticket and let us up - a first for all of us.

The view's were amazing.

Jefferson Monument

Lincoln Memorial 

White House with fountain dyed green for St. Patrick's Day and the carnage in creation of the new ballroom.

The reflecting pool.

The Smithsonian's and Capitol.

After our trip to the top we were ready to tour all the monuments and memorials in spite of the chilly 40 degree weather.

WWII memorial

Reflecting Pool in front of the Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial - We enjoyed talking about the Gettysburg Address.

After the Martin Luther King Memorial Emily and I convinced Lily to walk all the way to The Jefferson Memorial.

Roosevelt Memorial led to lots of conversations about his life and the difference between him and Teddy.

We arrived at the Jefferson Memorial just moments before a group of Middle School Kids so we made our visit quick before we were overwhelmed by their noise.

At this point we had walked our feet off.  Our feet were hurting but we were still at least a mile from a Metro station and Uber was way too expensive so we trudged on.  On the ride home we found a place to eat near a Metro stop and everyone was okay with so we stopped and were all thrilled to sit down, fill our bellies with yummy food and take some dessert back to the hotel with us.  We watched a movie then headed to bed with 29,088 steps and very sore feet.