Part Two: What We Did & What We Want to Do Next Time
Saturday: We left Raleigh on the Amtrak after 9 a.m., and arrived in Washington DC before 4 p.m. We walked two blocks to our Airbnb, dropped our luggage, returned to Union Station and promptly took the train down to Metro Station. We walked for a couple of hours and saw:
The back of the White House in daylight
Washington Monument (just walked by)
World War 2 Memorial (the grown ups' favorite!)
Lincoln Memorial (the kids' favorite!)
The front of the White House lit up at night
Plus all of the gorgeous architecture around the White House and downtown
We spent no time inside, and it was FREEZING. We were quite thankful to head back to Union Station, eat dinner and go to bed.
Sunday: We went to the National Mall and spent hours in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (we even bumped into old friends from NC there!!). After Air and Space, we went to the National Gallery of Art looking for Rodin's The Thinker, thanks for Night at the Museum 2. We found it, and Fuller could not have been happier!! Sunday was a freezing cold, rainy day that was actually supposed to be a snowy day, so after spending 4+ hours between the two museums, we went back 'home' to our Airbnb. We ate cereal for dinner, put our feet up, and had a lovely visit with a friend who is a student at American University (D.S., I'm looking at you:-).
Monday: Thankfully, the rain had moved on, so even though it was cold the sun was out again. We took advantage of the sunshine, and visited the National Museum of American History, the National Archives, the outside of the US Capitol Building and Supreme Court, and the Library of Congress. We all loved seeing the Batmobile in the AmHistory Museum, but Georgia was disappointed that Elphaba's dress from Wicked wasn't on display in March (it rotates when it is on display). I cannot get over the fact that my children were able to see for themselves the original founding documents of our country, and well, I could spend HOURS in the Library of Congress (again, D.S., thank you!).
Tuesday: Before our train left mid-afternoon, we made two more stops at the National Portrait Gallery to see the Presidential Portraits and the US Navy Memorial Plaza. The Presidential portrait were delightful to see (and so varied in style and tone), and the Navy Memorial holds a special place in my heart due to my father's service in the Navy. After those visits, we loaded up at Union Station and returned to Raleigh!
Now, here's the deal. We couldn't get to everything. We couldn't even get to MOST things. I asked the children to tell me one thing they wanted to see, and we tried to accomplish that. Baxter asked for the Air and Space Museum, Georgia wanted to see Elphaba's dress, Fuller wanted to see The Thinker, and Eleanor chose Natural History. We simply didn't make it to the National Museum of Natural History. It was on our plan for Sunday, because it is right next to the other places we visited, but it was cold and wet and we were tired. Our plans with friends on Monday and our travel on Tuesday prevented us for getting there. We had also considered a trip out to Arlington, but timing didn't permit it. That made me sad, because our visit to Arlington was possibly the most moving part of our visit four years ago. We might have been able to tour the White House if we had planned our trip differently, but that is something we will have to do in the future. And, since we didn't have a car, we couldn't drive out to the Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia to see more of the Air and Space Exhibit. Our goal is to return to DC every two years, so in two years we are hoping to visit Arlington, National Museum of Natural History, tour the White House and the Capitol Building, and perhaps take in the Museum of the Bible.
Thanks for reading! More posts coming soon.
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