Washington DC – July 2016

Our hotel was about a five-minute walk from the White House.

During our summer visit back to the USA, Bobby and I decided we needed to make a little time just for our own family so on the way back from our Pennsylvania trip, we stopped in Washington DC for a couple of days. We walked, we ran, we biked…and we had a blast! I wish we could have gotten tickets to go into the White House (one of my big dreams) but since you must order them through your Senator and must prove you live in his or her district to get the tickets, they are not really available to US citizens who live outside the US. We still had plenty to see.

Outside the National Archives Museum.

Washington Monument Selfie.

We started with the Washington Monument, but we were too late to get tickets to go inside. I don’t think Gabe would have been willing to go all the way up anyway. The Park Ranger gave us a scavenger hunt for the boys to do at the various monuments in DC.  They got really into it and HAD to find the information at each site before we were allowed to leave. Then we hit the National Archives Museum where we got to see the Constitution of the United States. It was fabulous! We spent a long time in there learning all sorts of cool stuff, but we were not allowed to take any pictures.

Trying out the Metro so we don’t have to walk so much.

The Kids’ section of the Smithsonian.

All our legs got pretty tired the first day, so we started trying new ways to save energy for when we really needed it: hence, the Metro. We visited several of the Smithsonian Museum’s building, but for some reason I seem to be missing those pictures. The Natural History Museum had a great Kids’ Museum inside it that my boys just did not want to leave.

We visited all the war memorials. This is the WW II Memorial.

Of course we had to stop by the Lincoln Memorial. But first, we discovered a rental bike shop. I think the boys enjoyed biking on actual sidewalks more than anything else we did on this trip. They miss it. By the time we made it to the Memorial, they said they were too tired to climb all those stairs, so Bobby and I went into the Memorial ourselves. By the time we came back out, they were most of the way up the stairs, playing. Still wouldn’t go see Ole Abe though.

Waiting on their bikes for the light to change.

View across the National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial.

The boys refusing to climb any more stairs.

Bobby and I stealing a Lincoln selfie on our own.

We ended our trip at the FDR Memorial which is stunningly beautiful. I truly admire FDR and his wife Eleanor Roosevelt but this Memorial, etched with so many great words, made me admire them even more.

my girl!

Max’s favorite statue in the city.