Gettysburg

We were up early and checked out of the hotel by 7:30 a.m. We had a 10:00 a.m reservation with a Battlefield Tour Guide at Gettysburg. The tour guide drove our van around the park and gave us a tour. We got out at several significant sites. The guide did an amazing job of telling the story of the battle from beginning to end. He kept the kids very interested and answered all of their questions. Our two hour tour ended up being a little over three hours. We all enjoyed Gettysburg and Trent even said that the Gettysburg tour was his favorite part of the entire trip.

We very much enjoyed our trip to DC and are so glad we visited. I was hesitant to consider DC at first because of the ages of Reed and Riley.  This turned out not to be a problem at all. The kids did great. They were fascinated with the city and were constantly looking around taking it all in. There were a few times (on tours) where their interest was lost but that is to be expected. I was able to  reengage them by pointing out things that I knew would be of interest to them.

We are sad that our trip is over but know that it is one we will never forget.

DC DAY 5-The Day We Hit The Wall

Since we were out seeing the monuments and didn’t make it back to our hotel until well after midnight the previous night, we had made a plan to take it easy this morning. We got up later than usual, had breakfast and went for a quick swim. We walked down to Crystal City Sports Pub for lunch.

After lunch, we took the metro to the Holocaust Museum. We knew that Reed and Riley were too young for the main part of this museum. Steve and Cole went through the children's area, Daniel’s Story, with them and then just waited in the large open area while Trent and I spent about an hour viewing the main exhibits. We then switched off and Steve and Cole viewed the main exhibits. The younger two were more than happy to go through Daniel’s Story again. This area is very well done. With everywhere else we visited in DC, I tried my best to explain to Reed and Riley where we were going and what we would be seeing and the significance of it ahead of time. I was pretty lost on how to explain the Holocaust in terms they could understand. Daniel’s Story did a great job of that. Afterward, we just waited in the lobby for my Steve and Cole to finish. They spent a little over an hour in the main exhibit as well. We all would have liked to have more time seeing the main exhibits, but we did what worked for us.

Following this, we took the metro back to our hotel. We had tickets to see the Marine Barracks Parade later that evening and wanted time to get everything packed and ready to go for our departure the following morning. When we made it back to the Crystal City Metro Station, we noticed a sign saying that the station would be closed beginning at 10 pm that evening for maintenance and stay closed the remainder of the weekend. We looked up the information online and found out that we would have to take a bus back to the Crystal City Metro Station from the next station down the line since the Marine Barracks Parade would be over past 10 pm. Reed and Riley were still a little tired from the previous night and really wanted to swim (again). Because we had seen so much and they had been so great all week, I gave in and we decided to skip the Marine Barracks Parade that night. We grabbed dinner and swam in the hotel pool. (On other days, I took about 50 pictures each day.  I took a total of 4 pictures this day.  I guess I was tired too. Ha!)

                                          Holocaust Museum

                                                    Riley inside the Holocaust Museum

                                         Last Ride on the Metro

                                          Last Ride on the Metro

DC Day 4

Thursday, July 12th-

We started the day with a 10:00 Pentagon Tour. The tour takes your through 1.5 miles of the 17 miles of hallways inside the building.  They spent some time during the tour talking about 9-11, and we saw the inside 9-11 Pentagon Memorial.   It was pretty great just to be in The Pentagon. It is a huge place.

Following the tour, we visited the outdoor 9-11 Pentagon Memorial. I had read ahead of time about the symbolism of this memorial and was able to share that information with the kids. It is really well done memorial and impactful to see. After spending some time here, we took the metro to the Pentagon City stop and had lunch at the mall food court.

After lunch , we took the metro to the Smithsonian stop and visited the Museum of Natural History.
We saw the Hope Diamond and the Hall of Mammals. We browsed a couple more sections before we decided that this wasn’t the place for us. We like American History Museum much better than this museum.

We left the museum and took the metro to the Rosslyn stop to see the Marine Corp (Iwo Jima) Memorial. We made a quick stop at the McDonalds close to the metro for ice cream. We asked a couple of joggers for directions and made the hike to the monument. We liked this monument very much as well. We spent some time taking pictures and resting in the shade.

We headed back to the hotel. We opted again for sandwiches in the room followed by a quick swim in the hotel pool.

We still had to see the memorials around the Tidal Basin. We decided to head out around 7:30 with a plan to see the FDR, Thomas Jefferson and WWII Memorial at night. We took the metro to the Smithsonian station. We first walked around the Tidal Basin seeing the MLK Jr., FDR and Thomas Jefferson Memorials. We really liked the MLK Jr. Memorial and loved the FDR Memorial. There were so many photo opportunities for the kids at the FDR Memorial. They had a great time posing with the statues and by the waterfalls. By the time we left the Jefferson Memorial, it was very dark. The trails were hard to see but the flashlight apps on our iPhones helped us out with that. Ha!

We next went to the WWII Memorial. Such a different experience here at night than during the day. It was very serene and beautiful. We walked around and then just sat here for 15-20 minutes taking it all in.

We made a quick stop by the Korean War Memorial. It was very difficult to make out at night with almost no lights at all. Our last stop was the Lincoln Memorial which was also fantastic to see all lit up. By the time we made it back to the metro, it was close to midnight. We roughly estimated that we had walked 7-8 miles over the course of the day. We all agreed that it was worth it though. I will never forget the feelings of awe, gratitude and pride I felt seeing the memorials at night.

DC Day 3

Wednesday, July 11th-

Because we missed touring the National Mall on Sunday evening, we were all anxious to see some of the monuments. We changed our original plans to visit the Museum of Natural History and made our way to the Mall. We first visited the Lincoln Memorial. We then went to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and then to the World War II Memorial. We wanted to see the Korean War Memorial as well but by that time it was getting pretty hot and we were hungry.

We made our way to Penn Quarter via the metro and had lunch at Potbelly. We arrived at Ford’s Theatre at 1:00. We really enjoyed the museum. We were able to see the gun that John Wilkes Booth used to shoot Abraham Lincoln as well as the suit that Lincoln was wearing when he died and the pillow he died on. Amazing stuff to see. We were able to take pictures inside the theatre and go up to the balcony level to take pictures right beside the presidential box.

We then made our way to the Petersen House, across the street. We only had a 5 minute wait to enter the house. Although you only see three rooms of the house, it is still incredible to stand in the room where Lincoln died. We thought the Center for Education and Leadership connected to the Petersen House was great. It has wonderful exhibits about the aftermath of Lincoln’s assassination and the capture of John Wilkes Booth. We spent quite a while in there.

We left the Petersen House and headed to our 3:00 timed entry at National Archives. Incredible to be able to view the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. Most of the documents are difficult to make out, but we were still impressed with the fact that we were able to see them. We spent some time afterward looking at the other displays at the National Archives.

We then caught the metro back to Crystal City. We had sandwiches in our room that night and did some more swimming in the hotel pool. Another great DC day!