Washington DC

Hey Guys!! We spent one week in the DC area and it wasn’t nearly long enough. We had four very crazy, very full, very looonngggg days where we ventured into the DC area and we still didn’t get everything on our list done.

We somehow managed to snag tickets for the White House tour. We heard we were one of only five Texas families since February 2016 that’s been approved.

We got to look through some of the rooms that I’m pretty sure aren’t really used much anymore.

Several of the rooms had a color theme. Can you guess the name of the room above?

There were Secret Servicemen everywhere. Most of them were super nice and full of all kinds of info. We asked them all the questions we could think to ask. From how many colors of green were in the Green Room to how heavy the chandeliers are in the photo above.

Caught this view out one of the White House windows. Not bad, right?

I’m pretty sure they set this up as a photo opp…but it’s a good one.

And check out this piano! Gorgeous!!!

The very first thing we did in the area was visit the zoo. Littlest is panda crazy and has been looking forward to seeing a real, live panda in person all summer.

He was in heaven. We met an old friend of ours and her family at the zoo. *waves at Kiki & family* We got to catch up while the kids all watched the animals.

We stayed at an RV park not too far from DC. They have an orientation about how to get around the area. It was super helpful. We used these two maps the whole time. We never had to actually drive into the DC area. We always utilized the Metro system.

One of the experiences we missed out on in NYC was the subway system. The boys were curious about it and wanting to ride it, but we just didn’t get to do it. So, while we were in DC we rode the Metro often. The first ride was pretty exciting for them.

For those of you wondering what it looks like. Here’s one of the Metro stops.

We found a few foodies… This is a Banana Fosters Shake. It was fantastic! So good!!

And we found a great little hole-in-the-wall Salvadoran place. It too was just fantastic!!

We hit all of the memorials that we could. This is the WWII Memorial.

We had to snag a picture by the Texas post.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Lincoln Memorial. We actually got a decent picture of the boys here without tons of other people in the shot. I think there were roughly a thousand or so people there at the same time we were trying to get the Junior Ranger stuff done.

Korean War Memorial

The Washington Monument was closed while we were there. Something to do with the elevators. We still enjoyed seeing it.

Vietnam War Memorial.

Iwo Jima Memorial.

We found the National Cathedral. It was gorgeous. I love all of the angles and spires around it.

We made it to the Arlington National Cemetery.

It’s a lovely place full of quiet reverence.

We spent several hours here walking around.

 We watched the changing of the guard before we left. It changed us all. You can’t watch something like that and not be changed. The boys still bring it up in conversation every so often.

We made it to the Maryland State House!

The dome was ok…

It had some pretty stained glass.

We found the reddest room in the world. If it’s not official it should be. The walls were red velvet.

The Maryland State House is where George Washington resigned from the military.

There was a neat little museum on the first floor. The area around the building was pretty neat too! We enjoyed this one.

We even managed to get in a tour of the Nation’s Capitol Building! We wanted a complete set…

Did you know that if you contact your State Rep that they will set up a private tour for you so you don’t have to wait in the long lines? And you get to go into the tunnels that connect the Capitol Complex. It was pretty cool.

I want y’all to know I got in trouble taking this picture for y’all. Apparently, you’re not supposed to stop in the center and lay your phone down on the ground while you’re at the Nation’s Capitol. I thought for a minute I was going to get kicked out. I made sure to snap the picture before getting up though. I mean, I was already there…and in trouble…might as well get the shot.

 Each state gets to have two statues in the building. So…there are statues sitting everywhere. It’s kind of weird.

Our tour guide showed us the Whispering Spot where John Quincy Adams used to have his desk in the room in the photo above this one. We stood over this spot and our guide stood way over across the room and whispered. And we heard him! It was the coolest thing!

This is the old Senate Chambers. It used to have wooden floors. Notice the spittoon. They were everywhere! According to our guide all of the Senators used to chew tobacco and instead of using the spittoons they would just spit on the floor. It became so gross that if you dropped anything at all you just left it. And instead of stopping or using the spittoons they would just rip out the wooden floor every so often and replace it. Talk about a waste of money. Sheesh. Can you even imagine the smell this room most have had??? Bleh!!!

We found a few pretties…

Not too many. It was late in the season.

We walked a lot in the four days we were in DC. Sometimes it pays to be the Littlest.

See y’all down the road!

#easternloop2016