Washington DC - Day 4

For years I have seen pictures of the many famous places in Washington DC, but there’s nothing quite like seeing it in person. Being this close to our nation’s capital, we had to visit the famous city. After driving about three hours, we arrived in the city. We quickly spotted the Washington Monument and found a place to park. We parked below the International Trade Center so security was very tight. They checked out ID and looked throughout the trunk and under the car to make sure we were safe.

Our first stop was the Washington Monument. It was surrounded by flags and a large grass area. People were relaxing on the grass and flying kites when we were there.

After that we started heading toward the Lincoln Memorial. We wanted to see the reflection pool that was seen in the movie, Forest Gump.

Along the way to the Lincoln Memorial, we stopped at the WWII Memorial that was built fairly recently. There were fountains and 50 tall pillars, one for each state.

We walked along the Reflection Pool up to the Lincoln Memorial. It was amazing! We climbed the large marble steps up into the memorial to see Abe Lincoln sitting in his giant arm chair. It was much bigger than I had expected! It was amazing to be in such a famous place that I had seen so many times in movies and on TV.

After that we walked over to the Vietnam Memorial. This was another place that I had seen on TV before. Every person’s name that died during the Vietnam War was etched into the black granite. Many people came here to leave flowers for loved ones or to shade over the name with crayon or pencil. The granite was designed to show the names in the sunshine, but they all disappear when it rains. There were thousands of names etched into that wall!

Off to the White House – we walked the short ways to the famous White House! It was awesome! We were at the back of the White House and there was only a small area to view the giant white building. From the back we could see Michelle Obama’s famous garden. We could see people working on the grounds as well as tents for some sort of event that was happening there. The sobering part was the snipers that could be seen from the top of the house. It tells us that the president and his family aren’t safe – even at home.

We stopped a street vendor to pick up a hot dog for lunch. All of this walking had made us hungry! After the White House, we walked over toward the National Mall and the Smithsonian. We spent a few hours in the National Museum of Natural History.  This is the same type of museum that "Night at the Museum" was filmed at.  It was amazing walking through the Smithsonian looking at all of the exhibits - Ocean Room, Gems, Mammals, Dinosaurs, Early Man, etc.

After 4 hours of walking, we were dead tired!  We couldn't take another step so we decided to see the rest of the city by car.  We walked back to the Trade Center to explore the rest of the city.  We drove by the Capitol Building.  It was amazing in stature with its giant columns and beautfiul lawn.

It was getting late so we decided to start heading back to Williamsburg.  We got a bit lost so we got to see more of Washington than we had anticipated as we drove through the 'ghetto' but the GPS was faithful and we were able to find out way.

What an amazing day!  I love the historical aspect of our nation's capital!