My kids and I had the opportunity to visit the Washington, DC recently with my friend Buffie and her son Mitch. Her husband and other son were out-of-town and so Buffie and Mitch decided to visit DC for a few days and asked us to tag along. Michael was not able to go with us on this trip. He had to work so, I took lots of mental notes so that I can come back with him to visit.
The pictures and list are not in the order we did them. You can cram a lot into 4 days if you put your mind to it and don’t rest! The thing I love about DC, is that most things are free other than food and lodging. There is a ton of walking but stayed downtown at Embassy Suites so we wouldn’t have to drive in that traffic. Even staying downtown, we walked over 10 miles each the first two days. Then we got brave and took the Metro (subway) which cut our walking way down. But even so, we still walked alot!
Here is a checklist of things we got to do and see:
- Arlington National cemetary
- The Tomb of the unknown soldier
- Changing of the guards ( This was Ben’s Favorite)
- Trolley tour at Arlington ( This costs extra but so worth it in 95 degree heat)
- Take the Metro (Washington’s Subway)
- The Bible Museum( This is not pictured but was definitely one of my favorites things we did. This is not free but worth every penny. I highly recommend this museum. Fun for all ages)
- White House (We viewed it from the outside. We did not have tickets to go inside)
- National Mall
- Washington Monument
- Lincoln Memorial
- Vietnam Wall Memorial
- World War II Memorial
- Holocaust Museum ( This is not pictured but another one of my favorites)
- National Archives (This is where you can view the Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence)
- Georgetown ( great for shopping, dining and getting French Macarons! YUM!!)
- Lush Cosmetics (us girls could have stayed in there for hours, the boys hated it)
- The Capitol Building ( I think this was everyone’s favorite!! We had the best tour guide that really made history interesting. Then we got passes from Mark Meadows office to go to the House of Representative’s Gallery and view them in session)
- The Library of Congress
- Smithsonian Museum of Natural Science
- Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space
I was overwhelmed with the number of graves. It just went on and on.
This is the book where you look up the names on the Vietnam Wall. We looked up Buffie’s Uncle and my dad’s friend that both served and died in Vietnam.
The painting is what is on the back of a two dollar bill. Ben just happen to have this in his wallet. 
The Library of Congress was very impressive. 
We had a great time on this trip and I highly recommend you visit if you haven’t before.
All the best!
~Laura
leave a comment