The Mall

Ha, ha.  So deceiving.  When I first went to DC about 12 years ago, I honestly thought The Mall was a shopping mall.  Shhh, please don't tell anyone. :)  Well, the kids kind of thought the same thing.  Boy were they a little dismayed when they just saw a big green area with a bunch of museums and memorials all around.

Of course we got a later start then I wanted.  We were all so tired.  But, we got to the Metro Station about 9 I think.  After a really great, free breakfast.  Our hotel offers free shuttle service to the Metro stop so that was really cool.  Anyway, it took us a little bit to figure out the Metro fare system but the nice Metro security guy helped us out.  Hope he will be there tomorrow!

We stood on the platform and waited for our train.  And it was exciting.  The kids kept wanting to get close to the tracks to see if the train was coming.  Our train took us past Reagan National and the Pentagon so that was neat.  When we went under the tunnel the kids liked that.  We could see the Capitol and the Washington Monument through the windows.  We were able to find our stop real easy.  We didn't have to change trains at all.  We got out at Archives and that is the place we started.

I had never been to the Archives before and I was thrilled to see the original Bill of Rights, Constitution and Declaration of Independence.  It was so dark and cool in there in order preserve the documents.  We bought a copy of the Declaration to hang in our school room.  They had some great exhibits and we wandered through.

Next we went to the Art Gallery - West and saw original paintings and sculptures from names such as Rembrandt and Monet and Rodin.  I could have stayed in there for awhile but the kids were not quite as thrilled as I was. I tried to keep them interested by asking if they recognized any names.  We were amazed at the attention to detail in the paintings.  They almost look liked copies.  Whether or not you could take a picture or whether or not the paintings were in glass depended on the request made by the  person/organization loaning the art work.  I thought that was interesting.

Then we went to the Capitol and Supreme Court Buildings.  So amazing to see those buildings up close and personal!  The weather was spectacular so made the views all that much more beautiful.

Next was the Botanical Gardens, which we were going to skip.  But, it turned out to be Little Mama's favorite place.  The plants and flowers were spectacular.  We had a little journal that told us special plants to look for in each area of the Gardens so that was a good learning tool.

We took another unscheduled stop at the Native American Museum.  They had a horse exhibit so LM wanted to stop.  I had never been before so it was all new to me.

Our last stop was the Air and Space Museum.  The highly anticipated destination of Boop.  All day long he kept asking if it was next!  The entrance is so over the top with rockets and planes and information.  We spent the rest of the day there until closing.  Amelia Earhart (spelling doesn't look right) was a hit.  My personal favorite was the sea planes exhibit.

We ended up very close to our Metro stop to catch back to the hotel.  The ride back was a little more eventful because it was "rush hour" and so a lot more people coming and going.  Everyone seems to be in such a hurry.  Guess everyone isn't on vacation. 

We did get to meet some really nice people on the way back to the hotel.  One lady I sat next to struck up a conversation with me.  She said having the souvenir Constitution gave it away that we were not from DC.  As I was telling her where we were from, the young lady standing next to me was on the Metro to Reagan to catch a flight to our city!  She had just become a grad student at the college.  Of course, after the fact I realized I should have given her my name and number or something.  She didn't know a soul there.

We are now back at the hotel making a plan for tomorrow.  On the agenda is the American History and Natural History museums, the White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial just to name a few.  Need to get our rest . .