Washington D.C. - Day One

When Peter was 8 at his request, we went to DC for his birthday.  The same happened when he was 10 and 12.  I wasn't planning to go again this year since we just went last year but he asked and it seemed like I had been say no to him so much lately.  Dan's sister, Cathy, was excited to have us so we told him we could go again this year.  

We headed to Washington, DC on Thursday evening when Dan got home from work. We arrived at Cathy's house a little after midnight, thanks to some road construction near DC. 

The next morning we headed to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving.  This was one place we had not visited so we were excited to see how they print the money.  It was very fascinating.  The whole operation was not as big as I had expected and there is a lot of human inspection and hands on manipulation of the sheets of money.  You can't take pictures in side the tour but I did get a few outside.

After the tour of the BEP, the boys wanted to visit some of the museums.  We walked over to the American History Museum.

There's always something to see when you are walking in Washington. 

At the American History Museum, we saw exhibits on the Civil War and on  the American Presidents
among others.  And Sarah and I always visit the First Ladies Inauguration Gowns.  (The boys skipped this exhibit for some reason!)

After the American History Museum, we grabbed some lunch at Lincoln's Waffle Shop.  Peter was the only one who got waffles.  The rest of us got burgers.  It's named Lincoln's Waffle Shop because it's right across from Ford's Theater so after lunch, we took a tour to the museum there and got to see inside of the theater.  (When we visited last year, the theater was closed because they were working on a production.)  We were excited to get to see inside this visit.

 The actual gun that John Wilkes Booth used to shoot Abraham Lincoln.

 The box the Lincoln's were sitting in.

Colton aiming the gun!

After that we headed back to the Mall.  The boys wanted to visit the Air and Space Museum.  Sarah and I have been there enough to know that we did not want to visit.  I suggested that we go to the Natural History Museum but ultimately, after a whole day of walking (we basically parked in a garage at 9:00 and walked everywhere on Friday) we decided that we would get a treat (ice cream for her, coffee for me) and hang out and people watch in the museum while the boys did their thing.  They checked out the exhibits and rode in one of the simulators.

I have no pictures of any of this because 2 almost 13 year old boys do not want a mom chasing after them making them smile for photos.  I'm thankful for the few pictures they did let me take!

I still don't have problems of getting pictures of Sarah.

At this point, it was time to make the journey back to the car and head back to Cathy's in Alexandria.  When she got home from work, we ordered pizzas and relaxed  a little before time to take a ghost tour of Alexandra.  This is the exact same tour we took the kids on when we went for Peter's 8th birthday.  They were even still telling the same stories.  I was hoping we would get some different stories but apparently there are a limited number of ghosts in Alexandria!  It was still a fun thing to do, especially the night before Halloween! 

And after that, we walked to an ice cream shop in Alexandria (I can't remember the name of it but it's the one we always go to and the ice cream is always so good!)  And I realized that you can eat pizza and ice cream and not worry about it when you spend the whole day walking! I wish I had a Fit Bit so that I could tell you how many steps we logged on Friday! 

After ice cream, we came home and went to bed!

And that was Day 1!