Before we left for vacation we had talked about what things we definitely wanted to see while we were back East. Washington DC was one of them. We decided to go to DC while our neice and nephew were still in school.
We were using Lisa's car with a navigation system in it so we thought getting lost would be kept to a minimum. We all know what they say about assuming!! Lisa had told us that DC was about 2 1/2 to 3 hours away from Pennsylvania--well those 3 hours quickly turned into 5 1/2 hours. Many side streets and back roads later we had finally arrived. We learned that the navigation system was set to avoid all toll roads, so needless to say we hit every road, except toll roads, on our way there. We weren't too happy about spending most of the day on the road instead of where we really wanted to be, but we quickly got over it. While driving there, the kids were amazed at how many states we went through to get from Pennsylvania to Washington D.C. 1. Pennsylvania 2. Delaware 3. Maryland 4. Virginia and 5. Washington D.C.--technically not a state, but we counted it anyway.
We quickly checked into our hotel room and then made our way to the subwa
y station. This was the first subway ride for all of us. We survived without much trauma, walked up the stairs and right in front of us was the Capitol building. What a beautiful site! After looking around with our mouths wide open, we couldn't believe that we were finally there seeing all of our national monuments. We proceeded to walk along the mall and made stops at all of the monuments that we could before nightfall. The kids were actually seeing what they had been learning about in school. Nothing beats seeing it in person versus seeing it in a book. It was very exciting.
We had managed to see quite a bit in the few hours that we had before it got dark. The kids were getting tired from the miles of walking so we took the subway back to our hotel and turned in for the night knowing that tomorrow was going to be another busy day.
DAY 4--WASHINGTON D.C.
After a quick breakfast, we headed back to the subway to catch the Capitol tour that we had scheduled the day before through our Senator's office. After our arrival we meandered through underground tunnels, with our tour guide and other fellow Orgonians, that led us right to the Capitol building itself. Our guide was very knowledgable and gave us some pretty facinating facts about the goings on of our nation's Capitol. After the tour, we walked through the Library of Congress, which was a very beautiful building and had fascinating artifacts.We eventually made our way to the Air and Space Museum. After standing in line for what seemed like hours of security checks, we were finally in! Derek and Nick were like two maniacs running around looking at all of the space shuttles, airplanes, and space paraphernalia. The girls and I were bored out of our minds. It was interesting for the first 30 minutes, but after that it was torture.
We had learned that the American History Museum was closed for renovations, but 200 exhibits were in the back corner of the building that we were in. We saw Lincoln's top hat, Dorothy's ruby red slippers from the Wizard
of Oz, George Washington's uniform, and a compass used by Lewis and Clark while on their expedition through Oregon. I found that to be very interesting and was disappointed that I wasn't able to see the rest of the exhibits as well. I would've rather spent hours in the American History Museum than in the Air and Space Museum any day.The day was coming to an end once again and it was time to head back to the hotel. We would be leaving the next day so our travels through Washington DC would have to be complete--for now. I think another trip to the East Coast is in our future. Just a hunch. Still more to come...so stay tuned!
