Day 6-DC...lots of DC

This is how we felt on Day 2 in DC...wiped out. We started off relatively early, as we had a scheduled tour at the National Archives. The National Archives were featured in the movie, "National Treasure". Since they house some of our nation's most important documents, we wanted to make sure we got to see them. Our tour time was 9:45. We got there early and had to wait outside. We either looked friendly or like we worked there, because every person walking by asked us for help. Scott normally has a great sense of direction, but since we got into DC, he's completely turned around. So, when these sweet ladies from some African nation stopped in their car to ask directions, he was happy to comply. It was only after they drove off that he realized his google maps hadn't oriented to the way we were standing and he sent the ladies in the opposite direction they were supposed to go. He still feels bad about it. We hope they found their destination. An older gentleman with a young boy asked us what time the Archives opened. We stood and visited with them for a minute. I asked him where they were from. He said that he is from a town called Lawrence and his grandson is from Overland Park, KS. We laughed and told him we are from Olathe. Since we had our tour scheduled, we offered for them to join our group. We didn't know if the museum would go for it, but we told them we would try. It was finally time for our tour. After a few moments of explaining that our group had grown, they let us in. We got to see The Bill of Rights, The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, among other things. It was a great tour. Afterwards, Dr. Campbell (the grandfather from Lawrence) said he was so grateful that he got to go on the tour that he wanted to have lunch with us and to buy our lunch. After telling him multiple times that he didn't need to do that, we finally relented. We had a nice lunch in the basement of the archives.

Cole's request, we went to the National Gallery of Art. I was not looking forward to this one, but was pleasantly surprised. I guess if it's a Smithsonian museum, it's going to be good. Did you know there are 17 different Smithsonians in DC? I think we hit five of them.

From the National Gallery of Art, we walked over to the Capitol. On our way there, we passed a woman with only one arm. As we passed her, Drew said loudly, "Did you see that?" My heart stopped as he continued. "That black bird was huge!" He never says what I expect him to.

They were not excited about going on another tour, so we were so pleased when close to the Capitol, Drew asked if we could come back the following day. "Are you enjoying it that much?" To which he replied, "I just want to come back so we can feed the ducks."

We had a tour scheduled at the Capitol as well. It's a guided tour, but they give you headphones so you can hear your guide better. I liked that you could hear, but it gave me the absolute creeps putting on headphones that tons of other people had worn. It was another great tour.

From there, we took the tunnel over to the Library of Congress. The boys wanted to see all of the books, so they were a little disappointed that they couldn't get in. We could only see it from the viewing window. The architecture of the building was beautiful.

We ran (literally)back over to the Capitol and caught the trolley. It took us over to the Lincoln Monument. We looked around there, then walked by the Vietnam Memorial Wall and over to the Washington Monument. Fortunately, there was a snack stand nearby because we were dying for a Popsicle.

We then walked over to the Museum of American History. There were so fun things to see there...Dorothy's ruby slippers, Fonzi's jacket, The original Muppets, Archie Bunker's chair, Apollo Ono's skates, etc in one area. We didn't get to see the whole museum because we were short on time by this point.

Our final stop was the Museum of Natural History made famous in "Night at the Museum". What an awesome place. We could have spent the entire day in this one museum. There were dinosaurs galore, evolution areas, deep sea area...they loved it. And in the gift shop, they had the polished rocks. We can't come home from anywhere without a bag of rocks. We stayed until they closed and then walked back toward the hotel. After a few blocks, we gave up and caught a cab. We had them drop us off at the restaurant area near our hotel. We got back to our room about 9pm...13 hours after we left.

The Hope Diamond

Drew making a new friend.

National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art- You can tell how tired I am. My arm is tired of holding up the camera, so the picture is slanted.

Drew, Scott and Cole at the national Gallery of Art

Cole wants to learn to oil paint now. He loved the paintings and studied each one as long as we would let him.

This is Drew after I told him we were going to go to 17 museums.

Feeding the Capitol ducks. I was sure that someone was going to fall in. I was not looking forward to jumping into the green duck water to pull them out.

The ceiling of the rotunda at the US Capitol.

Cole was amazed at the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress

Cole and Drew at the Library of Congress

Library of Congress from outside

This is the Holocaust Museum. We didn't go because they say it's not appropriate for kids, but I liked the sculpture out front. It's a broken swastika.

Lincoln Memorial

I guess this one is obvious...

Vietnam Memorial Wall

fountain near the Washington Memorial

Cole was being goofy. Scott was trying to make him stop. Scott was not successful.

Drew, Scott and Cole dancing in front of the Washington Memorial. Okay, Scott wasn't dancing.

Cole holding up the Washington Memorial

This is after I told Drew that I took a picture of him in front of a doll house.

This was at the Museum of American History. There was a kid's area where Drew was learning to wind surf. I don't know what this had to do with American History, but Drew enjoyed himself and there was a bench to sit down. At this point, that's all I cared about.

Museum of Natural History---Awesome!

The T-Rex featured in Night at the Museum.

Cole almost getting eaten by a dinosaur.

Drew always living on the edge.

This was our last museum. Cole had to sit down while he read because he was so worn out.