Washington DC - Part II

Sunday in DC...

It was a really long (but fun) day!

We set out that morning and explored.

Everything.

Well, not everything because there is so much to see and do - but we saw a lot!

I was actually really overwhelmed with this city.

So much to take in.

I walked into one of the National Museums and was immediately overwhelmed.

There is no way I could see everything and I didn't know what to pick to see!

Most of these museums would take hours to walk through.

What Nik and I decided to do, was with each place we stepped into,

we picked one to two things we wanted to see (and whatever was in between them)

...and then moved on.

We probably missed some cool opportunities...but on the other hand,

we were able to see a large variety of things in our short time there.

I am going to try and not overwhelm you with pictures - here goes nothing!

We were a few blocks away from the National Mall so that is where we started.

We walked to the Capital Building first, which we loved seeing.

After taking the picture above, we turned around and took the picture below.

The Washington Monument looks pretty close, right? Wrong. It's 2 miles away.

But what a cool view!

 

We headed for the Washington Monument next, with many stops along the way.

We walked past the Newseum, which would probably be super cool, but we chose not to go in.

The Newseum is an interactive museum that promotes free expression and the First Amendment 

to the United States Constitution, while tracing the evolution of communication. 

 

As we were walking along we saw some kind of race going on.

And it was so inspiring!

It did not inspire me to start running again - but it was inspiring because of the 

comradery that we saw take place between the runners. 

Nik and I jumped in and cheered the runners on for awhile!

Eventually we found ourselves walking by the National Archives.

We had to go in there! And this ended up being one of our favorite stops!

It was pretty cool to see The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and The Bill of Rights.

No pictures were allowed inside.

It was surreal. 

 

https://museum.archives.gov/founding-documents

I made us detour to check out Ford's Theater next.

We could not go in the Theater - they had something going on, but still...

to see this place that is such a huge part of history was so cool.

We passed the Trump International Hotel and many other grand-looking buildings. 

We finally made our way to the White House next.

And to my surprise, it was kind of a let down (for both of us). 

There were probably a lot of factors that played in that...

we could not get very close - streets were blocked off and construction was happening,

so we walked all the way around it (many blocks due to roads being closed) 

to see if we could at least get a better view - no,

there was a small protest going on - which added a weird dynamic to the situation...

and we were hungry! Lol. 

But we were there - we saw - and then we left.

I was really hoping for a better view, more for Jaxen's sake than mine.

He was sooo excited we were getting to see the White House. 

I had planned on sending him a video message from there...

but it was loud and he would not have seen much. 

 

 

After seeing the White House we finally made our way to lunch.

Guess where we picked to eat?

Food Trucks.

Yes!

They were all lined up along the street in front of the Washington Memorial.

We walked the whole line, trying to decide what Food Truck experience we wanted.

Eventually, I told Nik to get me something I would like and I took a seat in the grass.

I had a nice view of the Washington Monument, and

see my view of the Capital between the trucks?

The lunch was good - my Coke was even better - and the fact I was off my 

feet for a little bit was the best of all :) 

We made our way to the National Museum of American History next.

This was a quick stop for us - 

this is where I was starting to feel so overwhelmed with everything there was to see!

Here's a few pics...

 

Next up...the National Museum of Natural History.

We loved this place!

And apparently I now have to see the Night at the Museum per Nik.

We basically thought of Zane the whole time we were here - he would have loved this place!

Hopefully we can bring him here one day when he is older. 

Right now - he would want to climb and touch everything :)

We eventually made our way back to the Hotel 

(with a stop at CVS for drinks) in time to order pizza and watch the Chiefs play!