Trip to Washington DC - Day Four

Today started with a tour of the White House!  An hour before going on our tour we stopped at the museum for the White House (kiddie corner just to the southeast).  It allowed us to get a feel for what we would see inside and all the history involved with the White House.  Then we were ready for our tour.  This was really fun and something we had all looked forward to.  Getting to go inside and see where so many important decisions are made was amazing!  We also saw so many historical furnishings, paintings, and dishes.  The really amazing thing is that although it is kind of like a museum, everything in there is used all the time.  It's hard to believe that furniture some of the first Presidents of our country used isn't just "on display" but is actually used by everyone who comes to the White House on whatever business they are there for.


Cameras were not allowed on the tour, so mine had to be left back at the hotel, but I did have my camera phone to take some shots as were leaving out the front entrance of the White House...

From the White House we walked over to Ford's Theater, where Abraham Lincoln was shot.  There is an amazing museum inside the theater building that we were able to spend an hour in before going into the theater.  Inside there were videos playing in different areas that told how the whole event on that fateful night unfolded.  Along the way we could see things like the clothes Lincoln was wearing when he was shot, and the gun he was shot with...

 Then we walked into the theater where we sat and listened to a tour guide tell us more about that night.  As he talked we were able to look over at the actual Presidential box where Lincoln was shot.

After leaving Ford's Theater we walked directly across the street to William Petersen's house, where Lincoln was taken when it was decided the White House was too far away.

Here he was taken along a thin hallway to the back, to the dingy little rented room of a War Department clerk.  There, they lay the oversized President diagonally across a small Victorian four-poster bed.  Here (behind a sheet of glass) is the bed...

Kind of a sad tour, but a piece of history that came alive for us - more so than just being read in a history book.  Abraham Lincoln was an amazing President and that was a truly sad day for our country.

Next we ate lunch at a really yummy cafe called Breadline, just down the street from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.  Oh my goodness!  We would go back there in a heartbeat!  The sandwiches, pizzas, and soups were freshly made and delicious!

Next we moved on to a Smithsonian - the Museum of Natural History.  All the Smithsonian's are HUGE!  There is enough in each one to spend a couple of days exploring.  In this museum alone there were exhibits about the ocean, Africa, the Ice Age, fossils, dinosaurs, mammals, the origin of humans, Earth/Moon/meteorites, gems/minerals, live butterflies & plants, insects, Egyptian mummies, bones, and more!

My kids were much braver than me in the insect exhibit.  There was a man passing around live insects for the kids to hold.  Here are Colton and Kyle with a HUGE hissing cockroach...

Colton even let it tickle his cheek with its antennae!

Then they held a millipede next...

And then a really chunky caterpillar!

Then they decided to hold the Washington Monument.

Here we were also able to view the Hope Diamond...

 and some other amazing jewels...

After grabbing some dinner we headed to one of our most memorable and fun things we did on our trip - a Washington DC at Night Bike Tour.  This was a 3 hour tour in which we followed our tour guide around on bikes to all of the monuments around the National Mall.  It was SO FUN!  Mark and I each rode a tandem bike - mine had Kyle on the back while Mark took Colton.  This helped alleviate our stress about the two youngest riding next to busy streets at night.  Bryan and Morgan each had their own bike.


The group we were with was small - about 10 people in all.  When we got to a monument we all got off our bikes while our tour guide told us a little about the background.  Then we were free to spend a few minutes taking pictures and walking around the monument.


Here we are at the Washington Monument...

and the White House...

the World War II Memorial...

with the Lincoln Memorial in the background...

the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall...

the Lincoln Memorial...

the Korean War Veterans Memorial...

the Martin Luther King Memorial...

the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial...

and our last stop, the Jefferson Memorial Building.  That's Mark and the kids walking up the steps in their florescent green bike vests.

The view from the Jefferson Memorial taking in the White House to the left and the beautiful Washington Monument to the right reflected in the Tidal Basin below.

What a beautiful and fun way to end our day!

Trip to Washington DC - Day Three

We spent the first half of our day today at Mount Vernon (not far from our hotel).  What a BEAUTIFUL piece of land!  It was so relaxing and peaceful there.  It was acres and acres of lush, green, very manicured and well kept land.   There were lots of gardens, forested area, and beautiful paths to walk along in the cool of the morning.  When you enter there are lots of people in period clothing giving tours or even working the fields.

Our first stop here was at the mansion where George and Martha Washington lived.  I was not allowed to take pictures inside the mansion, but what an amazing tour!  To see the bed our first President slept in, the desk he worked at, the dishes he ate from...it was really neat!

The building to the right of the mansion was a kitchen area.

This is the back porch of the Mansion.  The hill the house sits on slopes gently down to the Potomac River.  It was such a peaceful and magnificent view.

This is the kitchen area in the building to the right of the Mansion in the previous picture.

This is another view from the grassy area just off the back porch of the Mansion.  That's Bryan, Morgan, Colton, and Kyle in this picture.

Looking back at the back porch of the Mansion...

The Wharf on the Potomac River that George Washington used to support his farming and fishing activities.

This was part of the farm.

Straight ahead here is the Trestle Barn...

The Treading Barn was a 16-sided barn Washington designed to keep wheat clan and safe from weather.  How did the 16-sided barn work, and why did George Washington see a need for it? Traditionally, wheat was threshed by hand. After harvesting, workers would undertake the slow and backbreaking process of beating the wheat with a flail to break the grain out of the straw. Alternatively, wheat was sometimes "treaded out," or trampled by horses, on open ground. Although this second method was more efficient than the first, it had the disadvantage of being highly unsanitary – in that dirt and horse excrement would become mixed in with the grain. Further, with both methods, the grain would be exposed to the vicissitudes of weather throughout the threshing process. So in order to operate more efficiently, reduce loss, and improve the quality of his grain, Washington decided to move the treading process indoors.  

A 12-foot-wide oak threshing lane encircled the center section. Horses would run around and around within the lane, treading the grain out of the wheat. A farm worker was present to make sure that the horses did not stop running, because horses do not urinate or defecate while they are running. Washington designed the flooring for the barn's treading level so that there were 1 1/2 inch gaps between the floorboards. As the horses treaded out the grain from the straw, the grain fell between the gaps to the first floor, where it was gathered up and stored until being taken to the gristmill to be ground into flour.

This is the Tomb of George and Martha Washington...

Here is the marble casket containing George Washington...

and here is Martha's...

We spent the rest of our time wandering through several beautifully manicured gardens and taking a walk on a pathway through the forest here.  On our way out we stopped for one last shot of the mansion (and the two cuties in front of it).

After Mount Vernon we returned our rental car and took the subway as our transportation for the remainder of our trip.  The kids thought that was a blast!  It was very clean and felt very safe.  We really enjoyed it.


So our first trip on the subway brought us out near the White House where we ate at a nearby Subway.  Then it was on to the National Archives.

The National Archives was another spot where I was DYING to take pictures but alas, it was not allowed.  This was where we were able to see the original Declaration of Independence, the original Bill of Rights, and the original Constitution.  Those were the highlights, but there were many other really neat things to see here.  The exhibits included telegrams from Abraham Lincoln to his generals, audio recordings from the Oval Office, letter to Elvis Presley from his fans (one of them begging him not to cut his hair when he went into the military...so funny!), letters to the President, citations for military bravery, handwritten letters from George Washington.


At the gift shop our kids all purchased reproduction of the Declaration and Constitution.  Mark and I purchased the larger ones to display in our home, and I found a couple of really fun cookbooks (surprise surprise).  One is written by the former chef to the White House and has lots of really fun inside stories.  The other contains recipes from all the different President's and their family members starting with George Washington.  Fun!