Washington D.C.

A fun-filled weekend with Eric and Jenny was a tough act to follow,  but we did our best to keep the kids entertained and engaged in Downtown D.C. nonetheless.  Since we were now on the hospital dime, we picked a nice hotel right across the street from the White House as our downtown home base.  Nick's conference was actually in Baltimore, so he took the car each morning while the kids and I slept in, went to breakfast, and then explored all of the wonders of D.C. on foot.  I don't know how many miles the kids and I walked in that week, but it was more than a few!  The kids were such good sports though, and I'm so proud of them for going to and understanding the significance of so many important places.

Here is our D.C. sight-seeing list--in no particular order:

National Museum of American History

The National Museum of Natural History (with Cousins)

Arlington Cemetery

Playing on the Mall (with Cousins)

The White House 

(Our White House tour got declined!  Go Figure! So we just had to enjoy it from the street and via video in the Visitor's Center)

The Jefferson Memorial

The Washington Monument

Ford's Theater

The Lincoln Memorial

The National Archives (with Cousins)

The United States Capitol Building

(We did get a tour here!  And even got the chance to sit in on a Senate hearing.  We also ran into Paul Ryan, though it was not as exciting as seeing him on the campaign trail.)

We ran out of time to make it to the Library of Congress, The U.S. Mint, and the rest of the Smithsonians, but I'm sure this won't be our last trip here!  We'll catch them the next time we're in town!