Washington with the Gergen boys and Ann

from the Washington Monument
FDR
from the Washington Monument

Lincoln  Memorial
No explanation needed
The Old Post Office, Ollie's Trolley

                                                                                          Heaven to BOYS
The dome from our hotel roof

We headed out on this adventure on Monday the 15th of June.  Both flights, here to Detroit and Detroit to Washington) were smooth and I had decent seats the whole trip.  We took a shuttle to the hotel and then the boys and I went to check out the hotel.  Nice, you can see the Capitol dome from the roof top pool!

Tuesday:  Set off on a walking tour(almost ALL the tours were walking tours), I should have lost 10 lbs, today was the Air and Space Museum, the SPY museum, Ford Theatre, The Art Museum, the Sculpture Garden, the Old Post Office, Ollie's Trolley for lunch, back to the Hotel to clean up (while Ann showered and did some work, the boy's swam, I sat with my feet up) then off to 701 for dinner (this is a very spiffy place to eat where the boys were instructed on how to dine on the plush, meaning no burgers!)  The Navy memorial is next door and the Navy was putting on a ceremony and band concert so we ate outside and enjoyed the music etc.  In anyone's vocabulary, it was COOL!

Wednesday was "sneakers and workout pants day" for me.  We have a LOT of ground to cover. 

We covered the Nat'l Archives, Natural History, American History and then took a night time tour of the Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt Memorials AND the Korean War Mem., The Iwo Jima Memorials, leaving the Washington Monument and the Viet Nam Memorial and WW 2 Memorials for another day!  By time we got back we were ALL bushed.

Thursday morning I went for a walk (in the rain) to the Washington Monument to get out tickets for that afternoon,  Ann and the boys walked (in the rain) to get our tickets for the Bureau of Engraving and the Holocaust Museum.  Then we went to the WW ll memorial, Viet Nam Memorial, Constitution Gardens.  We got caught in a downpour w/ thunder and lightening and they closed the Washington Monument for the afternoon.  We went back to the hotel, showered and cleaned up and ate dinner.  We cabbed to the Washington Memorial and decided that it worked out best this way, smaller crowds and better viewing because the weather cleared!  We are SO smart!  Saw Pres. Obama's motorcade, quite impressive!

Friday was Capitol Hill and environs, again, our timing was great.  We got a tour with one of John Kline's aides @ 9 am, by time we did the tour, had lunch in the Senate Cafeteria and got out the lines were REALLY long!

Saturday morning had us walking in the rain again to view the Arboretum, then back and clean up and finish packing to head home.

It was exhausting, exciting and an all together a great trip.  I enjoyed seeing history through the eyes of kids and seeing some of the Nation's Capitol that I have not seen before.

We got home around 10 ish and NOTHING felt as good as my own bed :-)