Washington DC, Round Two, Day Three

We began our day at Union Station, hoping to get crepes for breakfast. Unfortunately, Crepe Lena was slow in opening, and we didn't have time to wait since we had tickets to tour the Capitol. So we grabbed a Jamba Juice and started walking.

Smoothies may not have been the best choice, since it was freezing cold! Don't let those blue skies deceive you! The wind was bitter.

I wish I'd taken a photo of the line we had to wait in to get inside. Let's just say that we weren't the only ones who thought DC would be a great spring break trip.

It was worth it though, we really like the Capitol. It's a beautiful building and informative tour.

Another bonus is that you can walk through the underground tunnel to the Library of Congress, which is stunning.

Working our way back to the hotel, we went past the Supreme Court Building, which was being renovated.

And again past Union Station...

To our hotel (the Grand Hyatt). Loved the cherry blossoms in the lobby.

After dropping off our souvenirs, we headed over to the Mall, to the Museum of Natural History (another place we didn't get to see with Robbie).

We did repeat a favorite dinner from our previous trip, at BGR, The Burger Joint.

Luckily we averaged about 20,000 steps (ten miles) a day on this trip, so those decadent burgers didn't count. :)

Washington DC, Round Two, Day Two

On day two, we took advantage of our second car rental day to catch a couple of places off the metro line. First we went to the National Cathedral. It's an amazing building and another place we didn't get to see with Robbie.

Unfortunately, after an earthquake last year, they've got netting up for safety.

Here's Joey in front of the "space window," which has a moon rock embedded in the stained glass. Very cool, and unique.

Then we drove south to Mount Vernon. We had time to tour the museum and estate while waiting for our time to visit the house.

Then we returned our rental car to the airport and caught the metro back to the city. We had dinner at a sushi restaurant called Momiji, and it was fantastic! Because it was so crowded, we sat at the bar, and had fun talking to the bartender.

It was a good call to have one extra day with the rental car. Joey got to benefit from our previous experience with Robbie. We joked that by the time we take Ainsley, we'll rent a limo and keep it all week. :)

Joey's Trip

Several years ago, we decided that we'd take each of our kids on a 12 year-old trip, just them with mom & dad, and we'd let them pick any destination within the continental US. Then two years ago, after Robbie's trip to Washington DC, we decided that we really wanted to take each of them to DC because it was an incredible experience. Joey was initially a little upset that he didn't get to choose the location, but it didn't take long for him to realize that it was still a pretty sweet deal.

We left the day before spring break began, Wednesday, March 27th, driving to the airport right after school got out. I didn't take photos of our flight to Ronald Reagan International, or our two hour drive to Gettysburg, arriving around midnight. In spite of the late night, we arrived bright and early at the visitor's center at Gettysburg:

This time we watched the movie, saw the cyclorama and toured the museum first:

Then we met our private guide for a two hour tour of the battlefield. We had encouraged Joey to read The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara to help him appreciate what we'd be seeing. He didn't quite finish, but was still pretty impressed by what our incredibly knowledgable guide, John Tudor, told us of the events of those three days in July 1863. Although we had beautiful blue skies, we were wishing we could channel some of that warm weather—it was freezing cold!

We finished our tour of Gettysburg at 1:00 p.m., and after stopping for lunch at a Quiznos in Fayetteville, we drove down to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (the one near Dulles airport). We were able to get a guided tour of the hangar, and learned a lot about the progress of flight as we saw aircraft that pre-dated the Kitty Hawk era, war planes (including the Enola Gay), the fastest jet in the world, and the space shuttle Discovery. Joey was excited to get to see something that Robbie didn't. :)

We left at closing time and drove to our hotel (the Grand Hyatt) in DC, then walked over to nearby Chinatown district for dinner. Here are Joey and Rob in front of the Friendship Arch. We ate at Vapiano, which is an Italian restaurant that Rob discovered in Eastern Europe, and we loved on our trip with Robbie.

A long but fantastic day. :)