DC Family Finale

After 10 lovely weeks in Washington, D.C. interning with World Vision and exploring my nation's capitol, it was time to test my new-found knowledge and spend 3.5 days guiding my family around the city. I have to say, and I believe that they would agree with me, I was quite a successful tour guide. If you are looking for a 3.5 day DC itinerary, here is a tried and tested Stobbe adventure.

Day 0.5 (Sunday afternoon)
We checked in to their hotel in Rosslyn, and then walked down along the Custis Trail to Roosevelt Island. Although I had gone birding around the edge of the island earlier this summer, I had never actually seen the statue of Teddy himself, which is in the center.

Then we walked across Key Bridge to Georgetown and decided, after much discussion, on dinner at Clyde's. It was a deliciously good choice.

Day 1 (Monday)
I had saved Mount Vernon for when my family was here, so we ventured off down south to visit George Washington's plantation on Monday morning. We had a beautiful day to wander all over the grounds. Overall the weather finally decided to cool down a bit while my family was here, so we were able to actually enjoy our long walks around the DC area without dying from the heat and humidity.

After a picnic lunch, we drove into DC and did a blitz of several museums around the Mall. We visited the National Archives, Lillian guided us through the highlights of the National Gallery of Art (West Gallery) in 30 minutes, and then we all trooped over to the National Air and Space Museum. At this final destination, we were all so tired we couldn't stay awake while sitting in one of the many mini movie theaters in the museum.

We tried to go to dinner at the Melting Pot in Arlington, but it was way too ridiculously expensive so we switched to Five Guys. :-) Talk about one end of the spectrum to the other.

Day 2 (Tuesday)
I arranged a tour of the Capitol Building for us through one of our Massachusetts senators, Scott Brown. Two of his interns gave us a great tour, and then we were able to go sit in the House chamber (just to see the room - every thing is in recess right now).

After lunch at Union Station, we went back down to the Senate office buildings and visited one of my dad's coworker's sons who is working for Sen. Brown right now. By this point my family was ready to be done with the touring, but they still hadn't seen the Library of Congress Jefferson Building. I had been in it at the very beginning of the summer, but I hadn't done the tour. The tour is definitely worth it - otherwise you just end up looking at all the decorations in the building and thinking "oh that looks nice" with no idea of why it's actually all there.

At this point, everyone was ready for a nap back at the hotel before heading to dinner at a the home of a homeschool friend from Massachusetts. My family got to meet several of my DC friends and have a real dinner at a house for a change.

Day 3 (Wednesday)
At the beginning of my family's visit to DC, I told them there are four things to see as tourists: Museums, Monuments, Memorials, and Government Buildings. In our first two days we had done several trips to the first and last of these, but Wednesday was dedicated to the monuments and memorials in DC. We did a very long walk to see all of the following:

• Iwo Jima US Marine Corps Memorial
• Arlington Cemetery (Kennedy gravesite and then the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers for the changing of the guard)
• Memorial Bridge
• Lincoln Memorial 
• Vietnam War Memorial
• Korean War Memorial 
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
• World War II Memorial
• Washington Monument

On the Vietnam War Memorial, we found the name of one of my grandparent's neighbors from Maine: Lloyd B Haskell, Jr.

Of course, Charlotte needed a moment to converse with Lincoln himself.

After the Washington Monument, we kept walking back to the Air and Space Museum. Such a huge museum! Before we all collapsed, we walked over to the Old Post Office Tower, which is now owned by Donald Trump, to get the view out over DC (the Washington Monument is still closed from the earthquake in August 2011). Finally we stopped by the White House to wave to all the security guards (and Obama).

And that was the end! We survived and all agreed that it had been just fine to wait until we were all grown up to do a family vacation in DC.

Now that I have completed this epically long blog post, I am going to enjoy my time in Maine by canoeing on Little Ossipee Pond.