Washington, DC - Pt 2.

After the big rain during the night bus tour, the remainder of our visit to DC was blessed with sunshine and warm temperatures. These photos were taken during our own walking tour of the monuments on a very, very lovely spring day. Back to the Washington monument.

the World War II memorial,

the reflecting pool between the Washington monument and the Lincoln memorial,

one of the sculptures near the Vietnam memorial,

the Vietnam memorial,

the Korean War memorial,

alongside the Tidal Pool with the largest concentration of cherry blossom trees (and tourists),

the Jefferson memorial (see Thomas in the shadows?),

and our favorite 'postcard' shot of the Jefferson memorial with cherry blossoms!

We also ventured a few blocks beyond the Mall to see the alley behind Ford's Theatre where John Wilkes Booth was spotted after the shooting....

and also to the National Gallery of American Art and the National Portrait Gallery. A complete collection of presidential portraits is on display in chronological order of their service.

Then, we turned back to the RV park to rest our weary legs and feet!

Washington, DC - the prequel

We're a little out of order with our posts - thus, the prequel. We're backing up to the beginning of our DC adventure with this batch of photos.

We booked a night bus tour with Gray Line upon our arrival in DC. We didn't want to waste a bit of our time near the city. The RV park is well suited for visitors to the city, with a bus connection to the Metro line and a pickup point for Gray Line as well. The driver took us directly to Union Station and as it turned out, we didn't have to change buses. Big Al, the driver and guide, was terrific. Dusk was just falling as we came to the station, thus the blurry photo of the cherry blossoms. Rain was predicted, but we only had overcast skies as we began.

As dark settled upon the city, we arrived at the capitol - just in time for the glow of the interior lights to begin a preview of the night view. We were glad to glimpse those cherry blossoms before it was too dark.

We could tell that they were spectacular and this preview whet our appetite for a return trip on our own during daylight!

The night tour included many of the monuments and landmark buildings - beginning with the Capitol and the White House and continuing on to include:the Washington monumenta night skyline that showed the Capitol, Washington Monument and Lincoln MemorialWe stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial and it began to rain. By the time the bus stopped at the Lincoln memorial, it was raining really hard.

Fortunately, we took over at Abe's feet and loved reading his infamous addresses on the interior walls of the memorial. We long for statesmen in our time that can speak with such wisdom with very few words!

The next stop was the Jefferson Memorial, but we passed so that we could dry out a bit. We did get out at the Kennedy Performing Arts Center. We learned that three large halls are within the one building and can now appreciate telecasts from that location much better.

We can highly recommend the night tour on the bus. The special lighting on the various monuments is very beautiful and we would never have the courage to venture out after dark on our own! The preview was terrific for gaining our bearings for our self-guided tours the rest of the week.

We took advantage of the local bus stop at the park to make our way to the train station. The station isn't far and has adequate parking, but we were a little taken back by the number of vehicles we saw with plastic where windows once were and duct tape holding car trunks together. We liked the secure feeling of our truck being parked behind the security gates at the RV park.

Our daylight adventure began with a trip to the Library of Congress. Our group includes some avid 'National Treasure' fans, so it was fun to see the sights included in the movie.

The interior of the Library of Congress was quite surprising to us, with a trend towards lots of gilded surfaces and fancy touches like this stained glass ceiling.

Very ornate with tons of sculpted images of both authors and historical figures and philosophers.

Next was a stop in front of the Supreme Court.

We stopped in at the Capitol, but didn't take a tour as lines were very, very long! The downside of visiting during cherry blossom season was the length of lines everywhere. We focused on touring the exteriors and catching some prioritized stops on the inside of the many, many options! One of the Capitol staff members surprised us by tracking us down with tickets to enter the House side of the Capitol. The tickets are free, but normally you must wait in line or make advance reservations to gain access. We had chatted with the staff on our way in and were browsing the most public visitor area of the Capitol when the very accommodating young man tracked us down, tickets in hand. We weren't allowed to photograph anything inside the Capitol for Homeland Security purposes.

We took our tired feet back to the train station and saved more touring for the next day!

Visiting Washington DC, Part 1 - Smithsonian

We couldn't believe that our timing to visit Washington, DC coincided with the peak of the cherry blossoms. Word from those in the area had it that the blooms were a little earlier than usual - very fortunate for us! Having only seen DC in January on one other limited visit, the contrast was amazing and the views of all the traditional sights were tremendously enhanced with the banks of luscious blooms.

The only downside of hitting the cherry blossoms and the long holiday weekend for Easter was the size of the crowds, particularly at the Smithsonian museums. Actually, there were only a few that were extremely crowded: the Air and Space, American History, Natural History museums and the National Archives. Touring the interior of the Capital, the White House and riding the elevator in the Washington Monument backed up with very long lines in all directions. To introduce our kids to the various aspects of DC, it was still fine. If you want to actually take in these particular offerings, go at a time when most schools are in session. Although there are still many field trips, we found a large number of field trips to be those from out of state, touring the Capitol during spring break.


This gorgeous spring scene was on the 'backside' of the Smithsonian Castle (facing away from the Mall). We were delighted to find this by chance and also delighted that the large crowds were not aware of this very lovely spot.

We arrived at the Air and Space Museum about 15 minutes before opening time and found a very long line with several large field trip groups. Once the doors opened, however, the crowd moved through security at the entrance very quickly and the museum is large enough to disperse the crowd. Because we've already toured the Kennedy Space Center, NASA in Houston, the Pensacola area military museums and Kitty Hawk, we didn't require a lot of time to see the exhibits here. The Smithsonian has added another museum that houses more recent aviation exhibits (such as the Concord) several miles from the Mall buildings. We didn't take the time to go, but would highly recommend it if you've not had the opportunities to see the other wonderful aviation and space exploration facilities in the country.

The displays of milestones in aviation and space exploration are terrific to take in and are displayed in a very inviting way.

We couldn't resist capturing the guys with the Spirit of St. Louis!

In the space exploration area of the museum, we took advantage of the very unique display of the solar system with everything in accurate proportions (Jupiter is so very, very large!). The moons of the various planets are also included for perspective. Truly terrific for our 9 yo!

Even with the exposure to the various rockets at NASA and Kennedy, their size still takes a moment to absorb!

Speaking of absorption, that's about enough for one post - DC will be continued in later installments, as will Yorktown, Jamestown and Williamsburg from our Virginia trek. We've been very, very busy!