They Grow Up So Fast: East Coast Trip 2015

This summer's trip is to the East Coast of the United States. Ashlynn will be going into the fifth grade this year, so we're preparing her for the study of US History with plenty of history. Sounds like a good reason to travel, huh?

Our East Coast trip got off to a good start in Washington, DC. After a long day of travel (we used frequent flier miles to get our tickets so we had to connect through Las Vegas), we got to our Airbnb apartment in Chevy Chase.

Our time in DC started out with a bang with a White House tour on the first morning. I had written to our US Representative about 6 months ago to request tickets and heard back about three weeks ago that we got in. The more people I talk to, the more I realize how hard it is to get tickets.

The Treasury Building that is pretty much next to the White House.

Before our tour we decided to give the front of the White House a look. We went to take a selfie when some lady offered to take a photo. Here's what she took.

Pretty bad, huh? Fortunately, I had taken a selfie, just in case. At least you can tell we're at the White House!

We waited for a really long time for our tour. Apparently there had been a security issue at another DC site, so the White House had also shut down and the tours were delayed. The one piece of news we learned in line that thrilled me was that the First Lady had just changed the rule about no photography in the White House. Yes, they started letting people take photos the day before we came. Woot woot!

This was after about two hours in line. We met a nice family from Minnesota in line, which helped the time pass, but it was still a lot of waiting.

We finally got in. My fear toward the end was that after all that waiting they'd have to close the White House again and we would miss out. Fortunately, that didn't happen and we got to do our self-guided tour.

Views from the windows of the East Wing.

We've seen many photos of Presidents and important people walking down this hall.

Representing my school with a Lincoln photo.

Ashlynn loves a library, especially ones as beautiful as this one!

The East Room, site of many important events.

Next we saw the color rooms. First was the Green Room.

Then the Blue Room.

It was Ashlynn's favorite.

And then the Red Room

We saw the State Dining Room.

The Family Dining Room

Eric and the iconic JFK painting

The entry way

And then we headed out! Well, rather we were kind of encouraged to leave because we were the last tour time for the day and since it was delayed by like two hours, they were looking forward to getting the visitors out.

This is not how we really felt about our White House tour. We really enjoyed and appreciated it!

After the tour we ate lunch at the historic Old Ebbitt Grill.

The kids were pretty pooped by that point, so it was good to power up.

Then we walked to see some monuments and memorials, beginning with the Washington Monument.

Classic

Next was the World War II Memorial

Stars to represent the thousands of lives lost by the US in the war.

Yay for California!

This was the point that we started falling apart. We realized that Carter's (only) sweatshirt had been left at the restaurant and we were all tired, having walked about 6 1/2 miles at that point. So, we walked back past the Washington Monument, to the restaurant (where the sweatshirt was recovered), and made a quick stop at the White House gift shop before taking the Metro home.

The gift shop has a couple goofy photo ops that we took advantage of.

DC Metro

Our Chevy Chase neighborhood. We know DC has a reputation for being kind of rough, but there are so many beautiful neighborhoods too!

After dinner in the apartment, we drove back into the city center to see some monuments at night, starting with the Jefferson Memorial.

Eric and I recreated a pose we did back in 2000. I was wearing overalls in that one.

Carter read one to me. It was so fun that he is a reader for this trip. He is tuned into so much more this year because he can read the signs and displays.

Ashlynn really got into taking photos.

Here's one she took on my phone:

There is a great view of the city from the steps.

Carter took a photo of me.

Selfie

Our kids have such a fun time together.

We then walked to the FDR Memorial, which may be my favorite because it tells the story of his long presidency with sculpture, quotes and water features.

It was getting to be close to 10 o'clock (we haven't yet adjusted to East Coast time), so we headed back to our apartment.

We have been super busy on our trip, spending every possible minute exploring. Luckily for the kids, they had a few minutes to go on the zipline in the backyard of our Airbnb house. Kids love ziplines!

Since we got a late start on that second day, our first event of the day was meeting our friends from home, Tim and Mimi, for lunch. It is so nice to see friends!

After lunch (and expensive gelato), we visited Ford's Theater, the place where President Lincoln was shot.

Lots of Lincoln artwork. This was near the bathroom. :)

The museum

In the theater, looking at the Presidential box.

Ford's Theater, the kids' view:

Then we crossed the street to the house where Lincoln died.

Ashlynn had a camera as we toured the house (so some photos are hers and some are mine)

The bed where Lincoln died. He was so tall they had to lay him diagonally.

There were extensive museums at the theater and the end of the tour. This display made me think of teacher stuff. Check out the use of sticky notes to respond to a scenario.

Check out this stack of books. The pile was 4 stories high. All of them are about Lincoln!

We did a little shopping at the gift shop.

After that we checked out a small bit of the Natural History museum.

A giant squid

The Korean exhibit

Dinosaurs (a small exhibit while the big one is being redone).

Egyptian

The entrance hall

We caught a little of a jazz festival in the sculpture garden. It would have been lovely with a group of friends, a picnic dinner, and the sangria they were selling.