Im almost dreading writing this post. My legs still feel the ache of how much we saw on Friday. I’m thinking the post will be exhausting as well.
We got up, ate, and headed up to the Metro station. I wasn’t sure what to expect while traveling with 4 young children on public transportation. We made it on just in time and started heading towards the city.
It was pretty fun and exciting–for the first 5 minutes. Let’s just say that I am not a fan of the metro. But I’m even less of a fan of downtown driving and no parking!
On the plus side, the downtown stations looked pretty cool.
We wanted to go see The Mint but tours weren’t starting yet. So we decided to walk and see the Washinton Monument and the White House first. (I will post the Washington Monument pictures later on)
Then we walked all the way back to The Mint.
When I’m writing this, it makes it seem like we just walked a short distance. But everything in DC is very spread out. If I had to guess how much we walked on Friday, I would maybe guess between 7-10 miles. The Mint was pretty neat–and at one point in the tour, we were standing in the room next to $64,000,000 that was just printed!
We were not allowed to take pictures during the tour though.
Sorry dear. This was the only picture I snapped of you and the one million dollars.
We were pretty hungry at this point so we started to walk to find some food. We settled on a street vendor for hot dogs because that was the only thing close. 4 hot dogs and 4 drinks cost $38!!! Crazy! I was very thankful that I had packed lunches for the boys.
The boys loved to watch the pigeons during lunch.
And do “pigeon dances”
After lunch it was time to go check out the memorials. We started with the Jefferson Memorial
The architecture in DC is amazing. All the buildings are so beautiful. I love the big columns!
He finally got a much needed nap!
Next we walked to the Roosevelt Memorial
(Washington Momument)
Liam loved posing with all the statues and waterfalls
After a lot more walking, we finally made it to the Lincoln Memorial!!
This is the one I was excited to see.
Evangeline got a lot of attention while she was in the wrap. When we were at the Lincoln Memorial, a large group (I counted at least 10) of Asian women and maybe a couple men stopped and started talking to Evangeline in Chinese. They were in love with her. It was precious. They started taking pictures of her and trying to get her to smile. It started with one woman and then the group just starting growing and growing. Only one woman from the group spoke English. She told me that they were so taken back by the fact that we have 4 children because of the one child policy in China. She said they would have more if it was legal. It’s heartbreaking.
My dad snapped a picture with my phone while they were talking to us
The Reflecting Pool is right outside the Lincoln Memorial.
I was stopped by another 2 Asian women right outside the memorial. They also got a lot of pictures of Evangeline. Both groups were very sweet–what mom doesn’t love people making a big deal about how cute their baby is?
I was so excited to finally be done!! The problem? Now we had to walk all the way back to the Metro. Another looong walk! My feet and legs were so sore at this point.
As we were walking past the White House, we saw 3 helicopters flying over us. We had seen them fly out when we were at the Roosevelt Memorial and Eileen had mentioned that the President always flew out in a helicopter in groups of 3. It was confirmed that it was the President as we walked past the White House and saw the first helicopter land as the other two flew away. We also saw secret service on one of the buildings nearby. It was pretty cool!
We finally made it back to the Metro and went back to my dad’s. I was ready for bed at 8 (which is 7 our time!) It’s ridiculous how tired I felt. I wasn’t too sure I was excited to get back out and walk the next day. We saw a lot of this historic city and had a lot of fun doing it!
It’s been a fun week with our family. I’m so thankful for the chance to go on this trip!
