Our Trip to DC

We had a good time in Washington DC! We walked all over the place. In fact, my feet still hurt! We went to all of the main museums--Smithsonian Museums of Natural History, American History, Space & Air, National Gallery of Art, and the Holocaust Museum. The amazing part is, we didn't even go to half of the museums in DC. We probably didn't relax as much as I was hoping, but there was just too much to see. I didn't get my massage from the hotel spa because it was insanely expensive.

Mike had a conference the first day, so I went to all of the little shops around our hotel. The hotel was amazing! It was really fancy. The hotel was right on the Potomac River, and it had the prettiest views. It had four restaurants inside the hotel, along with an atrium, fountains, and shops. It had over 2000 rooms. The shops I went to were within walking distance from the hotel. Most of them were pretty expensive, but I did find a few shops that were within my price range!

We did a bus tour which was awesome. It drove us by all the main tourist attractions. You could get out and walk up to the Monuments or stop at a museum. We drove by the Pentagon. Did you know it is illegal to take pictures of it? I thought that's kind of weird. They said it was for national security. You could see where they repaired the building after 09/11.

We met up with Mike's cousin, Jessica, a couple of the nights we were there. We ate at an Ethiopian restaurant which was neat. They brought the food out on a big platter and you used a thin piece of bread to grab the food. The second night, we ate at a Thai restaurant. The food there was good as well. There's an Ethiopian restaurant here in Sioux Falls that I now want to try.

One thing we noticed about DC is how expensive everything is. Dining out is almost twice as much as here in the midwest. You can't find a beer that is under $6 and a coffee drink is also at least $6. Jessica told us that they pay $1500 a month for a one bedroom apartment. Yikes!

We had a lot of fun away from home and DC was a great place to visit. I can't wait to take the kids there when they get older. It was good to get back home though! The kids were pretty excited to see us. Ethan was mad at me at first! He would give Mike a kiss and hug, but he wouldn't give me one. It took him half the day to give me a kiss! Mia had a big smile on her face when she saw us. There was no grudge from her! Riley has been glued to me since we've come home. I thought she would forget about nursing. Yeah right! The first time she sat on my lap, she started tugging on my shirt saying, "a nur nur, a boobie, a nur nur." She's easily distracted, so I've been trying to keep her busy. She doesn't cry for very long when she wants to nurse, just as long as I keep her focused on something else.

A mosasaur. They found a mosasaur in Chamberlain, SD, so Mike had to get a picture. The skeleton wasn't in this museum though.

Mike wanted to take my picture with a grizzly bear. Not sure why.

The Hope Diamond. There's supposedly a curse to whomever owns the diamond. Most of the owners died in tragic ways.

Union Station. It's a huge amtrak station. It also has tons of little shops inside. I wish we could have spent more time here!

The Capitol Building. No building in DC is taller than Lady Liberty on top of the Capitol Building. Nothing is above liberty.

The Lincoln Memorial. This was our favorite memorial.

The Washington Monument.

This statue was in front of the Vietnam War Memorial.

The Vietnam War Memorial. It was so sad to see all of those names.

Inside Arlington Cemetary. There were so many gravestones.

JFK's grave site. Jackie O'Nassis was to the right and there were two infants on either side of them.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

My Grandpa was invited to be buried here. He's not going to do it, but it's quite an honor to be considered!

The Jefferson Memorial. This is as close as we got to it. We didn't have time to walk up to it. Maybe we'll get there on our next trip!

The White House. I would have loved to get tickets to go inside. We'll have to do that our next trip as well. You can either stand in line for hours or write your congressman and ask him/her for tickets. Mike had to point out that their lawn didn't look very good!

Apollo 11 Command Modeul. Part of the first flight to the moon on July 20, 1969.

The Wright Brothers' first plane.

Genevra de' Benci. The only Leonardo DaVinci painting in the United States.