Synopsis: 0 miles driven; 6.1 miles walked - not including distances walked in any sites; Washington, DC; Visited White House Visitor's Center, Congressman C.W. Bill Young's Office, U.S. Capitol, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and 4 Smithsonian Museums (American India, Air and Space, Natural History, American History)
No breakfast at our hotel so we ventured next door to Burger King for breakfast around 6:40 this morning. After breakfast, we walked two blocks south and jumped on the Metro at Van Ness. The kids seemed excited to "experience" the subway. We got off at Metro Center and walked .4 miles to the White House Visitor Center. It's a great national park site that gives a great history of the White House. Again, Jariah and Jedi became Junior Rangers.
After 50 minutes at the WHVC, we walked to our congressman's (C.W. Bill Young) office to get gallery passes for our visit to the U.S. Capitol. Not only did we get the Gallery passes but an office assistant let us take a look into his office and each of the kids got to sit in his chair. We then walked over to the Capitol to check-in for our tour. They tell you that certain things are prohibited in the Capitol - that includes all drinks (including empty bottles) and all food. We nearly cried when we had to unload our "snack" bag for the day.
We were told that we had to be at the Capitol an hour before our tour time (10:10 am) but we didn't. We were there in the morning during a very busy week and we could have shown up 15 minutes before the tour. The tour itself was very interesting and our guide was very good (the key to any tour). We then used the Gallery passes to visit the House of Representatives which was in session. It's kind of disappointing to witness discussion of a bill or motion before the House, which has 435 Representatives, and there were less than 40 people in the room and less than half of those were Congressmen.
We then walked across the street and visited the Supreme Court. The Court was not in session and so there were no lines and we got to see into the Courtroom as well as walking around the Courthouse. We then tried to find something nearby (and cheap for lunch). We found a Subway (about .4 miles away) but by the time we found it and walked there, we encountered a ling that would have taken more than 30 minutes and made us late for the next tour at the Library of Congress. So..I bought a couple of sodas and bags of chips at the liquor store next to it and we returned to the Library of Congress.
We got into the 1:30 tour at the Library of Congress and got a guide that really, really knows the Library. Our 40 minute tour ended up being about 80 minutes but we really got to know and appreciate the Library. If you really want to get to know the Library, ask for Frank as your guide.
We then walked, OK maybe hobbled at this point because of all the walking we have already done, to the Smithsonian American Indian Museum. We had lunch from a "cart" again - hot dogs and ice cream (not together). The Museum is nice but not as easy to relate to as some of the others because of our lack of real knowledge about American Indians. BTW - when they say American Indians, they mean American Indians including North, Central and South America.
We then visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. This is definitely the most popular Smithsonian - one of only two that we had to wait in line to get in. We spent about 90 minutes in the Museum and could have spend much more but we wanted to visit other museums and we were wearing out for the day (leave Air and Space around 5:20 pm).
We walked across the Mall and to the Smithsonian and visited the Natural History and American History Museums for our last two hours in DC for the day. We caught the Metro back to our hotel's neighborhood, grabbed some supper at Subway, and returned to our hotel room to rest and prepare for tomorrow.
Hotel Deal of the Day: 1 night at a Days Inn for $0 by using Tim's Delta frequent flyer miles.
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