Washington D.C.

On March 20th, Nick was scheduled to preach at Washington, D.C for church.  With it being the beginning of our spring break we decided to make a mini vacation out of it for the kids.  We left Saturday morning at 1am and drove straight to Washington.  It was a 11 hour trip which wasn't too bad.  Our first stop was lunch and we chose a really yummy authentic Chinese place.  It had high reviews so we went for it.

We picked 3 different meals, plus two appetizers for our family of 6 and it was plenty of food. 

 We then finished our drive and went straight to the Air and Space Museum near the airport.  This was one of the "to do" things on Elijah's list.  (Elijah is history crazy)

Space Shuttle Discovery

SR-71 Blackbird

We went to the top of the control tower observation deck to look out.  We all look like we just were in the car for 11 hours!!

 So come evening we were all getting hungry and nick had this great idea..... "lets eat at a new cuisine each night for dinner and try foods we have never tried before".  My kids were excited as they are adventurous when it comes to food.  Liam might have been my most reserved child about this idea, but he was still very much willing.  I absolutely LOVE that my kids will eat and try anything!!  What a blessing.

Persian Restaurant: We ordered 3 dishes again for us all.  Plenty of food.  We had lamb kabob, ground beef mixture kabob, and a fish kabob with lots of piles of rice and seasonings for it.  Roasted tomatoes and onions.

 Sunday after church we headed to Arlington Cemetery for the changing of the guards.  It was a bit tough to keep Ellie so quiet during the ceremony but it was good to see.  It was soooo cold this day.  We had our winter coats, hats and gloves piled on.

For dinner sunday night we were invited to the Steffens house for a meal and to celebrate Liam's 7th birthday.  Doreen did such an amazing job on cake and the meal was so delicious.  

 Monday we headed back into Washington.  Our hotel was actually in Vienna so we had a small drive each morning and afternoon to get into Washington.  We were right by the metro station, and thought if driving goes poorly with so much traffic we will use the metro.  However, driving wasn't an issue for the most part and it saved us 40$ each day by driving our own vehicle and finding a parking garage.  Thanks to an app that reserves your spot within the garage for 20$ a day.

 Our first stop for the day was to National Archives. (yes this was on Elijah's top of the list....he wanted to see the constitution). There was about a 45min-1 hour wait but thankfully we were sitting in  the sun and we had a wall to sit on.  It actually felt warm sitting here waiting so it wasn't a big deal.

 We then marched on......oh the walking we were going to be doing on this vacation.  I've been to Washington DC when I was a kid and the number one thing I hated about it was all the walking (let alone I am NOT a history person).  Little did Liam know how much he was going to be walking. We did bring along our Schwinn bike/stroller carrier and it was extremely useful.  Not only for the two youngest kids, but it has a nice large pocket in back that we kept our snacks, drinks, and coats(when not needed).

There it is.....THE WHITE HOUSE

 From there we walked to the Washington Monument.  We did not go to the top of it, but we did walk up and get a good close look.

We then walked to the World War II memorial.

At the World War II memorial taking a break to eat our "lunch" that we had packed.  

 We then traveled by foot along the reflecting pool down to Lincoln Memorial.  Then onto the Vietnam War Veterans Memorial Wall. (no picture)

 Ahhhh, it was FINALLY time to sit down to a meal.  This night we chose German.  OH. MY. GOODNESS....was this by far the best meal(in my opinion).  Once again we went by reviews to choose this place.  It was 4pm so the restaurant was literally empty.  Which I was thankful for.  We again ordered three meals, and because we were so hungry we could have eaten more, but we knew we had snacks and drinks back at the hotel(each night the hotel furnishes snacks and drinks).

We ordered Rinderroulade, Huhnerschnitzel, and a Wurstfeast.

 Tuesday we took a tour of the Capitol.  We had made prior reservations through our state representative's office before our trip.

 We then got to go meet our state district representative Jacki Walorski.  She was in a meeting with the secretary of defense but stepped out to talk with us and get a picture.

 We then traveled to the Jefferson Library (another of Elijah's top places to see).

 After visiting the Library and Supreme Court, we walked ALL...THE...WAY to the other end of the National Mall to the Tidal Basin and saw the Jefferson Memorial.  We circled the tidal basin and saw the Franklin Roosevelt memorial and the Martin Luther King memorial.

After this long day we were exhausted and wanted to go have a simpler dinner.  Keeping with our international theme we decided to go to an local Australian steakhouse: Outback! 

On our last day we drove down to Mt. Vernon to tour George Washington's home. This might have been my favorite day and perhaps that was because by the afternoon it was 72 degrees and sunny.  (talk about extreme weather conditions....we got to washington with snow coming down and we leave a few days later with 70 degrees).

After Mt. Vernon we drove back to the National Mall and did a speed tour of the American History Museum.  We had an hour to quick walk through the spots that interested us most.

 We then drove to our next restaurant.  Once again we went off of reviews.  This time however, I would NOT give this place high reviews. Food was good, but the place was a nasty hole in the wall.  Granted some hole in the wall places are just fine, but this place was DIRTY!!  I was appalled watching the guy clean off the tables with a rag, to then wipe up the floor with the same rag, back to the tables again and then disappeared into the restroom.....REALLY??????  Ugh!

Lebanese/ Mediterranean 

We left Thursday morning for home and was back at our abode by 9pm.  What a nice educational getaway.