Washington DC Day 2

Day two of our journey started out much more rested and ready to face the day.   We ate breakfast at the hotel and then hopped on the Metro to go have coffee with President Obama – yea I wish, but we did go see his house.   We took some pictures of it and some of the nearby statues - I’d also like to point out that there was a person silently protesting a brutality going on in China where live people’s organs are being harvested without their consent.   I haven’t researched it enough to say if the protest is valid or if there is even anything we as American’s can do if it is, but I did find the following website that mentions it if you are interested in looking further.  http://www.dafoh.org/unethical-organ-harvesting/.

After our White House visit we went to a nearby gift shop and did some souvenir shopping  - I really liked the store, I think it was the official White House gift shop, if not it certainly gave that impression.  Then we headed off for a day at the Smithsonian, with our first stop being the Air and Space Museum.   We saw airplanes, planets, a 3D movie on something Jack or I neither one can remember (it was just good to sit down).   Jack seemed to enjoy it – Kaylee, well I have no idea if she did or not – Mama and I went along for the ride.  

We ate lunch in the cafeteria at the Air/Space Museum and boy was it hectic!  It advertised to serve Boston Market and McDonald's, but there was only like 1 Boston Market item on the menu, so it was pretty much McDonald's.   We got our food and were… well not too happy, but it was edible.  Mama got the Boston Market option and I think we all wished we would have done that. 

After lunch, Art was on the agenda – we headed over to the American Art Museum and started looking around.  After 20 minutes I could tell everyone was bored out of their minds and we were tired.  Reading it – it doesn't seem like much – but with all the walking these few items we did took it out of you.  I bet we walked 10 miles a day during the trip, we had gotten the Trolley Tours tickets, but they were never where we needed them (I since received a full refund).   So given how tired we were and the fact a long night ahead of us I changed the agenda and we took a break.  We went back to the hotel, crawled under the sheets and took a couple ours nap.

Once we woke up we hopped in the car (note I said car vs. metro) and headed to go see Union Station.  Yes we drove to the train station vs. taking the metro.   We had reasons, but it still seems silly.  We had dinner at East Street Café’, an Asian restaurant that looks over the shopping and we really enjoyed it.  The food was good and the atmosphere was awesome!   We were the only patrons as they close at 7, which made it even better I think.  The station was neat, the one in NY is prettier, but it was still neat to see.  Plus I love watching all the people coming and going.

After dinner we hopped back in our car and went for our monuments tour.  We saw Abe Lincoln, Roosevelt, WWII, MLK and Vietnam.   We also so the Washington Monument form a distance – it is closed for remodel due to the EQ last year, but it was still pretty even with the scaffolding around it.  I’d also like to note that the week we visited was Boy Scout Jamboree week – so there were millions of Boy Scouts in DC and it was really apparent during the Monuments tour as they were everywhere, like large ants.   I will have to say though, for that many kids, they all seemed very on their game and well behaved.  So props given to that… still like ants though.  There was one statue we went to see that is Einstein reading (I don’t seem to have those pictures for some reason), but anyway – you could crawl on the statue, one troop was getting pictures and they completely covered him up, it was insane.  Like Ants I tell – Millions of Ants.

By time we got done with MLK it was close to 10 PM so we headed back to the hotel and crashed for the night.