The Ambitious Odometer

Friday, October 10, 2014

Washington, D.C. {2014) - Day 2

We started off our day by heading straight to the mall...

First stop, the National Gallery of Art, with the specific mission of tracking down the piece on exhibit by Piet Mondrian...

who L had just finished studying in her kindergarten art class!

This girl just loves art in general (hence her art birthday party that we hosted just last week), and she just thought that it was the neatest thing to see a real piece of art by the artist she had just studied!

From there, we explored the gallery a bit more...

before grabbing lunch on the mall and making a stop at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing...

Unlike last time, we did actually get to take the tour, BUT the machines were down for scheduled maintenance, so NO money printing... Ugh...

So, I guess this place will continue to stay on our list of things to do until we can actually do it completely!

Note - The BEP keeps very specific hours and is only open on certain days. Check online before you go. Tours are free, but if you want to go, make sure that you make it a priority and fit other sights around this one. Be warned that waiting in line can take some time. I think that we waited about 45 minutes total...

For dinner, we headed over to the home of my Aunt M and my Uncle K for pizza with them and my cousins, too...

More adventures tomorrow!

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Washington, D.C. {2014} - Day 1

With what has now seemingly become a fun family tradition, we began our journey to Hubby's run in the Army Ten-Miler on Sunday with a trip up to D.C. for a long weekend much like both last year and the year before that...

We left yesterday evening and made it all the way up to Richmond to spend the night. The next morning we started out early with a stop at the Virginia State Capitol for B's now customary capitol steps run... We've been to more capital cities, but since he challenged himself to running up the steps of each capitol building, this makes #17 complete on his Capitol Steps Challenge...

I guess that just means that we have a few that we have to go back and visit again!

We toured the grounds stopping at a few notable sites related to the U.S. Presidents...

B even got to pet the Governor's dog!

From there, we headed over to Hollywood Cemetery to visit a few significant gravesites...

President James Monroe...

President John Tyler...

and President of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis...

From there we toured one of President Thomas Jefferson's lesser known homes, Tuckahoe Plantation, where he spent a good deal of his boyhood...

What a treat!

The home, still privately owned AND lived in, is available for private tours, but no photos are allowed inside...

After touring the home, the school house, and the grounds...

we continued on to the Washington Monument and our scheduled trip to the top ~ FIRST time to the top for all 5 of us!

Now that going to the top is an option again, if you decide to do it, I highly recommend reserving your ticket here. Though the Washington Monument IS a National Park and trips to the top are free, the nominal service charge ($1.50/person) for reserving a ticket online ahead of time is well-worth it in my book. We had a scheduled time on our reserved tickets which cut down our wait time significantly...