Washington DC

Bob had a work obligation in Washington DC so we seized the opportunity to be mooches and crashed his hotel with him. Were were only there for two days, but we crammed a lot into it.

We left our house around 6am and made it to our first stop, The National Zoo by 3:00. (The kids are the best road trippers....when they aren't murdering each other in the back seat!)

Our number one goal was to see the new baby Panda, but unfortunately we got turned around and missed it. I was afraid the kids would have to be satisfied with this cardboard one (and a stuffed one which we all knew was inevitable!)



We did see lots of amazing big cats.





But big cats (even cheetahs) aren't panda bears, so we tried one more time to find them.



Success! (They actually weren't that hard to find, we just gave up too soon the first time!)
They were so cool to watch, they eat so much bamboo!

It was a really hot day, so the kids took full advantage of the misters.



After the zoo, we could have just checked into our hotel, but no way! That would be giving up! We needed to cross a couple more things off our list.



Maddy's top site to see  (aside from the pandas at the zoo) was The Martin Luther King Jr. monument. It looked really beautiful as the sun set.





We didn't see Jefferson's Memorial this time, except from afar.



After we'd exhausted every last shred of the kids' patience, we checked into our fancy hotel. (I checked us in  at the front desk and when I walked back out I found our very tolerant "butler" (as Audrey called him) loading "Cookie" and "Coco" onto a luggage cart.)



The Watergate Hotel has a great sense of humor about its place in America's history.



They look bushed, but are we done for the day? NO WAY! We still have to find dinner!



We don't always stay in fancy hotels (with a notorious history) but when we do we make sure we bring every stuffed animal that we own!



After everyone slept in we had a nice breakfast of convenience store donuts and milk and enjoyed the view on our balcony (which was free upgrade, score!)




Then we headed out for the day. (Audrey took the sneaky-spy vibe of the hotel very seriously!)



We had tickets for a Capitol tour (Thank you Katherine Clark!) at 12:30, so we spent a little time beforehand exploring the area around the Capitol, like the Supreme Court. (Don't even try to walk up those steps, they are EXIT ONLY!)





We sat in the actual Supreme Court and listened to a riveting (sarcasm!) 100-year-old Supreme Court expert for as long as Audrey let us (about 7 1/2 minutes) and then snuck out. But being able to walk down the monumental front stairs made that 7 1/2 minutes of boredom totally worth it!



After that it was time for our tour.





Under the dome in the Rotunda.



Statuary Hall.



(We also saw "The Crypt" which actually has no dead people in it!)

On the tour, our guide mentioned that we could get passes to see the House or the Senate in action just by visiting our representatives.  With all that's going on in politics right now, we couldn't pass up the chance to see the Senate. Turns out, it was also a great lesson for the kids about how accessible our elected representatives are!



We did make it to the Senate eventually (half the people on our tour had the same idea we did, so the line was really long) and saw a speech by John Cornyn (delivered to a mostly empty room). It was a very cool experience, though we don't have any photos as they wouldn't even let us take a phone in the chamber. And luckily, no one got arrested (though following the rule about "no outward sign of disapproval either auditory or visual was REALLY hard to abide by!)

After we left the Senate Gallery we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around outside and around the monuments since everything closed at five. Sadly (for Maddy) we didn't get out in time to go into the Library of Congress. We'll put that on the list for next time.



The Capitol Lawn.



The Lincoln Memorial.



The view from The Lincoln Memorial.



The National Mall, with an inexplicable chain link fence running through the reflecting pool.





The World War II Memorial.



The Washington Monument.





I think we wore everyone out!



We had just enough energy to go have some Chinese food and get ourselves to bed.

Poor Bob had to actually attend a conference the next day and we needed to drive on home. But first, we spent some time in the beautiful pool at the hotel. Lucky us!



Thankfully, we had an uneventful drive home!



It was such a great trip! The kids are at such a great age for travelling, we can't wait to do more of it!