We got up Thursday for our first full day in D.C. Asa went to get the car to pick us up, because we were headed out of town. I'm glad he was driving, because it was crazy city driving. Dear Thomas Jefferson, I know you couldn't have foreseen the traffic of today, but rejecting the rectangular proposal for the city in favor of all those roundabouts, was not the best idea you ever had.
I couldn't get the gps to get me directly to Mount Vernon, this might be why: "Turn on road". Geez, thanks, that's helpful. On the way to Mount Vernon though, the boys got a new state to add to their repertoire: Maryland.
We finally made it, and grandma so nicely offered to pay our admission. I had no idea when Peyton told me he wanted to visit all the President's graves, that it could be so expensive. George Washington's was a pretty penny. But, you do get this whole experience with it. Mount Vernon is expansive, and pretty awesome. We could have spent the whole day there.
At the entrance there were various statues, models, and information to absorb. I had no idea George Washington was that tall. Apparently, he was 6 foot 2!
Still on the land are the mansion, out buildings, a garden, a dock, Washington's tomb, a slave memorial- it's so expansive. Hayden loved the sheepy-sheeps. I even let him run through the mud to go look.
Our first real stop though was to see Washington's tomb, it was just past the mansion, down the hill a bit.
When we first arrived, the first set of gates were open, so we snapped a picture. We were just about 15 minutes out from a wreath laying ceremony we didn't want to miss, so we walked down to the slave memorial while we waited.
When we came back up, there was the daily wreath laying ceremony, and so we also got to take a picture in front of the tomb without the closed gates. It was a rare opportunity, so we were happy we had timed it right.
On the way back up the hill to the mansion, there were more animals. Pigs (for bacon, of course), and chickens.
The view from the top of the hill is pretty spectacular. It's right along the Potomac River.
We also visited the original tomb of George Washington, where he was originally laid to rest before they moved him to the more ornate tomb.
Then we waited in line to go into the mansion.
You can't take any pictures in the house, but it is impressive. There are ornate fireplaces, and personal touches everywhere. In the ceiling, there were carvings of different agricultural tools. George Washington was a farmer, and really thought farmers would be the cornerstone of America.
In between the rooms, they direct you outside to what we might call the front porch. George Washington thought both sides of the house were equally as important and impressive, so there was no 'front and back' porches.
It was pretty cool to look out at the view that George Washington was so fond of. Largely rural, it's remained pretty unchanged around the property.
As we went up the staircase, and they told us we would be approaching George and Martha's bedroom, Peyton asked if we would see the bed Washington died in. Sure enough, it is still there in the bedroom.
In a side building, there was the kitchen. We were allowed to take pictures in here. I swear I didn't break any picture-taking rules.
Overall, the mansion was so cool to see, and very impressive when you think about how old it is. I'm so glad we visited.
We stopped at the gift shop, where Peyton got a pen, Calib ended up with a t-shirt, and Hayden got a stuffed George Washington.
On the way out, they were selling plants. Mom told us she would buy us a plant, we were looking at tomatoes, until Peyton found a blueberry bush. He'd been asking to get one, and to have one from Mount Vernon? Well, that had Peyton written all over it. The only trouble was getting it home, but we decided we could make it work.
We had to get going far sooner than we would have liked (really, you can spend the day at Mount Vernon, easily!), to make it to our Ford's Theater tour time. We knew we'd need to stop for a quick lunch, and as we were driving we came across Costco. You don't get a cheaper, more quick lunch than Costco, so we stopped to fill our tummies.
When we got back into D.C, we parked the car and got our new tickets (thanks again to the nice Ford's Theater people who let us move our time after the flat tire the day before).
Killing a few minutes before our tour, we stopped in the gift shop to nose around. Asa found this gem.
Peyton was excited to find a quill with an ink bottle. Pen's kind of became his thing this trip, as he wanted to be able to get something from everywhere we went and pens aren't too expensive.
The tour of Ford's Theater starts out in the basement with all kinds of displays. We found a quilt signed by many of the prominent men during the civil war. Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Simpson Grant, Secretary of State Seward (think Seward's Folly) all signed this one.
We also saw a lot of the campaign buttons, posters, and program from Abraham Lincoln's election.
Hayden has become particularly interested in Lincoln, and was very interested in all the interactive activities in the museum.
There is a case full of things that belonged to John Wilks Booth as well. His boot, a knife, some guns. I didn't realize that they had on display the gun that shot Abraham Lincoln until Calib came running from around a corner to tell me.
They really had so many things on display. They even had the suit Lincoln was wearing at Ford's Theater, and the pillow that his head was on when he died. (You could even see some blood stains on it)
After the museum, you are led up to the theater. The box up there is where Lincoln was shot.
You can't go into the box for obvious reasons, but you can go up to the balcony and get pretty close.
After you leave the theater, your ticket allows you to go into the Peterson House, which is the house across the street where Lincoln actually died in. This is the front room of the house.
As you go to the back of the house, you go to the room Lincoln died in. The bed, however, is a replica. The real one is in Springfield, Illinois.
After another museum with all kinds of displays from the Lincoln Funeral Train, you come upon the gift shop. We were enthralled with the huge tower of books in the front of the gift shop. Every single book is about Lincoln.
After leaving the theater we walked up to the Navy Memorial.
We happened upon a street market, and stopped by to sample some fresh fruit.
And then we walked up to the National Archives. We had timed tickets, but we were a little early and had mom with us (we only had 5 timed tickets). When our time arrived and we were still sitting in the general line, I walked over to ask if we could get mom in with us, and they were more than happy to let us all through. We got to skip a bunch of the line, it was great!
Again, you can't take pictures inside the National Archives, but we did get to see the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. Mom and Asa asked the nice security guard standing at the Constitution all kinds of weird security questions. I'm convinced they were a few questions away from making the security guard highly suspicious. I was joking as we left about their questions. "So, say you were going to steal the Constitution, how exactly could you go about it." The guy did say it's more closely guarded than the President, and it's in five million dollar titanium case.
In the gift shop in the archives, Calib found a really cool thing where you could look up your last name, and see how many of your ancestors fought in the Civil War.
Our plan after the Archives was to go rent some paddle boats on the tidal basin, it was my number one thing I wanted to do. (I'd done most of the other stuff before, but never that.) The paddle boats were closed though, due to a sewage spill (yuck!) At least we got a good view of the Jefferson Memorial.
Since we were so close, we went over to the Jefferson Memorial. Last time we were there, we missed it since it's quite a walk, and Calib had not let me forget it.
We took our Thomas Jefferson finger puppet along with us, so he could visit the memorial, too. Hayden is quite the Thomas Jefferson fan, he's aware he wrote the Declaration of Independence and could tell me some key words that would be written on the wall (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) before he even got up to the top of the steps.
I'd walked over to the Jefferson Memorial before, so I knew while it's impressive, the view is also worth seeing.
We also got another stamp in the boys passports! They were really racking them up this trip.
There were crowds everywhere, lots and lots of school groups, so we didn't get to do a lot of dip kiss pictures. But, this one is pretty awesome.
For dinner we attempted to go to Ben's Chili Bowl, but the parking was horrific. It'll have to go on our list for next time, along with the paddle boats. We ended up at Shake Shack, and we treated the boys to shakes for their awesome behavior (lots of walking, no real complaining).
I also got a very special treat, at the Archives, we found even more finger puppets. My mom bought me all the good ones. I'm so excited about them! They're currently residing on my fridge. We added Dave Crockett, Barrack Obama, Thomas Jefferson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Benjamin Franklin, Teddy Roosevelt and George Washington to our collection!!
I also was building quite the DC magnet collection. I started collecting them a couple years ago. It's a nice souvenir and it's not too expensive. As a bonus, my finger puppets are magnets too.
Also, super cool that Hayden wanted a stuffed George Washington. He was playing with him, and Daniel Boone. He was having Daniel Boone assassinate Washington though, so he might not have a totally accurate historical picture in his head, but I'll take it.
Next Up: The White House!
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