dc | wrap up

We wrapped up our trip to DC by walking on the Mall toward the Capital.  We stopped at the botanical gardens along the way.

 Gage's panda was happy to find some bamboo that he could snack on...

 

 we caught a great glimpse of the Capital's dome as we left the gardens

 And Savannah had to help hold up this big planter

 By this point, Gage was exhausted and refused to be in any pictures because he just wanted to head back to the hotel

 

 

On the way back to the hotel, we found a wall of past presidents and their famous quotes...Savannah was rattling off all kinds of presidential trivia, including that Teddy Roosevelt had a pony while he lived in the White House. 

dc | indian museum

Although we had not planned to visit the National Museum of the American Indian, we decided to pop in as we walked by. First of all, it's a beautiful building....

 As soon as we walked inside, we saw a great totem pole that had a rainbow shining on it

 We had to stand in the rainbow, of course!

 The big hit of the museum was the interactive kids' section. Here, Gage is trying out a kayak

 And here, he is testing his balancing skills, like indians who sat on flat canoes.  Up ahead of his was a display that showed how stable it was, and a timer showing how long he kept it stable. Both kids loved it and were surprisingly stable -- must be the little bit of indian blood they have ;-)

Aunt Karen desperately wanted to find a teepee and we finally found one!

Savannah trying out her balancing skills too -- very focused!

Whoa -- this rainbow is bright!

Savannah in a rainbow :-)

dc | air & space museum

On our second day in DC, we went to the most visited museum in the country - the Smithsonian Air & Space museum (again, unbelievably free!). They had a whole collection or missles

 And the Spirit of St. Louis...

 They have a space station, the Apollo 11, and an amazing collection of famous planes - like this bright red vega that belonged to Amelia Earhart

 This plane with  a beautiful wooden propeller

 

 

 

 

 

 It also has the Wright Brothers plane

 

And a lot of cool things like lunar rovers, moon rocks, and probably 1000 other things that we breezed right past, not knowing their significance! 

DC | lincoln & natural history museum

On our second day in DC, we got an early start and wandered by the Ford Theater, where Abraham Lincoln was shot, and his home (where he died, and which is directly across the street). 

 Savannah pretended to be dead also ;-)

 Smithsonian Museum of Natural History -- amazing that this is free!

 Aunt Karen got to see dino bones for the FIRST time ever!

 And, we spent a surprising amount of time standing in front of the tropic fish tank watching Dory & Nemo, as well as this giant clam, who was opening & closing. Beautiful  :-)

 We sprung for the butterfly house because -- well, what kids don't like to have butterflies land on them? 

 The man at the entrance told them that if they stayed still, the butterflies would be more likely to land on them. Gage was VERY patient, but no one landed on him.

 But...then his smart sister found her technique. She picked a flower and would stick it right in front of a butterfly that was sitting on the flower. The butterfly would crawl to her flower, and then onto her hand. Brilliant :-)

 Gage even mastered her technique!

For the record...if you ever go here, wear a green shirt. The people wearing green were covered in butterflies.

DC | the mall

As a great surprise, Aunt Karen volunteered to drive back to AL with us to keep us company on our long trip!  Our first stop on the way back was Washington, DC.  Savannah has been so excited to visit DC, but after spending the afternoon walking around the mall, she promptly declared that she had "no idea that DC would be so boring." Apparently, looking at all these buildings was less exciting than she had anticipated.

 The WW2 Memorial

 

 

 And the VERY long walk to the Lincoln Memorial. The Mall is very deceiving. It doesn't look like it's that far in between monuments, but just ask Gage (who was crying about being tired because we left the stroller in the hotel room , which was really dumb on Mommy's part). All they wanted to do was pick up poop covered duck feathers on the whole walk along the water.

 Savannah was SO excited for the Lincoln Memorial, but once she got there, she wasn't that excited anymore.

 

 We got caught in some rain as we headed back, but saw some sights along the way

 The next morning, however, was sunny and beautiful!

 

 The Jefferson Memorial