Washington DC - July 2018 - Part 5 - The National Zoo and Wrapping Up.

While Rebecca and Olivia wore out their shoes, I brought the rest of the herd to the zoo to visit family. 😂 The National Zoo has a lot of great exhibits and i was slack in getting pictures of them, but the kids loved seeing the various animals. 

 We got to see the baby gorilla that had recently been born. So cute!!!!

We organized the trip so that we entered at one end of the zoo and walked to the other where we would meet up with Rebecca and Olivia after their trek. On the way back through, we stopped and saw the pandas! These guys are my spirit animals... Lay about, eat a ton of food, do nothing... Yup. Count me in.

 On another day, the whole family went to see an IMAX movie about a panda rehabilitation center in China and follow a panda from birth to release in the wild. It was absolutely amazing!

 Of course, we also got to see Rebecca's favorites: the otters. 

I will say this: if you're going to the National Zoo, beware: It's a long way uphill from the Rock Creek Park side of the zoo. If you come in from the Connecticut Ave side, it's downhill, but then you either have to walk out the Rock Creek side to find a bus/metro stop or you have to walk all the way back uphill to the Connecticut Ave entrance.

That's all I have in the way of pictures, but there was so much more to the trip. We got to visit with Nana, Pop-Pop, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Vicky, Uncle Rudy and Aunt DD, Uncle Greg, Kira, Aiden, Max, Vivi, and even some of the DC cousins! Olivia also got to see the National Archives where she was able to view the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. There was so much more we wanted to see, like Arlington, Mount Vernon, and the Arboretum, but there just wasn't enough time. Looks like we'll have to arrange another trip soon!

Washington DC - July 2018 - Part 4 - The Holocaust Memorial Museum

On their long walk, the girls visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. If you've never been, you really should go. 

The pictures that follow speak for themselves.

Washington DC - July 2018 - Part 3 - The Girls' Long Walk

On this day, We split up for a while. I took the younger 4 kids to the zoo while Rebecca and Olivia went to see the sights by daylight. Olivia is using this trip to work on some of her AHG badges that have to do with our nation's history and the founding fathers, so Rebecca thought it would be a good idea for her to take Olivia on her own to all the various memorials.

 

Can't visit the mall without that iconic shot of the Capitol Building, right?

Sadly, the Washington Monument is closed for repairs and renovation. No, Spider-Man didn't do it, though they really are replacing the elevators and repairing some damage done by an earthquake in Virginia a few years ago.

Still an impressive sight, tho.

The WWII Memorial by day is just as beautiful as it is by night, but it's easier to take pictures of the details.

Same with Lincoln and the Reflecting Pool

They got to visit some other sites that were equally impressive and powerful like the Vietnam Memorial,

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

The Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial

A view of the Washington Monument from across the Potomac Tidal Basin

The Jefferson Memorial

And finally the White House.

All told, they walked more than 5 miles, and that's not including the distance walked within the various places themselves!

They also visited the Holocaust Museum, but I'll post that separately.

Washington DC - July 2018 - Part 2 - DC By Night

One evening, Rebecca and I got the kids to bed and decided to go downtown to see DC by night. Not only was the temperature much more comfortable, but the monuments are all lit up, making the city glow. Most of the pictures speak for themselves.

There were some monuments and memorials that I have never gotten to see up close and one of them was the WWII Memorial. It's an impressive sight, especially at night. They did a magnificent job of creating a beautiful space that evokes a sense of reverence for the men and women who served and sacrificed in the name of defending freedom in the world.

This is the first time (at least that I can remember) every having set foot in the Lincoln Memorial. Having been coming here to visit family since I was little, it's possible I've been here, but I don't remember it. Even at nearly midnight, there was still a crowd, but they were all very hushed and respectful. I think being nighttime gave the the memorial an even more powerful feel and it was quite an experience just to stand there, see Lincoln's statue and to read the Gettysburg Address carved into the wall nearby.

Washington DC - July 2018 - Part 1 - Art and History

In the middle of July, Aunt DD organized a family gathering in the heart of our nation's capital, Washington DC. We managed to get everyone together for almost a full week of fun, exploration, and education. One of the first things the kids wanted to do was take the train down to the Mall. Honestly, they didn't care much about where we were going, just that we were going on a train!

They were getting impatient for the train to arrive...

Once we were on it, they had a blast seeing the city pass by and then loved when it went underground! Little did they know what awaited them once we got off the train...

 Being DC in July, it was brutally hot and the sun was intense, hence all the squinting. Irene was not happy about having to walk everywhere once we got off the train.

 Of course, one of our stops had to be the Air and Space Museum. The kids went crazy for all the planes, rockets, and spacecraft on display. I really should have gotten more pictures, but it was enough just to keep up with this crazy crew!

They found one of the tracks from the crawler that carried the space shuttles to the launch pad and thought it would be a fun bench to rest on. 

 One of our stops the next day was the National Museum of American History

 There were some very interesting (at least to the adults...) exhibits that showed how our country has changed and grown since its inception. The kids particularly liked the exhibits on construction, transportation, and food. 

They even got a little hands-on and helped grind some wheat into flour. (It was harder than they thought.)

Afterwards, we went off on our own to the American Art Museum. The kids weren't particularly excited about it going in, but they soon got into the swing of things and began to enjoy comparing the different art styles and picking out pieces they liked.  

They also got to make a little modern art of their own with this exhibit that you would press a button and then wait for it to take your picture. On a big screen, it would update every few seconds with the latest picture at the bottom. The hard part was knowing when it would take the picture. If you look closely, you can see some of our kiddos in various poses. 

 This cat was a favorite of everyone. 

 We thought that this was an ingenious piece. If you read the plates, it spells out the preamble to the Constitution. All 50 states are represented.

 In another section of the museum was the National Portrait Gallery. Despite the kids being a bit tired of all the walking, they perked up as we went through because they discovered that each portrait has a number next to it designating which president it was. The portraits were arranged in such a way that they weren't exactly in order, so they made it a game to find each number. Not only did it make it more fun for them, but they would stop and look at each one, reading the information about the various presidents, so they were finding ways to make learning fun on their own!

They also thought it was really neat to see things like the original of the portrait featured on the dollar bill. Notice how it's actually the mirror image! Some other highlights were the modern presidents, particularly Barack Obama and Donald Trump, because they recognized them from the news or other recent sources.