Month: May 2016

Today we headed to Ford’s Theater for a 10am ticket. We had fun on the Metro on the way in. Quite a change of pace on the weekend compared to the hustle of the weekdays.

We got to see some of the historical memorabilia from the assassination of Lincoln. This is the guns hat was used to kill him.

We went into the theater and saw the box where he was seated. While in the theater we saw a show called “One Destiny”. It was an amazing show about some of the people that were present during the assassination. We learned a lot about how the events occurred and how John W. Booth shot President Lincoln.

We earned Jr. Ranger badges then toured the Petersen house where Lincoln was taken after he was shot. He died the next morning at 7:22am in a bed at the Petersen house.

This is the room he died in.

After Ford’s Theater we visited the Mary Bethune House and learned about the history of the remarkable woman the the formation of the NCNW. We earned Jr Ranger badges for this location as well as the Carter G Woodson House location (it is under renovation).

Today we explored the monuments. We started at the Washington Monument. We tried to get tickets but they were all sold out. We walked around and learned that the flags stand for the 50 states but not anyone in particular stands for a specific state.

We wandered down the Mall and saw the White House in the distance.

We stopped at several of the war memorials. This was the World War 2 Memorial.

We learned about Normandy.

We found our home state.

We stopped in front of the Lincoln Memorial to watch the ducks in the reflecting pool.

We visited with Mr. Lincoln and read the Gettysburg Address off the wall.

I really enjoyed the FDR Memorial. I learned a lot from the states and quotes.

I fell in love with his dog, Fala.

I had to adopt a Fala in the giftshop!

We walked towards the Jefferson Memorial and saw a red tailed hawk in a tree and baby Canadian geese.

We met up with Dad at the Jefferson Memorial after lunch.

We came back to the campground and Mom worked on laundry while B and I braved the swimming pool.

We headed out early again and took the Metro to the National Mall area. We started at the Hirshorn Museum. It was a bizarre art museum. There were weird sculptures of what we thought were blueberries in the grass outside.

Inside there was an exhibit that was made to trick your eyes. This white painting was actually little dots when you got closer. It was strange.

One room was super bright and had sayings all over the walls.

Next we stopped at the carousel for a ride.

Then headed to the Smithsonian Castle since several of the smaller museums were closed for renovations.

I enjoyed the sundial.

We spent a lot of time stopping and looking at different plants.

We saw the crypt of Mr. Smithson who was the founder of the Smithsonian.

Finally we arrived at the Natural History Museum. Night at the Museum take 3!

We saw lots of bugs and even this weird stick bug.

In another room we saw lots of rocks and gems. I loved the Hope diamond.

The giant load stone was pretty cool. I made sculptures with paperclips they had to play with.

I wanted all the gems and minerals. I really liked the way the silver looked.

Oh and the tourmaline for Uncle Matt.

Mom, can I buy this one?

After a few hours exploring we headed to the American History Museum and played in the Spark Lab. I made a lighthouse.

I also made some weird contraption to support a cobra.

We wrapped up making a car that was for blind people. It used sonar!

We visited the National Zoo today. We had a LOT of fun seeing all the different animals.

I really enjoyed watching the baby panda bear play with his mama.

They had a panda research station that you could watch from the windows and observe the scientists and volunteers recording data.

The meerkats were snuggly. 

I took some silly selfies! 🙂

The sea lions made me laugh. I loved interacting with them and watching them swim all around.

I had to have my photo taken with every single bronze statue of an animal we passed. This one is a sloth bear.

OTTERS!

The red panda sadly wasn’t on display today.

We saw the cheetah from far away.

The elephant had an itchy spot and was rubbing against everything.

Four month old baby fennec foxes were my new love.

This gorilla was very scary.

I got upset that B wanted to be in all the photos of the statues.

We had an awesome trip to the zoo.

I bought a baby stuffed red panda and took it for a ride on a HUGE escalator to the Metro.

We were up early to drop Dad at the Metro for work. We hung out until Mom returned and then got ready and headed tot he Metro. We got a fancy new train!

It’s quite a long ride from College Park but we passed the time watching out the windows, snuggling and being silly with Mom.

We arrived earlier than planned so we walked to the Capitol building. It was drizzly icy rain but that didn’t slow us down.

We managed to luck out and walk up just as a tour started so we were able to get tickets and jump in. We toured the rotunda, statue hall  and the crypt. Our tour guide was awesome and kept us all laughing and learning.

The rotunda is undergoing renovations so we couldn’t see the frieze but we could see the paintings and the spot where presidents stand for inauguration.

You could only see a small portion of the dome.

I really enjoyed the statues, especially since there was a statue guide in my explorers book.

Next we walked over to the Library of Congress. I was really impressed with all the marble! The books were neat too!

We saw Thomas Jeffersons personal book collection.

Up next was the US Botanical Gardens. This is always a big hit. We both love plants so much. The cactus gardens were my favorite. Well, that and the orchids.

We learned about cacao and how chocolate is made. It takes 6 months for a cacao seed pod to grow.

We stopped next at the National Museum of the American Indian. I enjoyed some fry bread with honey and sugar.

We saw lots of neat Native American artifacts and learned more about how entitled the settlers felt to the land. We remembered a lot of this from last summers travels and enjoyed reliving some of those moments.

Next was the Air and Space Museum. B and I sat and discussed different armament.

We enjoyed all the exhibits.

I really liked the exhibit about how ballast bags worked on hot air balloons. They were filled with tiny metal pellets. When they dropped them the bottom out explode off with gunpowder and then just the tiny fragments would fall instead of the giant bags.

We learned about Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brothers. This is the original plane but 30 years ago they redid the wing coverings.

We had milkshakes as a late snack. I am still on a soft food diet after my tooth incident.

I decided, after seeing the space toilet, that I NEVER want to be an astronaut!

We learned about the principles of flight and watched a presentation. I even got to participate.

It was a really long day. Tomorrow we head to the zoo!