Traveling with the Munschs: Washington DC Pictures

After Virgina we made a short hop over to Washington DC. Short drive but a lot of traffic as we got into the city. We made it fine and pulled into our campground Cherry Hill Park in Maryland a little northeast of DC by College Park. It was a good campground, well maintained and clean for being over a hundred years old. Becky's parents met us at this stop, they flew in the same day we arrived but had plane trouble and had to play some plans, trains, and automobiles to get here. Most of that first day was spent seeing if or when they were going to make it. They made it real late or early the next day so were working off little sleep that first day. Speaking of first days when we met up with them to get going the Lucas wasn't feeling good. We had breakfast at their cabin and waited a bit before heading out, but he didn't feel any better and had to sit out the first day staying home at the camper. Was a little nerve wracking leaving him alone but he's not little and we all have phones, so we decided we'd leave the iconic stuff for tomorrow hoping he felt better with a day of rest. We had a couple of planned tours we had to work around, the Library of Congress that Lucas would miss and the State Capital the next day that Dusty Johnson hooked us up with. Couldn't get a tour of the White House as we were hoping but took what they could get us. Anyway, DC was exhausting a lot to try to pack in within the few days we were there. I took a ton of pictures so will leave the rest to them.

Capital building and reflection pool over the visitor center

Riding the rail in DC, was a really good rail system we got on at college park and rode it into the city and jumped on to avoid walking whenever we could.

First stop was Ford's Theater. The crew after the very interesting ranger program

Ford's theater the box seat where Lincoln was shot

And across the street the room/bed where he passed away.

Book tower they had on the way out to illustrate how many books were written about him, I didn't see Vampire hunter in there, but I bet it was there. The ranger made a quip about it during the program. I've read the book and it was good, but I always said I'm way dumber about America history for doing so.

Library of Congress

Inside the Library, it's very interesting design and architecturally inside

They had a overlook into one of the reading rooms. We never got to go into a reading room

One of the exhibits, look at the room

Amazing how much was put into the building

Becky checking out Thomas Jefferson's book collection, the guy had a ton of books

Samus, Becky, and an awesome cat

Becky's parents

Family sans Lucas the first day

Group pick by some tomato plants in front of the patent office.

Subway ride the next day. Yay! Lucas made it today!
Maybe not the best shot he looks ill in it but trust me was good and ready to go.
We had to get up and going early as we had a tour of the Capital at 9am

Capital Building

Statue in the capital building visitor center

Early senate chamber and Supreme Court before they got their own building

On the tour, the roped off star there is the center of Washington DC the town was planned out from that center. You can also see our guide, he was Scottish, but we didn't let that take away from the enjoyment of the tour. His joke. He was awesome.

Top of the dome

Inside the rotunda

It's lined with paintings, one of the most important is
Washington's peaceful transition of power

Lots of over-the-top architecture in the capital as well, its pretty impressive

And they had a cafeteria at the Capital, so we were set

Walking the mall from the capital toward the Washington monument, Becky and her dad reenacted the last time they were here together. He was in the Navy stationed in Virgina and she was very little and he carried her around on his back the entire day. This only lasted a few seconds.

The gang in front of the monument

Washington Monument

And of course, I had to walk up and get a shot straight up the wall. We forgot all about getting tickets to ride up the monument, so we just looked at it and moved on.

World War II Memorial

Vietnam Memorial

We're getting tired now it's been a lot of walking. Lucas taking a rest by the Women's Vietnam Memorial

We made it to the Lincoln Memorial

Looking back to the reflection pond from the Lincoln Memorial

Honest Abe

Side of the Memorial taking a much-needed rest in the shade.
There is also a good breeze it's an awesome place to take a break

Korean War Memorial

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Walking along the basin, main goal is to get to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Stopped at the FDR Memorial along the way

And onward on our quest. It's a long way over to it.

We made it finally

And since we didn't have enough walking, we took the rail to the Arlington cemetery. We hoped we would be able to catch a tour, or they would have trams to drive you around. We missed the last tour and no trams besides the tours so we hoofed it up hill to see the changing of the guard at the unnamed solder. My phone ran out of battery so no pictures after this point but we were done for the day. I had a concerning chafing situation going on and we were all sore and beat by our full day in DC.

The next day was Saturday with forecast of rain the subway wasn't very busy.
We're all alone in this station

Becky standing on the world largest map of the world at the Navy Monument.
We first went to the Archives behind Becky to see the Constitution. It was less than stellar, a free for all to view it so was crowded and if you didn't want to push your way up to the front you missed out. I got close enough to see We the People and called it good.