So my girlfriends and I love to travel. It's actually how our group got started. But that's another story. This is about our trip to Washington DC. Actually one of us couldn't make it because of a previous engagement. So it was 4 of us.

6-15
Claire and I flew in from Orlando, still on a high from our Disney trip. Nass and Welke were flying in from their states. The first night we didn't do much except to hang out at the hotel. Claire and I needed a small break and it was great to just see our friends that we haven't seen in months!

6-16
This day was supposed to be overcast and possibly rainy, so we decided to make it museum day. Because really, there is almost no better place for museums in the US than the group of Smithsonian museums. We chose to hit up a few and really soak them in instead of just running through all of them. Nass really wanted to do the Holocaust Museum. It was very well done. A little more depressing than I would have chosen. It was also hard to hear how they connected Luther and Hitler. We spent a long time here. The 2 other museums we focused on was the Air and Space Museum and the US History one. We met a friendly guard who enjoyed our pet chipmunk Floyd and asked for his picture with him. (Floyd is our traveling stuffed animal chipmunk who travels between our classrooms - very Flat Stanley-esque) We also almost lost Floyd in the Air and Space Museum. Try explaining that you dropped a stuffed chipmunk into a display case to some security guards. You will get some very funny looks from people as you are frantically asking them to help you out. Thankfully a very nice tall museum goer helped us. Poor Floyd! He goes through so much with us. At the end of the day we took in the Washington Monument and the WWII Memorial during sunset. A great end to a nice day.

6-17
Claire didn't feel well when she woke up so she took a personal rest day. Welke, Nass, and I continued on with our crazy touring. Today was a massive tour of the monuments, memorials, government buildings, and anything else we could fit in. Highlights include all of the monuments we hit up. I absolutely love taking pictures at the Washington Monument. I'm not sure what it is, but I just love it there. The WWII memorial was really neat. I had not seen that yet. I wonder what my grandpa would think about that. We spent a long time at each memorial taking picture after picture, just soaking in the patriotism. Lowlights include the capitol tour and paying for water. I had gotten us tickets for a tour around the capitol. Perfect for some teachers! Yeah, except our tour guide was awful! We had headsets to listen to the guide. Our headset did not work the best, so we kept hearing the guides around us, instead of our very dry, keep it to the facts, guide. We tried to tell her about the problem, but she said that there wasn't a problem. So we ended up listening to a different guide in our headsets and taking some funny pictures. Also it was HOT in DC this day and I was used to getting free water from where ever I wanted to in Disney. So I was sad that I had to pay for a bottle of water whenever I was thirsty! I actually got a headache because I didn't drink enough water. Note to self: drink more water! Early in the day we got in line for tickets to go up the Washington Monument. We were very excited when we were able to get tickets for the time we wanted - right at sunset! It was such a great viewpoint of the city at that time of day. Just beautiful! And of course we took more pictures of the monuments all lit up. By the time we got back to the hotel, we all passed out on top of our beds!

6-18
Here comes another day of crazy touring of monuments and memorials. I had bought the children's book about the monuments where you could stamp in each NPS stamp. So my goal was to get all the stamps! Today we focused on the monuments across from the Mall - including Jefferson, FDR, and George Mason! We really liked listening to the Park Rangers. There is one thing to go to the memorials. There is another to actually understand all the symbolism that went into making the masterpieces. Sometimes we joined the group talk, other times we hung in the back and just listened. By mid afternoon we split up. Claire wanted to visit another museum while the rest of us wanted to go wander the gardens. I love going to botanical gardens. It is a great family memory. To finish our day we went to a Nationals baseball game. I have never seen a subway that busy. Even when I was in Italy. There were just mobs of people. And we were worried that we wouldn't know which stop to get off! LoL Afterward we found out that the President was also at that game. I love baseball!

6-19
Last day in DC. It was a great trip. During the morning we toured the remaining memorials that we had not stopped at yet. These were Vietnam and Korean wars, along with Arlington. We were at Arlington early in the morning. It was so beautiful and peaceful there. I just soaked it all in. After some fun pictures around the Mall it was time to go. I love traveling with these girls. Can't wait until I can do it again.