Washington DC

 

Spring break 2024 and we headed to Washington D.C. with both kids in tow.   Jordan and I have been to DC over ten times in the past two decades, but never with our children.

There is a direct flight on American Airlines from Greensboro to Reagan so the trip was so easy. The reason the trip was our choice for Spring Break was Lauren had to work a few days - now in Tyson's Corner - and one of our best friends, who lives in DC, was turning 40!   The dates all lined up and we thought DC would be great.  We had no idea this was the best Cherry Blossom time so along with it being spring break, the town was packed with people coming to see the Tidal Basin and the blossoms.    

While Lauren worked, Jordan took the kids on the metro to see the Museum of Natural History.   Amira liked the Hope Diamond, just like her grandmother.  We met for a nice dinner, confirming Tysons Corner is truly a wonderful area for food, drinks and shopping.

The next day was Saturday, which meant spending time with the birthday girl.  We went to the (new-ish) National Museum for Indigenous Persons, met our friends at the Museum of American History and had lunch.   We then ventured back to her house for college basketball and a night of celebrating our dear friend Sarah.   (Luckily the Heels won!)

On Sunday, we didn't realize you had to had reserved tickets for the Air & Space Museum, so we took a metro and a taxi to the Goddard Air & Space Museum out of the city that had all of the planes in the huge hangers.   This museum was cool.   We ended the day at the very nice Tysons Corner mall.  On Monday, while Lauren worked, Jordan took the kids on the metro to the Postal Museum.

On Tuesday, we moved from the nice Marriott to a Residence Inn a mile from Congress.   We walked the National Mall and took a bus to the Thomas Jefferson Museum to fully appreciate the cherry blossoms.  I even found Stumpy.  After this, we ventured to the National Portrait Museum.  I saw the new Oprah painting, stopped by a few rooms and toured my son around the Hall of Presidents.  I really appreciated my first viewing of the Obama paintings.  (Also, I found another Bartholdi Statue of Liberty mini!)  We ended the night showing our son the outside of Ford's Theatre and enjoying Hard Rock.

On Wednesday, we got coveted tickets to the small exhibit of Bond in Motion at the Spy Museum.   As this is my favorite set of films, I enjoyed it.  On Thursday, we toured Congress, which was such an amazing experience and a first for me.   We showed our kids the outside of major buildings and walked around.

Right before our flight on Friday, we ventured across from the hotel to the NASA Headquarters.  This place was amazing and had a few interactive areas.  We got a tour of the space, an overview of lobbying and to see a portion of their library.  We could have spent all day there, but we had to head back to Reagan Airport to our one hour flight back home.

DC, I am sure we will be back - so I will leave you so takes that did not make the Holiday card!