Thursday morning began very early for me. I was up and out of the hotel by 6:15 am. I was in line at the Washington Monument by 6:45am. Very cold!! However, the sun was out so I won't complain.
They only give out a certain number of tickets for each half hour. I was to determined to make this happen. So I stood in line with about 100 other people until 8:30. I was able to get us 4 tickets for 10:30.
Meanwhile, Jody and the boys made their way to Union Station about 8:30 to get tickets for a duck boat tour. We met back up at the Washington Monument about 9:15.
We decided to walk around the Tidal Basin to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. The cherry blossom trees that are all around the basin must have already lost their blooms. A million people came to see them over the last 2 weeks. They weren't very pretty any more.
This memorial is one of my favorites. Jefferson just looks so stately standing there. While we were there, Marine One, the President's helicopter. and 2 others flew over. We had noticed the wonderful view of the Jefferson Memorial from the White House on Monday. You can actually see Jefferson standing from the upper part of the South Lawn. Well today we were in the perfect spot for this flyover. The 3 helicopters flew directly over us, by the Washington Monument, and on to the White House. The outer 2 circled out, but the middle one landed on the South Lawn and we got to see it all. With the zoom on our camera, we got some great pictures. We waited for it to take of, but we had to get back for the Washington Monument. As we were walking back, the President flew over. I think we was going to Mexico so I am assuming that the helicopter was taking him to Air Force One.
We made our trip up the W.M. The view from there is wonderful. You can see virtually everything in the city. We ended up staying up there quite a while. Actually too long. We had a noon tour on the duck boat. We only had about 25 minutes. So of course, here we go again running!!
We walked rather briskly to the metro. Of course there were delays on the red line to Union Station (where the tour starts). As we get there with just a few minutes to spare, Jody realized that he had only gotten 3 tickets (paid for 4/got 3). Of course, there was a line, but he went to the front. They had the 4th ticket. We hurried to the truck/boat. We were the last to board, but we made it. This tour was about 1 1/2 hours on land in in the Potomac River. All the kids got to drive the boat in the water. The tour guide was funny and gave lots of good info. We enjoyed this tour.
When we got back, we ate lunch at Union Station, and decided that we needed to walk around the Capitol. We had been inside, but it had been raining so we did see the outside. So, we walked around to see both sides. We also saw the Supreme Court building and the Thomas Jefferson building of the Library of Congress. We did not go in these buildings. We had a tour of the Supreme Court scheduled, but did not make it. I figured it was one thing that we could do without. Even though we were there for 6 days, and we toured as hard as we could everyday, we couldn't see nearly everything.
As we finished our walk around the Capitol, I believe it was at this point that Haden was officially finished. Done. He could hardly go on. He would stop and lie down on a step or sit down on a bench. It was probably 2:30 or 3:00 at this point. We had to be at Ford's Theatre at 4:00. Whit wanted to go to the gift shop at the Air and Space Museum, and Jody wanted to go into the Smithsonian Castle. So we split up and conquered. But, once again, things always take longer than planned.
We had to go through security to get in the museum. Haden wanted me to get him some dog tags, so I had to stand in line. Whit had to pick out his souvenir and stand in line to pay,and on and on. Long story short, we were once again hurrying to get to Ford's Theatre by 4:00. So again we are jogging down the sidewalks. We finally make it with moments to spare only to stand in a line that goes 1/2 a city block and around the corner.
This tour was worth the wait. We saw the theatre where Lincoln was shot, sat in the seats where the Presidents now sits when he's there, and went across the street to see the house where Lincoln died.
It was probably 5:30 at this point and a beautiful afternoon. I wanted to get t-shirts for the boys, but the were ready to go. So they went back to the Mall and I shopped for a little while. I met back up with them. We then walked to the Washington Monument. Believe or not, we were actually hot and thirsty. It had turned into a nice spring day. We got a drink and sat in the shadow of the W.M. The boys ran around and played. It was nice to relax for a few minutes and soak up out last moments in DC. We pondered walking around to the FDR Memorial, but frankly, we were all too tired. I think it's the only one we didn't see. We'll have to catch it next time. We were going to go to a Washington Nationals baseball game, but we were physically unable.
So for the last time, we made our way to the metro and to the blue line train to Crystal City. What a trip!
We ordered in pizza to the hotel and packed our things. We had an early start Friday morning.
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