We started out the morning by Brian getting up early to get tickets for the Washington Monument and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. I got the kids ready and down the Capitol for our tour by myself (I managed 2 on the Metro during rush hour!)
We got on an earlier tour even though our reservations were for 30 minutes later. They must take more people than they allow to book online! The tour is not really worth it-Brian and I remember seeing so much more when we were here 9 years ago. There are tons of people in each room that you go into (a total of 3 rooms). You get headphones so that you can only hear your leader. Our leader told us about our government (really basic stuff) and a lot about the art in the Capitol. That's it. It was not too exciting for N2 nor for Brian and I. The only cool thing was that all the tours had to stand back in one of the rooms and the Capitol police were being strict. Some VIP came through with lots of men around him (not anyone that I knew nor one that the tour guide knew). Too bad we didn't know who he was. He didn't wave. The only one who acknowledged the huge group of people standing there was one of the Capitol police at the end. The tour leader said they don't even do that for the Speaker of the House so it must have been some foreign dignitary.
I really like the dome in the Capitol but sadly it was undergoing renovations. Such a disappointment. This is what it looked like.
I really love photographing the Capitol building. It's so pretty. It was a gray, overcast day so I don't have any good shots with a nice blue sky. But I like how it is framed here.
We were able to take a tunnel to the Library of Congress so we didn't have to go through security again-ooohhh fancy! Let me tell you, the Capitol allows very little-no water, no food, no sunblock, no liquids, nothing. So there went our water supply for the day and our sun protection. Once we got there we found out we could have taken empty water bottles and filled them up later. Oh well. The Library of Congress was not too exciting. We then had to find lunch, harder said then done and get over to the Washington Monument for our tour.
We arrived a few minutes late for our tour and Brian was worried they wouldn't let us on the tour. No worries! We were at the back of the line for the 1:30 tour so therefore had to wait 30 minutes before going through security. Then once we passed security we had to wait for there to be room in the elevator. While outside Natalie decided to take a nap on the bench.
Here are views from the top.
I tried to get a picture of N2 at the monument and this is what I got. Great picture, isn't it? Maybe Natalie is foreshadowing what she is planning on doing on the plane ride home.
We then went for our tour of the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. You first watch a movie of how money is made and then you get to see some rooms where money is being printed and they tell you all the same information that they told you in the video. At the end they drop you in the gift shop (of course!) where they also have displays of what money used to look like. They also had a chart of how much money tall are you. Noah was $1,071, 800 tall and Natalie was $1,025,200 tall.
We then visited the other memorials on the mall-WWII, Korean and the Lincoln Memorial. We did walk by the Vietnam War Wall-there are 3 Weidners listed in the book but we didn't find them on the wall.
N2 thought that this soldier was carrying a fishing pole.
We then walked over to see the White House. We did a lot of walking this day!
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