Friends in Town for a Couple Days: Whirlwind tour of DC

 It's been hard to catch up from our Utah trip.  Five days after we arrived home my old roommate and her oldest boy came to stay with us for a few days of their Easter break.  I created a very intense itinerary to help them see as much of the local Washington DC sites as possible to cram into 2 days.  We were exhausted at the end :) But we did ALL the fun things.

Here is what we did:

Thursday

8:45am leave home for the DC temple. Drive 45 minutes to:

Washington DC Temple 10 am baptistry/Initiatories- 12 noon bag lunch on the road

I hung out with the littles while Tiffany and the big kids were in the temple. They accidentally dropped a monster truck in the fountain. Oops. Then we went into the visitor's center to see the exhibits.

Drive 1 hour to:

Mt Vernon 1pm - 3pm

Drive 30 minutes to:

Arlington National Cemetery 3:30pm- 4:30pm

We visited the Kennedy family plot and watched the ceremonial changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Drive 30 minutes to: Washington National Cathedral - Evensong at 5:30pm (parking?)

Drive 10 minutes to:

 Das Ethiopian Restaurant 7-8pm (open until 9:30pm)

Drive Downtown for evening lights walking tour: 

Park on Constitution avenue, North of the Mall, near the Lincoln Memorial

First visit Vietnam memorial, then the Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, MLK Memorial, FDR Memorial, (Choose to continue or not), Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument, WW2, and possibly walk up to the White House.

It was sooo late by the time we finished and very cold. We were running between monuments to stay warm. 

I think it was very appropriate that after visiting the FDR memorial park, the kids were able to give out two of the homeless kits that they made at church to a woman sleeping on an air vent near where we parked. 


Friday

Drive down to the National Botanical Gardens (1 hour drive, park there)

11 am National Botanical Gardens

I was soo glad that my buddy was as excited to explore the National Botanical gardens as me. We made that our first priority stop for the museum visiting day.

12:30pm National Museum of the American Indian (Eat lunch there)

I was hoping for crocodile or one of the other more unusual meats, but we had to settle for buffalo burgers, SW steak, and venison sausage.

2:30pm American History Museum

THE Star Spangled Banner that Francis Scott Key saw, was hanging over Fort McHenry during the war of 1812. 

3:30pm Air and Space museum (Turned out to be closed for construction :(

4:30 pm Natural History Museum (most of the Smithsonian museums close at 5:30pm)

Possibly continue to National Portrait Gallery (open until 7pm) or stop for New England style dinner at Luke’s Lobster -open until 8pm - they also do carry out. (lobster roll or clam chowder) 

No pictures of this, but we had some yummy lobster rolls and lobster bisque there! :)

If there is extra time, (or substitute in these for other planned Smithsonians…)

-Museum of the Bible

-National Archives

-National Postal Museum

-African American Museum

-International Spy Museum

-National Museum of Asian Art

Saturday

We met Tiffany's brother and his family down in Southern Maryland at an Amish area with a flea market and auction. I was trying to hit one more highlight, but it was rainy and not many people were there. We did find a very authentic Amish dry goods store. I bought 50 lbs of oats, mushroom popcorn, and some wheels of cheese.