Washington DC - The mall and Smithsonian - June 29



As mentioned in the last post, we had overseas family in town and you just can't visit the Washington Metropolitan area without a visit to our nation's most famous landmarks, monuments and museums.

We set out early on Sunday morning.  Mom lives about ten minutes from  the New Carrolton Metro Station so we piled in the van and headed out with four adults, four kids, two strollers and a cooler with drinks and sandwiches.

My sister-in-law, Kristy and her two kids were  headed to meet us downtown from the other side of DC.

The metro ride is easy and affordable and beats looking for parking hands down.  The round trip cost us about $9 each.  It would have been cheaper but there is now a $1 up charge for using the paper fare cards instead of the plastic smart cards (of which I own two but forgot)

We got off at the Smithsonian stop which puts you right out on the Mall.  Looking to your right, you see the U.S. Capitol and to your left is the Washington Monument.  The Smithsonian museums flank the mall on both sides.

We started out at the Metro denoted by the red arrow.  It didn't take long for my mother to realize that she would never be able to make the long walk so we left her on a bench in the shade at the spot marked with a 1.

As you can clearly see, getting four kids to face all in the same direction and smile was a daunting task

Front row: Rita and Nicolas.  Back row, from left to right: Big Boy, my mother, my cousin Rita, Rita's daughter Vasoliki and Lil' Bit.

#2   Despite living near Washington DC, I had not been to the downtown mall area since the WWII memorial was completed.  It is a beautiful monument.

Lil' Bit, taking a break to read the paper

Big Boy is determined to attend the University of Arizona and insisted on posing before the landmark of his future Alma mater

Not far past the WWII memorial sits the Lincoln Memorial. 

#3  Sitting between the Lincoln and Washington Memorials is the reflecting pool but it was fenced off and drained of water so an incredible disappointment.  The reflecting pool had always been a favorite of mine.  When full of water, this pool holds the reflection of the Washington Monument

#4  The somewhat new Korean War Memorial is truly a work of art.  Statues of soldiers are eerily making their way across the rough terrain of Korea.  I think that this is a must see memorial when visiting the nations capitol.

We glanced over at the Vietnam Memorial when walking by but didn't take the slight detour to actually see it.  I think that it is a powerful memorial but would have been lost on the kids.

#5 On our way back to get my mother, we walked by the tidal basin and glanced across the water at eh Jefferson Memorial.  I realize now that despite growing up in the shadow of our Nations Capitol and seeing the Jefferson memorial many times, I am pretty sure that I have never actually gone all the way over to it.  Although it is picturesque sitting on the edge of the tidal basin, it is a bit off the beaten path.

#6  After we collected my mother, ate our sandwiches and caught up with Kristy and her kids, we all headed over to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.  The museum is free but you are asked to give a $2 donation if you wish to take a pamphlet.  Also, there are a couple of individual exhibits that have an additional fee.  I must confess, I did not take many pictures in the museum since I ended up spending most of my time there trying to keep our very large group somewhat together.  By this time, there were 11 of us and the place was very crowded. 

We did splurge on an IMAX movie... Flying Monsters, about flying dinosaurs.    IMAX movies are awesome and we were all entertained.  This was one of the places with an extra charge.  Tickets were $9.50 each but if you paid $12 for a museum membership, the tickers were only $6.50.  I purchased the membership which saved me quite $21.  Plus, I now had a membership card which gave us further discounts when we stopped to eat later.

We went to the Museum cafeteria for our late afternoon snack. 

Here are  few random snapshots taken through the rest of the day.  Most pictures were snapped by Lil' Bit with my camera (after she lost our other one)

And I just had to include this last picture.  My mother befriended a homeless guy and carried on a very lenghty conversation with him.

Our one great regret was not making it tot he White House.  Our out of town guests really wanted to see it but it was just a little too far of a walk to either take Mom with us or leve her abandonded on the park bench.  It is a shame that they came all this way and didn't make it over.  But, they were good sports about it.

We walked back to the metro stop and after the train ride, took the ten minute trip by car back to my mother's house.