Today we started waking up around 7:30. We had pop tarts and fruit for breakfast and Rebecca made us up a lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, fruit, string cheese and snack bars to bring to D.C. These are all hardy things that can be kept in a big cooler that we can move between the car and wherever we’re staying without refrigeration, and they really cut down on the overall expense of a day’s outings.

We headed for the Metro around 9:30, following the route up North Pierce street, through the nice park where we saw all the fireflies the night before, and down Wilson Boulevard to the Rosslyn station. We had some fare cards from another family we met during the long laundry shuffle from last night, so I just bought one additional one. The DC metro system is very different than the NYC subway system though, and I promptly threw the fare cards away as soon as we got into the station without realizing we would need them on the way out. So I had to go through a confused ten minute process with a very nice station manager at Metro Central station to try and re-purchase fare to leave. It seems like a new and complicated system for both passengers and employees. I ended up buying another set of fare cards that the exit machines would not accept, so we were finally just waved through.

We grabbed a street map and headed over toward the WW2 and Lincoln memorials via the White House:

Even though I’ve been a number of times, the Lincoln memorial still makes an impact. We got a great mini-lecture from a volunteer guide on the various elements of the statue itself and their symbolism. For instance I didn’t know that Lincoln is depicted in preparation to stand, in defense of the Union. The guide also told us about some popular myths about the memorial, for example the one that Robert E. Lee’s head can be found on the back of Lincoln’s head, Voldemort-style. The boys and I had to go immediately check that out.

Afterward we walked through the Vietnam War memorial and then stopped for lunch along the mirror pool. It was very hot but we were able to keep our thermoses filled with water and stay in the shade most of the walk down to the National Museum of American History.

We spent about 1 and 1/2 hours at the History museum looking through a lot of great exhibits. The ability to go in and out of the free Smithsonian museums as much as we liked felt like a real luxury, but we had to resist the urge to induce museum overload in the kids:

After the American History museum we walked over to the nearby National Archives, hoping to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Unfortunately there was a long line in the hot sun to get in so we reluctantly decided to skip it. Well, one of us was reluctant anyway.

We stopped at an outdoor cafe near a large fountain. Rebecca and I had ice coffees and the kids had potato chips. Then we walked over to the National Air and Space Museum. We could see the Capital building and a bit of the Supreme Court. Rebecca was aware of the DOMA and Perry decisions coming out today and was talking to the kids about it. Fortunately for everyone else I didn’t key in on it or I would have forced everyone to walk down there for the historic moment.

We got to the museum around 3:30 pm and spent another 1 1/2 or so hours there. I enjoyed seeing the Spirit of St. Louis and the early days of space exploration and the Apollo moon landing exhibits. The kids enjoyed watching an old Sid Caesar video. At least it was museum TV:

The trip back through the Metro was a little less confusing – maybe I’ll get it down before we leave D.C. Others around me weren’t so lucky:

On the way back to the hotel, we saw this rabbit for the third time and I finally got a picture:

After a long, hot day it was great to get in a swim in the hotel pool:

Tomorrow, the National Zoo.