Memorials and White Houses!

After our Metro experience we ended up on the west side of the mall area. 

I think this is just so pretty.

Washington Monument

It was closed for renovations and they are redoing the elevator so you couldn't get close to it.  But it is pretty amazing.
555 feet tall and 897 steps to get to the top.
It is the tallest building in DC and nothing is allowed to be taller than it.

World War 2 Memorial was beautiful.  They placed the wreaths around here as well.  Need to remember to post about our experience with the wreaths this year.

The reflecting pool with the Lincoln memorial in the distance.  Sun was getting ready to set.

Reflecting pool the facing the other way with the Washington Monument in the distance.  There are so many ways you can take these pictures and they are all beautiful!

Lincoln Memorial behind us.

Abraham Lincoln

The Gettysburg Address.  Very neat to read it all the way through.

It was in the 40's tonight and the area was very crowded but look how beautiful as the sun was setting.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Love this with the wreaths and the Washington Memorial in the background.

The National Christmas tree from a distance, bad pic but it shows the little trees around it that represent all 50 states.

The White House.  You can't get any closer to it anymore.  :(

Better pic of the Christmas tree

And then they had 50 trees around it with ornaments made by a middle school from each state.

Texas ornaments.

And then a large train display in the center as well.

This area was also very crowded.  Before Christmas they have entertainment our here as well.

Great evening walking around and see all the sights!

Learning to ride the Metro

So this was our first experience with a subway.  In DC they call it the Metro and it is depicted by a large blue M.

We thought we would be using it the whole time but our hotel is really close to everything and we have not needed it yet. Tonight we are heading to the Kennedy Center so we will need to ride it there and home so I felt like we needed practice to know what we are doing!

 Funny, I just noticed the M is white here but on all the maps it is blue.  So this is a switching station so 3 colors of trains run through here and you can switch depending on where you are going.

 Way down underground we go.

 On the escalator

 These are the stations where you purchase your cards. The cards cost $2 each and every person needs a card but then you can refill them as much as needed.

 Smartrip card.

 Inside of the station on the top level.  Here you pass through the gates and scan your card and the bars will open so you can pass through.

 Waiting for the train.  You could hear and feel it coming before you saw it.
The lights on the walkway would light up to let you know it would be arriving soon.

 Ladybug on the Subway.

A picture once we got off of two trains at one time at our stop.  They are both going opposite directions so you have to know which way you are going.

 Waiting for another train

On the train.

So when the trains arrive you have to know what color you are getting on.  There are 5 colors.  And I found that you have to know the end of the line.  So if the end of the the is Vienna then you are going West and if the end of the line is Carrolton, you are going east.  I assumed that it would be labeled by your next stop or next several stops but it is not.

We were successful in going the correct direction every time we rode today!

Saturday found us asleep again and dragging the kids out of bed at 9am.  We did finally get them moving to find a beautiful, sunny, clear, but chilly day!  

First stop was 2 Sisters Deli.

We passed this yesterday and thought it might be a good breakfast place and it didn't disappoint!

 I went for lunch with this amazingly good club.

 Chris and Ladybug went for breakfast with this amazing bacon, egg and cheese biscuit.

I think we might be back tomorrow as well!

 Next is the National Air and Space Museum.  This is the sister location to the one we went to the other day.

 Rutan Voyager

 Rutan Voyager.  Completed the first nonstop, non-refueled flight around the world.  72% of its weight was fuel and it was so heavy during takeoff that the wing was damaged by the ground during takeoff.

 Kids doing their shopping.

 Lunar Module that landed on the moon.

 A huge interactive screen

 Spirit of St. Louis

 Satellite

 About the Satellite

 The model of the Star Trek Starship.  So this was the actual thing they filmed when showing pictures of the outside of the ship during the episodes.

 They had lots of hands on areas.  This area was like a kids museum where they had all types of experiments you could try.  We had not been to one of these in a few years since the kids were younger but all three of my big kids spend over an hour in here testing all the stations and waiting in line and dodging toddlers.  But it was so fun to watch how they have both learned so much science they understand why the experiments were there and what they were testing. The ones they didn't understand, daddy taught them what they were.

 The Wright Brothers plane

 A picture of one of the entrances.  They have 4 security stations set up and another 4 on the other side.  There was a line outside on both sides all day long for people waiting to get in.  It was really busy.

 Another of the Lunar Module from above.

A neat scale model of the planets.

We rented headphones that had information about 22 items so that we could listen to it as we walked through and we all really enjoyed that.   There were so many exhibits and pieces of information to see and read. I feel like we got all the highlights plus some but you really could have spent hours in each exhibit learning about the history of each section.  Overall I feel like we were successful in getting the most we could from this stop.

Next...learning the metro, and exploring the mall area.