Finally taking in some D.C.

This past weekend we finally headed into D.C. to do some, well, D.C. stuff. We went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. They had an exhibit of amazing wildlife photography. All the photos were award winners, I believe, with a National Geographic competition. They had some amazing jewelry and the Hope Diamond. Lots of big stuffed animals. They actually had a plant and butterfly bubble, but we didn't take time to go through that. Wasn't close to the butterfly garden back in the Midwest - and there was a long line.

One of the many big stuffed animals.


The Hope Diamond. There was a crowd.


Happy girl (in the gross corner - she didn't care!)


[Only disappointing part for us was that it was so heavily laden with evolution talk. Of course they would talk about evolution, but the little mouse we all supposedly evolved from in an animated video and calling it (yes, the mouse) your great grandma? Come on. A little much for us. And it couldn't be just beautiful butterflies and plants, it was butterflies and plants: partners in evolution. And then there is the entire wing under construction for the new human origins display. I guess, at least for me, the part the frustrates me isn't that it is there, but that there is so much and it is all stated as absolute fact. As though they have it all figured out. The word theory isn't mentioned. Not even a, we now think that we all evolved from this mouse. Blah.]

OK, enough of that. Please read on.

So after the museum we headed back to the car. It was quite a few blocks away. Lexi dosed off in the stroller so we stopped and took a FREE tour up the tower of the Old Post Office. That was a pretty awesome view. Got photos of everything from up there. The capital, cathedral, white house, monuments. There is a lot of FREE stuff to see. The museums are FREE (which explains why the corner where I fed Lexi was quite dirty, stinky and food spattered - but the rest wasn't bad). The monuments and memorials are FREE. Just have to park somewhere first :). We might ride the metro into the city next time. Anyway, after that we got some absolutely incredible Ben & Jerry's ice cream. It was some chocolate-y heaven. Then to the car.

The Old Post Office and the tower we went into. And the location of the sloppy Ben & Jerry's with YUMMY ice cream.


Happy girl, after a cat nap, in the Old Post Office tower. Thank goodness for elevators!


One view from the tower.


We drove over to the WWII Memorial and found parking pretty close, since it was later in the day. David had not seen this memorial yet. I saw it and many other things when we were there about a year and a half ago while he was working. Anyway, really cool memorial. Then we decided we should walk down to the Lincoln Memorial from there. A little farther than it looks, plus once we got there we had to take the long way around this fencing to get to it (some construction going on). So we said hello to Lincoln and Lexi took him in. Then we looped back past the Vietnam Memorial on the way to the car. Lexi was such a trooper. She was hanging out on daddy. And she was hungry. We stopped at a restaurant - Hops - and while we waited for a table Lexi practically inhaled an entire jar of chicken vegetable something. Yummy! Dinner was fine. The best part was the croissants drizzled with this honey frosting that came before the meal. It was a good day, even if we did get Lexi to bed late! She is quite resilient, I must say.

The fam at the WWII Memorial.


Part of the WWII Memorial (looking up in on of the archways).


Checking out Lincoln.


Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial.