We asked at reception for a breakfast recommendation and were directed across the road to the Watergate building.
The plan was to walk from there down to the Washington Monument for our 10am tour, but when we finished breakfast I realised that I'd left the tickets in my document file back at the hotel. So we ran back to the hotel and Alex and the kids flagged down a taxi while I ran up to the room to get the tickets. We arrived at the Washington Monument just in time and joined the other people waiting for the 10am tour.
View of the Lincoln Memorial from the Washington Monument
Views from the top of the Washington Monument
On the ground again
From there we started our walk down the National Mall to decide which museums to visit. It was so hot that we just wanted to get inside to some airconditioning!
The American History Museum had been recommended, so we went there first.
We started at the Motown Exhibition.
Michael Jackson's fedora
The Supremes dresses
Sammy Davis Jnr's tap shoes
Louis Armstrong's trumpet and cap and Ella Fitzgerald's dress
Then we looked at the military displays.
One of George Washington's uniforms
The boys made a Presidential address
and then we checked out the First Lady exhibition where we saw Michelle Obama's Inauguration gown
What we were really looking forward to was the pop culture exhibition. We had been told that Seinfeld's puffy shirt was on display but were disappointed to find it wasn't out that day. We did see some other cool stuff though.
Dorothy's ruby slippers
Kermit the Frog
Fonzie's jacket
After that, we crossed the Mall and headed to the Air and Space Museum.
The Wright Brothers first plane
Spirit of St Louis
Apollo 11
There was a McDonald's in the museum so we stopped there for lunch, then walked down to 4th Ave to try to catch a bus to The Lincoln Memorial. It was so hot and we were all so drained that we decided to jump in a taxi instead.
We sat on the steps looking over the Reflecting Pool and relaxed for a bit
and when we had recovered a little, we walked back to the hotel. Alex took the kids for a swim and I think I had a nap.
My cousin was driving in from Pennsylvania to meet us for dinner, but she had a doctor's appointment and wasn't sure what time she was going to arrive. She called to say she was running late, so I told her not to rush, that we would go out to do a bit more siteseeing and would meet her a little later. We walked up to the university and caught the train from there to Arlington National Cemetery.
I only wanted to see the Kennedy gravesite so thought we'd only be half an hour or so. Rather then traipse through the cemetery on foot, we bought tickets on the bus thinking we'd catch that out to the Kennedys and back but it was actually a round trip and we had to do the whole thing, so we were stuck there for over an hour!
I was surprised that Jackie was buried there seeming as she remarried and JFK Jnr was not there. The two smaller headstones are the graves of their children who died as babies.
The view from the gravesite
The other Kennedy brothers are buried nearby but their graves aren't as flash and they don't have an eternal flame.
Robert
Teddy
We got back on the bus and went to a few other sites including the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier but we didn't get off to look at any of them. By this stage, my cousin had called and said she skipped her doctor's appointment and was on her way and just about at the hotel. I said we wouldn't make it back to the hotel for awhile as we were being held captive on this tour bus! We made a new plan to meet at Pentagon City shopping centre, which was just one train station away from the cemetery. She called again to say she was lost and when I answered the phone, the tour guide went off at me! She was all "Ma'am, ma'am, you cannot use a cell phone on my tour".Everyone was staring at me (and laughing at me for being scolded!) so I had to hang up quickly. We finally got back to the entrance and I called her back to find she was now heading in the right direction. We got the train down to Pentagon City and the first restaurant we saw was called Harry's Tap Room. It looked nice so I asked if we could have a table in about 30 minutes as we planned to do a little shopping while we waited for my cousin to arrive. The girl said she could give us a table now, I tried to explain that we didn't want it now but would want it in half an hour but she just kept insisting that she seat us immediately so we went with it! We had a few drinks and nibbled on some bread while we waited and she finally found us about 45 minutes later. I hadn't seen her for 17 years so we had a really nice time catching up and the food was lovely. Unfortunately it ended all too soon as she had to drive back to Pennsylvania so we walked her out to her car before heading back to the train station.
We had wanted to visit the Pentagon but hadn't made it due to being stuck on the cemetery tour. We knew it would be closed but we caught the train one more stop to the Pentagon to see if we could see anything but unfortunately it was all closed up so we got back on the train and went back to the hotel to pack ready for Walt DisneyWorld tomorrow!
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