Washington D.C. – Memorial Day 2021

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We enjoyed a quick trip to Washington D.C. over Memorial Day. The weekend ended up being rainy and a bit chilly, but we still made the most of it. We flew out on Thursday evening and headed to the Air and Space Museum in Virginia on Friday morning. This is such a neat spot. Mike especially was geeking-out over the planes and the shuttle. It was neat to see the Discovery so close. And the Enola Gay! We enjoyed this and now we are plotting a trip to the other Air and Space Museum in Dayton!

Friday afternoon, we headed to Arlington National Cemetery and did the tram tour. This was interesting and informative. We were able to see the changing of the guard ceremony at the tomb of the unknown solider and visit JFK’s gravesite as part of the tour. After Arlington, we decided to walk across the bridge back to D.C. and visit a few of the monuments.

We ended up at the Lincoln Memorial and walked by the White House on our way back to our hotel. That was the end of our nice weather. We had just made it back and it started pouring. And then the temperature dropped. The next morning, our first stop was Macy’s for rain jackets for the kids (we did try to pack them – but all the ones we had were too little!). Hopefully they will be able to reuse their jackets in Machu Picchu in November — if they don’t grow out of them before then!

Once we obtained rain gear for the trio, we continued our trek to see all of the sights on the National Mall. The best part was at the Supreme Court. When we first arrived their was another group there, but then it was just us, standing there talking. The guard was pacing back and forth in front of the front door and Clara waved at him. He waved back and then played a game with us, dodging behind the pillars and making us laugh. After he had us all laughing, he came down to the gate to talk to us. We talked about where we were from, what it is like when the court is in session, and how he entertains himself on his shift. He was truly the nicest guy.

We headed to Ford’s Theater next and then rounded out the day with some shopping. We introduced Anna to the beauty of Nordstrom Rack and her life will never be the same. Anna has become the shopper of the family. Bo was less enthused. 😉

On our last day, we had an amazing brunch at the Unconventional Diner (highly recommend) and then headed out to finish our exploration of the National Mall. My favorites were the World War II Memorial and the FDR Memorial. Both are very well done and the FDR Memorial tells the story of his four terms. I would have loved to have brought my high school students there when I was teaching 20th Century History and Government!

We capped off our day with our favorite ice cream – Jeni’s! There are some flavors available at Target, but we tried types we can’t get here — and they were all delicious! I had Savannah Buttermint and omg. So good. 🙂