Fourth Day in DC

Since we had a late night on the Fourth, we let ourselves sleep in a little bit on Thursday.

And by little bit, I mean 8:00 am!

We rode the Metro back into downtown DC and got off on the Smithsonian Exit.

The first building we saw when we stepped into the sunlight was the Smithsonian Castle. 

It was beautiful! 

There's really not anything in the Castle anymore, although it was the very first building in the Smithsonian Museums and did house every exhibit.

From there we walked to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. 

Otherwise known as the Mint where they print all the money.

The only place you can take pictures here is in the Gift Shop.

(National Security and all!!)

 Caitlin was amazed at this stack of One Million Dollars!

 We found out that Caitlin is worth $1, 374,700.

But Harrison is poor! He's only worth $1,071,800!

Luckily we had on our walking shoes on this day because we walked to all the Memorials and Monuments that we had not seen yet. 

First up was the Jefferson Memorial. 

It was beautiful on the inside as well as the outside. 

Caitlin decided to hold Harrison in one hand outside the Memorial!

We were able to see the White House from the steps. 

Next on our tour was the FDR Memorial. 

Honestly, before researching this trip, I didn't even know this existed!

I'm so glad we visited it because it was magnificent. 

There was even a statue dedicated to his wife, Eleanor. 

And a massive statue of the great man and his dog. 

We then hiked to the Korean War Memorial. 

This was very special to us because Randy's Dad/Grandaddy served in the Korean War. We are extremely lucky he made it out alive unlike all these men! 

Then it was on to the Lincoln Memorial.

This was the one I was looking forward to the most!! 

In fact, I told my sweet (but whiny) children that this was the only picture I wanted from the day. 

They were amazed at how big the statue really is!

We could see the Washington Monument from the steps. 

Next up was the Vietnam Memorial.

This was built after I visited DC back in 1982, so I was anxious to see it as well. 

It's a long, long wall with so many names.

Just makes you sad to realize they never made it home.

After lunch, we headed to Ford's Theatre where Lincoln was shot in April of 1865. 

This is the balcony where he and his wife, Mary Todd, were sitting when John Wilkes Booth shot him. 

And we got to see the house across the street where Lincoln actually died.

We were finally finished with everything we wanted to see on this trip to DC!

I know there is much more, but we are saving some things for our return trip.

We hopped on the Metro at this point to make it to.. 

the Nationals Ballpark!

We got to see the Washington Nationals play the San Francisco Giants in a throwback game.

(You know we can't take a trip without throwing some sort of sports into it!) 

Caitlin and Harrison enjoyed all the ballpark food!

This was their dessert after hot dogs and chicken fingers--a $6.00 snow cone! 

The Nationals have a Presidents Race at the top of the 4th inning at every home game.

That's George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in the lead with Abraham Lincoln trailing them. Teddy Roosevelt fell as soon as he came out of the gate! 

It was neck and neck, but George ended up winning!

After the game, we rode the Metro back to our hotel.

It was late (11:00 pm), so we went straight to bed.

We knew we had a loooooong drive ahead of us the next day.