Spring Break in the District

First real day of spring break, and I woke the kids up at 6 to brave the drive into the Capitol Hill region.  On tap for today was the Library of Congress, the National Archives, Arlington National Cemetery, and a walk by the tidal basin - if we had time.

It was a bit of a hike from the parking garage to the Library of Congress.  The kids enjoyed a sit on a park bench on the Capitol building grounds.

If you know your DC geography, you'll know that the Library of Congress is right across from the Capitol, and next door to the US Supreme Court.  The walk from the park bench to the Library of Congress did not take long.  In fact, we were the first ones there, and the first ones in line.

The upshot to all of this is, since we had a large group behind us and they waited for each other before heading anywhere, we basically had the entrance to ourselves!

Plenty of elbow room, and no distractions.  We made our way to the Grand Reading Room overlook, which we had to ourselves.

That was definitely NOT the experience we had at the National Archives.  We got to skip the line to enter the building, but then we had to jostle with everyone else to get a look at the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.  The kids really seemed to enjoy it.  The walk from the Library of Congress all the way to the National Archives was one long civic discussion.

From there, we headed to Arlington National Cemetery, where we walked to the Tomb of the Unknowns.  We had about a 15-20 minute wait for the changing of the guard.  The kids did great, and asked lots of good questions.  I took a couple of photos well before the ceremony began (none during), pretty solemn duty they volunteered for.

Finally, even though the kids were already tired from all the walking, we walked across the bridge to the Lincoln Memorial, then down to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and the tidal basin.  The trees will be in full bloom in the next 2-3 days - can't wait!

We are still planning our shenanigans for tomorrow, stay tuned for more!

Cheers,

Marc