Whew! We just got back from a whirlwind tour of Washington, D.C. Since the kids will be studying American History next year (Exploration to 1850), we thought we would have a little hands-on field trip to help secure a tangible picture of where some of these events took place!
Here's what we saw:
- Union Station
- Mount Vernon
- George Washington's Grist Mill and Distillery
- US Capitol Tour with Sen. Wayne Allard's office (Dirksen Senate Building)
- Washington monuments (Washington, Lincoln, WWII, Korea, FDR, Jefferson, Iwo Jima)
- National Zoo
- National Gallery of Art (Forest of Fontainebleau exhibit, etc.)
- Smithsonian Air & Space museum
- Smithsonian Natural History museum
- Library of Congress
- Arlington National Cemetery
- Bureau of Engraving and Printing
- From afar: White House, National Archives, FBI, Ford's Theater
As I said, successful, but not restful. We walked our legs off, even with the DC Metro ferrying us! Our feet were killing us.
I did find a very cool tool to help with the planning and coordination of the trip. I had been using Dopplr, but a friend recommended TripIt. I would HIGHLY recommend TripIt. Setting up my itinerary was as easy as forwarding mail from my hotel, rental car, airlines and tours, and it tied it all up in one convenient location for me. Check it out!
