Live from DC

Arrived here last night. We flew into DCA which was nice; my girls were able to see the captiol and other sights. We easily caught a cab to our hotel, Capitol Hill Suites. Assesment of the hotel: nice, large room in a boutique hotel just steps from the Capitol and Library of Congress. Neighborhood is very quiet at night but easily accessible to a Metro stop. Bathroom is tiny but well appointed. The Aveda products re nice. The room also has a pull out sofa if needed and there is also a continental breakfast buffet that isn%26#39;t fancy but definitelybgets us ready for the day.

After breakfast, we took the Metro to the Mall. Cheap, fast and easy way of getting around. We walked a bit down the Mall and worked our way down to meet our tour, DCbyFoot.

This FREE tournis absolutely wonderful. Our tour guide, Tim, is a retired teacher who is a wealth of info. The tour lasted about 2.5 hours and we had to leave a not early to make our Capitol tour. We saw the Washington Monument, the World War II memorial, the vietnam Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. We all loved his enthusiasm and knowledge.

We scurried to the Capitol for our tournwe had arranged through our representative. We realized as we checked in that we had misunderstood that we were going to get a staff led tour. We first watched a 13 minute film about the history of the Senate and House. We then toured the Capitol in a large group of ~50 in our group. There were many groups that time and they ran out of earphones for us so it was difficult for us to hear everything. We visited the Rotunda where we were told of the various artworks. From there we was another room and then went into the hallway by the House entrance. After that, we went down to the Crypt and then did a self tour of a small museum in the visitor center. My family%26#39;s reaction was DISAPPOINTING. I don%26#39;t know why we went through the rep%26#39;s office; there were others there who hadn%26#39;t. Big bummer. We do have passes to the gallery and will try to see the House in session Monday.

Tired and cold, we took the Metro to Georgetown and ate at Sequoia%26#39;s. It was good. We walked to M Street and my girls got very excited by all the cute shops. Cusp has great things and they are begging to return. If I could change hotels, I think this is a great area for families of teens/tweens.

In Georgetown we found the cutesy cupcake shop, Baked and Wired. FABULOUS. We had some cupcakes and my 11 yr old h

ad some wonderful cocoa.

We were to go on Monuments by Moonlight but changed our plans as the weather is yuck. Will do that Monday instead.

Tomorrow we%26#39;re off to American History Museum and Museum of Natiral History. Will also see Ford%26#39;s Theatre and Portrait Gallery.

I%26#39;ll post tomorrow the results!

Tomorrow

Live from DC

Please excuse any typos...using my iphone and it%26#39;s hard to see all I posted!

Live from DC

Welcome to DC,weather will get better I hope Sunday for today was drizzly.The Monuments by Moonlight is great took it last Thursday,not great for picture taking but very inspiring hope you get Kevin as your guide is well informed and helpful.

I hope you gave Tim a nice tip.

Thanks for the detailed trip report. Glad your family is enjoying the trip. Please post more when you can. It is very helpful for us to hear feedbacks from visitors perspective.

Day Two brought more drizzly, wet weather...we still trudged on! We ate again in the hotel (major perk!) and again took the Metro to the Mall.

We first visited the American History Museum. We went straight upstairs and worked our way down. We were able to see the Ruby Slippers, the Puffy Shirt (of Seinfeld fame), Kermit and Oscar the Grouch, and other entertainment memorabilia. I loved seeing all of those items but was surprised at the size of the exhibit...I thought there would be more. The exhibit was really only one small room. But the nice thing also on the 3rd floor was the exhibit of Abraham Lincoln. Very nice and we spent a long time reading all the information. We loved the Star Spangled Banner and I appreciated the Julia Child kitchen. I also really liked the exhibits on the Presidents and their lives. We also viewed the First Lady Gown expo. The line was a bit long; we waited ~30 minutes and it%26#39;s crowded. We think Dolly Madison was very fashion forward as her gown would be very wearable today!

After ~2.45 hours, we left and travelled to the Musuem of Natural History. The crowds were a bit larger here due to being later in the afternoon (I think). We again headed upstairs and worked our way down. The gems were our target and we weren%26#39;t disappointed! Super exhibition and of course the girls in our family LOVED the jewelry display. My daughters also walked through the butterfly exhibit and got great photos. Note..it%26#39;s very warm and humid in there! We liked the skeletons on the 2nd floor and my husband thought the reptile, fish %26amp; mammal display on the 1st floor was the best (by then my girls were TIRED and we sat in the Rotunda, waiting on him).

By this time, the family was beat but we pressed on. We walked to the Old Post Office Pavillion but the elevator had just broken down. We then walked up Penn. Ave to the White House Visitor Center. Not much there....a lot of reading on walls. My husband thought it was a glorified gift shop. We then continued walking in the rain, our goal being the White House. I was not popular by then! We walked around the fence and took the requisite family photo with the WH in the background.

By now, no one wanted to walk anymore and it was past 4PM. We took a cab to the Musuem of Crime %26amp; Punishment ($11) which cost us $70+. My family really liked this as my oldest daughter is a CSI fanatic. I was a bit creeped out about all the details of torture, punishment and crimes but I%26#39;m a weenie, I admit. One thing that is neat is they film America%26#39;s Most Wanted there on Sat. evenings. We also were able to get our kids photographed and fingerprinted; we received a 8x11 sheet of paper with this info.

From there, we walked past the Verizon center and ate at Porkbelly%26#39;s. Perfect call. My daughters discovered Urban Outfitters and immediately perked up. Retail therapy helps teens energize.

Metro back to hotel and ready for bed to rest up for Day 3.

Thanks for your detailed report, we%26#39;ll be there

in 10 days, I hope the weather will be better

by then!!!

Thanks for you report--I am really enjoying it! I searched for a restaurant called Porkbelly%26#39;s and could not find it. Do you know if it is a newer restaurant? What kind of food did it have?

I am looking forward to your next installment!

When you ate at Porkbelly%26#39;s, was it a sandwich shop? I think you might be confusing the name with Potbelly Sandwich Works.

We ate there after out Mount Vernon cruise and had great food,sandwiches and salads

http://www.potbelly.com/Food/Menu.aspx

My mistake....it was Potbelly%26#39;s. Tour fatigue last night! Sorry!