This morning started with a visit from the St. Patrick's Day leprechaun! It's amazing that he always seems to find us, even on vacation.
I don't recall why Emma was crashing out. Perhaps because there were no Lucky Charms?
This morning started early with an Uber and a guided tour to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Insider tip- 2 dollar bills are actually not rare. Spend them!
Second insider tip (according to our funny tour guide) - money is moved all over the country in unremarkable vehicles - Amazon trucks, ice cream trucks, UPS trucks, all armed with their own SWAT team. Now whenever we see a regular delivery truck, we assume it's holding millions in freshly printed bills.
After the money tour we Ubered over to the highly anticipated U.S. Capitol for a tour with the senior member of the Senate, Iowan Chuck Grassley. Except the Senate wasn't in session, so our tour was given by college intern Michael, who wasn't really interested in politics, lost one member of our group, and told us with confidence that we could surely ride the senator's people mover system without him. Leah commented that even she could walk into any room of the Capitol building and read off of the plaques with more enthusiasm than he did. He was a cute Iowa kid, but all in all the tour was a bit off. And there were so many other people there! But it was memorable!
So much incredible history in every corner of this massive building.
Should we be on this secret Senator subway?? Who knows!
We zipped over to Union Station for a fine Chick-fil-a lunch after our tour,
then back over to the Capitol for some views that we never saw on our tour - the outside!
I can't help myself.
Then over to the National Art Gallery! It was so hard to choose which Smithsonian buildings to visit in our three short days in D.C., but not one of them disappointed!
The Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole was the absolute showstopper of the entire museum.
These live flowers were incredible.
Sometimes the Father can't be serious either.
This was a powerful depiction of Daniel in the lion's den.
We made an unplanned and incredible stop at the National Archives - National Treasure mode was on!
We got to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
We took another quick park break on our way to the final stop of our DC leg of the trip – the Air and Space Museum!
It was so windy outside again!
As soon as we entered the museum we saw the one plane that sparked the boys' interest in visiting Washington D.C. years ago, and the one plane that all Google searches told us was off exhibit – the Bell X-1! The first plane to break the sound barrier in 1947, we all immediately recognized the bright orange beauty. We got to see it!
And George got to see it!
That was such a fun surprise. And the museum overall was interesting for a few hours. My very favorite exhibit was the Wright Brothers plane, especially since we would be visiting the location of their first flight in Kitty Hawk, North Caroline in the next few days.
Humans are amazing, but the Heavenly Father who created all of this is even more amazing.
You're never too old for astronaut ice cream!
We were all pooped at this point, so we spent a few hours back at the hotel before heading back out for one final adventure.
Monuments at night!
I love Washington, D.C., and now my kids do too!
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