Day 17 of 30 Days of Mayhem: Washington DC Again

Day Two in DC.  We got a much earlier start today.  Can I just say Jennifer and Bill are spoiling us with some good food!  It has been fabulous and breakfast this morning did not disappoint.

Again we headed into DC and parked in a garage.  Today we were meeting Cathi, Griffin and Marc as well as Linda and her girls.

We started out at the American History Museum.  We did not see anywhere near all of this museum and I really enjoyed it.  The First Lady and Presidential exhibits were my favorite.  The interesting fact I noticed here is that while Barack Obama is our 44th president we have only had 43 actual presidents. This is because Grover Cleveland served non-consecutive terms and counts as the 22nd and 24th president, but since he is only one person the numbers are off in my opinion.

After the American History Museum we headed to the monuments.

Our first stop was the Washington Monument.  We did not get tickets to go up in it so we enjoyed it from its base.

 Next up was the World War II Memorial.  It was really pretty.  It may have been my favorite of the day.

Then we walked over to the Jefferson and Vietnam Memorials.  By this point I was tired of walking.

All of the Canadian geese were hanging out on the grass. One of them decided they needed to be in the pond and then they all went.  It was fun to watch.

I waited in the shade while the rest of the family checked out  the Jefferson Memorial.  I decided seeing it from a distance.

Linda and her oldest Brenna caught up with us between the Jefferson and the Vietnam memorials.  We were so happy to get to spend more time with them.  It was nice of the locals to come play tourist with us!  I always love getting to spend time with Linda.  It was lovely to get to meet her girls finally.  I feel like I know them as I've known Linda since Brenna was a baby.

Rehm in front of the Federal Reserve

 We got to the back of the White House and were far away.  Linda suggested we walk around to the front for a closer view.  Suddenly there was a bicycle cop in front of us telling us we had to turn around and go back the other direction that we could not go the way we were trying to, even though it was not blocked off.  Someone, probably Linda, asked why but the cop would not say anything.

We walked back to the back of the White House, far, far away from the building just in time to see the presidential motorcade drive by and into the back drive of the White House.  We proceeded to watch everyone disembark and disappear into the White House.

That face!

Rehm, Brenna, Ruby, Eliza Claire, Charlotte, and Griffin

At that point, we called it a day. Linda and Brenna headed home and we headed back to Jennifer and Bill's  with Marc, Griffin and Cathi for dinner.

Bill is a yo yo fan.  He showed my kids all kinds of cool tricks and got them interested in learning to do more than just make a yo yo go up and down.  I have now ordered a couple of decent yo yo's for them to practice with.  They should arrive while we are at my parents' house.

Jenn