White House and National Mall

The day didn't go nearly as smoothly as the previous days, but despite a few hiccups we made it through and enjoyed our time in the Nation's Capital.

We left Baltimore at 6:15 to wade through traffic heading into DC. I found parking and made it to the White House visitors center with plenty of time to use the bathroom and look around for a few minutes before it was time to start our White House tour at 9am. As we walked from the visitors center to the White House gate I realized I needed my ID which I didn’t have with us. You aren't allowed to take anything in the White House, so I was careful to leave all backpacks and purse in the car, but had forgotten to pull out my ID.  Luckily the car which was not too far away. They said they would still allow us in after our scheduled time. The kids were good sports and were troopers to walk the extra mile to get to the car and back again.

I think after waking the kids up that early, driving through traffic, the walking back and forth and making it through several security checks to get in, the kids were underwhelmed by the White House.  They were hoping to see more of it than the few rooms on the main level that are open.

But as we were leaving the staff at the White House gave out candy for Halloween with the packaging signed by President and Melania Trump so they enjoyed the momento.

We walked back to the car again to get our backpack since it wasn’t allowed at the White House, but we wanted to have it with us for the day. Then went to the explore the National Mall. We started at the Natural History Museum which was fun, but kids were getting hungry after awhile.

 I looked up a Subway which we had a gift card to and it was right across from the Smithsonian, Unfortunately it ended up being in a secure building for employees only. We were directed to another one that didn’t sound too far away but ended up being quite a walk for tired kids.  After what felt like way too much effort we finally got everyone fed, which increased moods dramatically. 

We went to Air and Space Museum next.  Preston loved the Wright Brother's exhibit. 

Brielle was the most excited for the American history museum which ended up being the favorite for everyone. By about 3:30 everyone was done and kept sitting at any movie being shown.  I started going through the exhibits quickly and then guiding them to the fun hands-on parts that they would especially like.  They perked up when we found some fun interactive sections that they didn't want to leave and stayed until closing.

We made it out of the parking garage right before 6 which gave us the early bird pricing for parking. There was more to see but kids were too worn out to continue. I drove them past the monuments so they could at least see some of them. I ended up with 23,000 steps; the kids walked almost all of that also.
We stopped by Costco for gas and dinner on our way back up to Baltimore and kids (and I) were very happy to climb into bed.