National Zoo and Monuments

Thursday morning we cleaned up and packed up the hotel while James went to his final session at his Conference.

We picked him up and headed back into D.C. --which was much faster when not going at rush hour like the previous morning!  We decided to spend a few hours at the Zoo.  It was a gorgeous day.

The Giant Pandas are always a fun stop and they didn't disappoint today.

We then decided to go back and actually see the monuments that I had just driven the kids past the night before.  Luckily with a good night's sleep and a slower paced morning they were up for more walking.

The Washington Monument is closed for renovations, so we didn't go up it this trip.

But we started at the Lincoln Memorial and made our way around the tidal basin stopping at the Memorials along the way.

We looked at going to the Bureau of Engraving, but it wasn't open while we were there.  So we'll have to plan that again on a different trip also.

We also tried going to Arlington Cemetery for the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier, but with a map fail we just missed the last one of the day there also.

We decided to wait out the worst of the rush hour traffic and had a picnic dinner at Gravely Point where the airplanes fly right over your head.  It was then on to Keswick Virginia to visit with friends.