Washington DC Trip!

We had the opportunity to take an amazing trip to Washington DC the first week of June. We went along with Gdad, Gammy, Uncle Jared and Aunt Kelly. Our family drove to Atlanta and then flew to DC from there. We had a great time! Below are pictures from our trip.

Saturday, June 1st 

We drove to Atlanta early Saturday morning so we could spend the afternoon at the Atlanta Aquarium. 

We stopped at one of our favorite places for lunch, Auburn!!!!

Our room was on the 54th floor! Aubrie did NOT like the height. 

Olympic rings from when Atlanta hosted the games.

The aquarium was really neat, but VERY crowded making it hard to enjoy some of the attractions. 

Can you spot the eel? 

This walk through was one of the coolest parts

This is the only aquarium in the world to have a whale shark!

The highlights were the Sea Lion Show & Dolphin Show! We were waiting for the sea lion show to start here.

Beluga Whales!

Sunday, June 2nd 

Sunday, we flew to DC. This was the kids 1st flight! 

There were some issues with our seat assignments so I wasn't able to get pictures of Jackson, but Aubrie did well!

We met Kelly at the airport and got an uber to the house we rented for the week.

It was a row house in a neighbor near the national mall. The first thing we did was all walk 4 blocks to the grocery store so we would have enough hands to carry everything back!

The kids pretending to be tacos.

Chilling at the house!

Monday, June 3rd 

We did a walking tour of all the memorials/monuments, visited the Holocaust Museum and the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

Gdad & Jared in front of the Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument

All these cools things and the kids where enthralled with a squirrel 

Jefferson Memorial

Eating our picnic lunch

We weren't able to take pictures inside the Holocaust museum so I don't have much to show. It was a very neat museum, but not very interesting for the kids.

Drew was exhausted! 

We got a second wind via ice cream before walking to the Natural History Museum. 

Drew's second wind didn't last long. 

Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

The Hope Diamond

Jackson held a giant cockroach, yuck! 


Tuesday, June 4th

We visited Arlington Cemetery and the Smithsonian Museum of American History. We also used the DC Streetcar and Metro to get around for the first time which was an adventure in itself!

Waiting on the DC Streetcar

We rode the DC Streetcar to Union Station. 

We caught the metro from Union Station which was a REALLY cool building. 

Trying to figure out which line to take

Aubrie using her metro pass

Arlington Cemetery 

We were able to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider

After Arlington, we caught the Metro back to the National Mall to see the Museum of American History. 

Batmobile!

Not really sure what this was, but it told us to take a photo, so we did lol

Wednesday, June 5th 

We took tours of the White House and Capitol, and walked through the US Botanical Gardens. We did A LOT of walking this day!

We rode the Metro to the White House that morning. 

We walked around the White House Visitor Center before our tour time.

The entry to the White House!

The expressions in this photo crack me up. 

After the White House we quickly caught a Metro to the Capitol which is on the completely opposite side of the National Mall! Even with the Metro, we had to walk quite a bit.

Waiting in Congressman Mo Brook's office for our tour!

The old Supreme Court

Capitol Rotunda (On one side is Congress and the other is the Senate)

We were all exhausted at this point, by the US Botanic Gardens was nearby so we walked through real quick.

Waiting on an Uber to take us back to Union Station

We had lunch/dinner at Union Station 

Thursday, June 6th 

Poor Jackson had the stomach bug so we didn't do much this day :( Gammy and Gdad did some more touring of the National Mall. Then came back so Drew and I could go out for a bit. We saw the National Archives where the Declaration of Independence is (they wouldn't allow photos). Then we had a really nice dinner at an Italian Restaurant in Downtown DC.

We had a great view and people watched everyone walking by

This was a family style restaurant so the plates were more than enough to share!

Friday, June 7th 

We visited the National Zoo this day. Jackson was feeling better, but still really weak so cut the day a little short. 

We took the Metro to the Zoo and had to ride the BIGGEST escalator I have ever seen.

Gammy was NOT a fan of said escalator. 

The DC Zoo is one of the very few in the US that have Giant Pandas. 

Everyone was tired by out last day

Saturday, June 8th 

Vacation is over! We had a very early flight back to Atlanta and then drove home from there. We had a wonderful time but were glad to be back in our own beds!

Aubrie finally got the Starbucks she had been wanting all week while we were waiting to board.

There was really bad weather this day so we ended up waiting on the tarmac over an hour in the plane, making our long trip even longer. 

WOW, we had so much fun. It wears me out just looking at all these pictures! We got to see a lot of things I've always wanted to see and I hope the kids will have these memories for a long time!