Two Countries and Eleven States - Day 7 Arlington, Zoo and The Capitol

[floridafan101]

25th October 2017

Arlington Cemetery was another must for us and an easy journey in the subway from our hotel which was actually in Arlington.

We headed there first thing in the morning after our nutritional Lucky Charms breakfast (kids) bagels for us.
It was already busy when we got there even though it was only 9.30.
We got a map and headed out. The cemetery is beautiful, and was very peaceful. Even though there were bus loads of school children on trips they were well behaved and were clearly being told to keep the noise down and be respectful.
A must for us being big KENNEDY fans was to see the eternal flame and take a moment there. It appeared there must be going to be some commemoration service there as chairs were out and people were bustling about. However it must have been later as there was no issue with us going into the area dedicated to JFK and his family.

There are walls surrounding it with some of his May quotes and it’s a lovely part of the cemetery.
Close by is Bobby Kennedy even more understated.

But in an equally lovely spot.
Much sobered by thoughts of them and their family we wandered on. We found the memorials to the Challenger and Columbia flight crews and to the Iranian Embassy siege.

We ended up at the tomb of the unknow soldier just in time to see a very emotional ceremony with some children handing over a wreath and the playing of the last post. There were a few sniffs from the large gathering and a few tissues out.

All in all well worth the visit it’s a beautiful place and very humbling

From here we went to the Smithsonian Zoo, mostly to see the pandas- love pandas and the boys needed some light relief!
Back on the subway and then a short walk up the road.
I don’t appear to have lots of photos here mostly because we go to lots of zoos, youngest loves animals. We saw the pandas and most of my footage is video as the young panda was out and really playful so we spent ages laughing at him as he ran around and climbed trees and rolled down the bank. It was fab, we’d been to San Diego zoo the year before and the pandas there had refused to make an appearance, we were all really disappointed as they’d been the main reason for going and it wasn’t cheap. The Smithsonian is free and a great zoo total bargain of the holiday,

There were lots of Halloween exhibits about as they’d recently held their Boo at the Zoo event which would have been fun.

So pandas and reptile house done we headed out. The boys were starving in any case so headed to a nearby 7/11 where they had hot dogs and sandwiches. The boys and I had a dog they were the cheapest of the holiday I seem to recall at a dollar a go. As there was a Starbucks next door seemed rude not to grab a salted mocha Frappuccino and a mug, so I did and there it is!

We headed back into Washington and had a quick visit to the National Archives. No photos allowed here but we wanted to see the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, there was also a copy of the Magna Carta which had been an influence on the Constitution which I hadn’t realised.
Back on the subway to Capitol Hill.

We were keen to see the Capitol and DH is somewhat obsessed with American politics so this was a must see for him. We had booked a tour but sadly this ended up clashing with our White House visit so we’d had to cancel. But hoped we could drop in on one.

We queued for a short while to get in and managed to get signed in for a tour that was leaving straightaway.

It wasn’t too busy dread to think what it’s like in peak season!
The Tour was great we had the most friendly, animated guy possible.

The Rotunda is obviously very impressive

The guide seems to take a liking to us as midway through the tour he passed me the equivalent of a couple of golden tickets! Well for DH anyway, Senate tickets.

Look how happy he looks!
So tour over we headed for the Senate brandishing our tickets to be confronted with a looooong line. However DH was not to be deterred and all electronic items handed in we got in line.
It was tougher than getting in the White House!
We were body scanned, searched, everything went through an airport type scanner and it wasn’t quick.
But eventually we got ina nd sat in silence watching proceedings sadly they were ina bit of a recess so nothing much happened
Eventually even DH had had enough and we left. I’m glad we saw it but would have been great if there had been a bit more action!

It was late but the time we got out,

gift shop shut much to the boys disappointment. I was even more disappointed to see the Library of Congress had also closed as I’d been planning to go there afterwards. I did sulk slightly.
We deduced to walk back up to the Washington Monument where we’d finished the bike tour yesterday to see Washington by night.

You can see the Lincoln Memorial and the White House from here it’s a great spot at night.

However food was called for and we decided we would walk to Georgetown and see what was there.
Safe to say it was further than we thought!
We got the subway to Foggy Bottom the boys giggled every single time we mentioned this!

Georgetown was lovely wish we’d had longer here.

We found a bbq place and headed in, I had a salad which was tasty

Everyone else had burgers no photos as they were just burgers. They had about 10 different bbq sauces though and youngest son was in his element he loves bbq sauce

They were ready for Halloween.
Then it was a short walk back over the Rosslyn Bridge to our hotel and bed, or packing and bed we are on the road again!

Steps 28,573 wow!

States accumulation - no change

Link to day 6

Index

[Melbatb]

What a packed day!

How nice to hear how respectful people (rightly) were at the cemetery.

Glad the 🐼 cooperated! And how lucky to get in to the Senate - even if it wasn't so interesting!

Love the nighttime photos - very atmospheric!

[floridafan101]

Thank you for reading and replying. It was a packed itinerary the first week, the second calms down a bit. Good job or DH might have been seeking a divorce
To be honest he was the same we both wanted to make the most of the time we had in the cities but the boys found it tough going first thing in the morning. They were fine once they were up and about.

[Goldia]

The photos of the Capitol look great. Such a packed day, good idea to squeeze in the zoo as a bit of light relief for the boys. I can't believe in 1 week you did NYC, Philadelphia and DC.