American History Road Trip 2016-Day 5 - Exploring DC & Founding Farmers for Dinner

[miss_mouse]

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Day 5 – Easter Sunday 27th March 2016/ Exploring Washington DC

A day around Washington DC with dinner at the Founding Farmers


Just to start, I'm Lisa - the planner and reporter. Ade is my hubby and he's our driver and there's Hollie who is 16 and Louis is 14.


So, today was Easter Sunday.
Ade and I were awake at 6.30am



We attempted to make tea with the Cuisineart coffee maker. We’ve done this before in hotels and as you only need it to heat the water it usually works fine. Add hot water to the tea bag and that’s it. But this was all the water we could get out and it wasn’t warm enough to drink. The machine kind of did this thing then that Ade said it was over heating Useless!

Ade was a gentleman and went down to the lobby to get us a Starbucks.

He knows I’m a nicer person when I get my coffee in the mornings!
The 2 lattes came to $4.08. Bargain!



The kids were still asleep, so in the bathroom I prepped their Easter Baskets. Not quite as we have them at home, but it would have to do. I’d bought lots of mini eggs with us.



I left them next to where they were sleeping so they saw them when they woke up.

We’d had fake Easter Sunday before we left home.

They kids loved the surprise.

We skyped with Mum so that we could wish Poppy a Happy Easter.



The Easter Bunny had visited her too.



Everyone happy and in good moods. The kids had muffins for breakie. Louis was fancying his frosties but without milk and they managed to eat all their Easter choccie too!



We left at 9.30am
The air was fresh, but not cold. None of us took coats.
We were feeling happy as the whole time of the planning it had been forecast to rain the whole weekend.

It was a very easy 10 minute walk back to the White House, back from where we’d been the night before.
All very pedestrian friendly, huge big wide walkways.



This building was on the corner next to the White House.











It was lovely and quite everywhere.



The White House



Our Instagram photo







This is the road in front of the White House.



This guy camps here over night protesting peacefully.



We wandered around the gardens in front of the white house.





And then we continued our walk to the White House Information Centre.



It was a nice walk…



And again very pedestrianised and only took 10 minutes.


We had to go through airport style security and then we were in.
It was nice and quiet and FREE!



It was really nice inside and fun to wander.
Lots of fun photos. We really enjoyed looking at all the family photos of the presidents over the years. Seeing just regular relaxed family shots around the White House. And reading quirky stuff about each family.
And there were some hands on fun stuff too.
There was a table laid full of food. You could lift each plate to see who’s favourite food it was. For example there was a bowl of Jelly Beans. Apparently Ronald Regan had Jelly Beans wherever he went.
The kids really enjoyed it too.

There was a small store for souvenirs.



We liked this!



Ade picked up some postcards (50c) and this….



The lego White House. ($59.95) He does like his lego!



And we got it in this nice bag which was free and not 5p!

We didn’t spend too long there and then walked around the back of the White House.
We had planned now to walk to the Air and Space Museum along The Mall.



There was a small path that ran through the park so you could see the back of The White House.



(This view always reminds us of watching Scandal)

There’s always celebrations on here on Easter Sunday. There was a sound check going on. It sounded like Beyoncé singing. I’m sure it wasn’t though and Bear Grylls was at the White House today too.
We could see the egg hunt set up in the gardens.







The White House Christmas Tree with the Washington Monument in the distance.




The Mall was be re-landscaped and everywhere looked very messy.

We were reading the signs as to what was happening here and Louis misunderstood and was surprised that they were building a Mall here!
We laughed and explained that it was called The Mall.



To the Washington Monument.



And the other direction to The Capitol Building.



From here you could see lots of various museums dotted about on either side.





It has a really nice feel. My Dad described DC once as an American version of Oxford (we are from Oxford).
The old buildings and everything being easily accessible on foot and very pedestrian friendly.
I could see what he meant.



There were huge queues for the American History Museum, but we’d already decided to do the Air and Space. There was a McDonalds here and we’d decided to grab an early lunch before the Easter crowds set in. We hadn’t really stopped for breakfast.

This was something that we really noticed with DC. Lack of cafes and coffee shops. There are just none within this whole area of the Mall. There are if you venture out a little, but we didn’t want to do this. But one of our favourite things to do is to grab a coffee and sit and watch the world go by.
We were surprised that there was nothing.

Apart from the food trucks, it was museum food and we decided for us with a fussy east McD’s was the easiest option.
We had a really good dinner reservation tonight, so just needed something to fill that gap in between.



So we joined this queue. Which went all the way around to the other furthest building in the distance and was very slow moving.

But we did have this lovely view of The National Gallery on the other side.



There was another queue in, so Ade went to check it out to see if it was much shorter. I stayed put with the kids.



Ade called us over and we switched queues.
This one was much shorter.



Our old queue which we had been all around the corner and at the end of.



We had been waiting to go in for a while and just when we were just a couple from the doorway and the security staff said they were closing our line and we’d have to join the back of the queue of the line next to us. The lines had suddenly got so much longer behind us.
(not join our previous line, but the one directly next to us. We were 2 queues going in).
Bloody cheek!
The family in front had 2 little kids and one in a buggy. We felt really sorry for them.
People made it noticeable that they weren’t happy but no one sounded out. I wouldn’t let Ade say anything who was ready to voice his annoyance. …..’’They have guns here Ade! ’’.
But the line alongside us let us all weave in. I think they felt sorry for us. Thankfully they were very nice people.
Silly security staff!

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Airport style security and we were finally in.



It was follow Ade time…..like dangling a carrot in front of a donkey…

Once in the museum it wasn’t actually too busy.
Considering that it was right on lunch time the food court was quiet.
It’s always a treat for them coming to McD’s. I’m really not keen and avoid whenever I can. But this lot love it.



Food was super fast and there were loads of seats.
It was clean, spacious and light and airy.



The kids loved their milkshakes.



And Louis found it amusing giving Ade his cherry **rolls eyes**…..the joys of teens!



As far as this kind of crap goes, I have to say it was good and everyone enjoyed it.
Ade had a double quarter pounder meal.



Louis had a chicken nuggets meal.

Hollie a quarter pounder meal.



And I had a Buttermilk Crispy Chicken burger.

It was proper chicken and was really good.



Louis doubled up on the sauces!
And was winding Ade up. Ade always moans that Louis has too much ketchup.
It really is a case of ‘’Would you like fries with your ketchup Louis?’.





And then he found it amusing to try and steal Ade’s too!

The food court was much busier when we left.

We all needed the loo, but there were just a couple of loos and they were mixed.
I hate mixed loos : (

So we walked back to the food court and we found this huge family loo.



Yay!

We bolted the door, but the teens found this weird and were so worried what people would think when we all left the loo together.



Those faces say it all!

It’s a family loo and we are a family!

Stepped out of the loo and had a sight of Florida.



We’d missed those this trip!



We had a good look around the museum now.





It was a good museum with lots to see.

Ade always has loads of pockets and always gets stopped at security as he always manages to forget something in one of his many pockets.



We decided the Space Suit was the way forward for him……all those pockets and all those attachments and gadgets. It’s the perfect Ade Suit. He’d be in his element!

After a while we decided to leave.
We’d looked around a lot. It was really interesting and the kids enjoyed it too.
We wanted to walk up the Mall now to the Lincoln Memorial.





We walked up past the Washington Monument.



And past the White House again (from the back).



The whole park area at the Mall was full of people as it was Easter Sunday.
It didn’t feel crowded, just had a really nice buzz. Lots of things going on around everywhere.
We stopped for a bit to watch this group play what we could only describe as ‘kicking rounders’.
It was odd and yet intriguing.







It was such a nice atmosphere everywhere.


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The Roosevelt Memorial



We then reached the WW2 Memorial.



This was really big and really spread out.



With a tribute to each US State.



Really beautifully done.



Where my Dad lives.



Blue Jay!



One way to walk your dog!



And then we walked down to the Lincoln Memorial.





It’s really magnificent seeing it there in the background the whole time.
We really loved The Mall (it just needs little coffee shops and seats dotted around!)









We walked in the direction of our hotel, which was just 10 mins from here and passed by the Vietnam Memorial.



Another really big one that stretched all the way along.



We got back to the hotel and the kids headed up to our room and we spoke to the receptionist to ask what times were best to avoid as we were heading off in the morning. Sounded like home, before 7.30am and after 10.30am. So it was to be an early start tomorrow.
We also spoke to her about all the problems we had here and she said they would take the parking off our invoice.

It was the least they could do really!

It was only early afternoon now.
We had spoken about going to see other memorials whilst we were out. We would have liked to see the Kennedy graves, but we were all tired.
We’ve always been of the mind that we’d always rather save something for another time than push to see everything and not enjoy it and then also ruin the time later on.

So with that….



We let these two chill in our room like this and Ade and I went off to wander around the hotel and have a drink.
Holidays are for relaxing too right?!
We had a couple of long days on the road ahead, so we needed to chill abit.



So the two of us wandered and explored.
I love hotels!



This is why it’s a Courtyard Marriott. I guess as it’s a City hotel, it only has a Courtyard outside.



The bar/dining/lounge area.
There was no one else around.

We had bought swimming stuff knowing that there was a pool here so went to see what the pool was like….

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It was teeny.
It was like they’d found they had a small room and stuffed any over sized bath inside.
We left the swimming!
It was up on one of the upper floors, but whilst snooping we did find this little area outside nestled away which we liked.



Then we headed down to the bar again and grabbed a couple of bud lights ($5.75 each).


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There were cute little booths each with it’s own tv and remote.
But we soon got bored with that. We didn’t want to watch tv and they weren’t very cozy.



This was better and I caught up on my work emails and then grabbed my trippie notebook out to catch up on the days events so far.



It was really nice here and the bar staff were really chatty.
Although I get very offended that it’s been goodness knows how many years since I was last ID’d. In my head I’m still 18!

We headed back up to our room.
Louis is known in our house for spending a LONG time on the loo and he’d blocked it!

We got our stuff all packed up ready for tomorrow and got ready to go out for dinner and in the mean time someone came up to try and unblock the loo.

This was like NYC all over again!
What is it with my kids and blocking the loos? !
Unfortunately, unlike NYC this one wouldn’t unblock.
The guy was there trying for so long. We kept apologizing. And he kept apologizing to us and even offered us a free breakfast tomorrow, but we said we were leaving early and thanked him.
After 30 mins he’d managed it. We tried to tip him, but he said he wasn’t allowed to accept it.
That’s got to be a first in America!

(Upon leaving feedback on Trip Advisor on our return, I did also read others saying that they’d struggled with blocked loos….so maybe it wasn’t just Louis! ).

It was now 5.45pm and we had a dinner reservation at 6pm at Founding Farmers.
I’d booked in advance knowing it was Easter Sunday.
Thankfully it was just a short walk to the end of our road.



It was just a 5 min walk and we were there.
Louis being the lazy teen had expected us to drive!



I’d read really good reviews about this place and we were really excited to try it.



It was modern with a rustic twist, just what we like.
All fresh local seasonal produce and cooked from scratch.

As I’d booked ahead, we skipped everyone stood around waiting and we were seated straight away.



The family opposite us offered to take our photo.



Lots of quirky things dotted around.
‘Ewe’ gotta love this stuff!



The menu was really good and had obviously been well studied by us on line before we came.



Ade and I had a cocktail each.



The El Presidentes seemed like a good and rather appropriate choice.
Very fruity and very alcholholly!





They also had their own homemade cordials. They called them Scratch Sodas.
Hollie had lemon and lime and Louis had orange.
They really enjoyed them.



The details were all really cool.

Food came out and looked amazing.



Ade had short rib with red potato mash and green beans which he loved.



And loved the plate too!



I went for the Yankee Pot Roast which was the best thing ever.
Just so delicious and fresh.
Sometimes you just need proper food!



And the kids had been excited to try the Chicken and Waffles.
Their’s came with little jars of syrup.
This is something that we now make from scratch at home too.

This meal had been such a winner.
Well both evening meals had here in DC to be honest.
It really pays to research.



$112 we thought was pretty impressive.
The staff were really friendly and chatty too.
We did get asked on a couple of occasions if we’d seen the Cherry Blossoms.

We left $20 tip and left.



We all thoroughly enjoyed this place and would highly recommend.

We had discussed walking over to the Lincoln Memorial to see it lit up in the dark.
But it had started to rain and we were all tired.

So we went back to the hotel and relaxed again.





Hollie loving her contour!



And Louis loving the TV and wifi.

That’s typical, the girls head for the pretties outside and the boys straight for the TV!



We grabbed some sodas for the kids. Thinking that they could take them in the car with them tomorrow too.





And we had the most disappointing tea ever.
Resin cups!
They didn’t even have china and it tasted like ‘flask tea’. If that makes sense. It was pure yuk!



We all watched tv in our room and lights were out at 9pm.
I’ve got in my notes ‘word association game’. So guessing we must have all played that before bed.

The kids were really excited about the roadtrip tomorrow.
Everyone loves being in the Tahoe.
They did moan though ‘’why do we always holiday in America?!’

We were really looking forward to the roadtrip tomorrow too and for me……another day closer to seeing my Daddy!

Today had been fab.
Sightseeing fab!
Weather fab!
Food fab!
Chill time fab!
And kids had been pretty fab too!

Perfect day!

[Melbatb]

What a lovely day. Washington DC seems so doable!

[LostPrincess]

Sounds like another good day. The menu at Founding Farmers looks really good, I wouldn't have known what to pick! Thanks for sharing, I look forward to reading the next one

[KittyBlackDog]

What a 'fab' day. Love it when the research actually pays off.

Lots of sites seen and explored. Food looks great.

TFS 😘😘

[janey2000]

Enjoying your report so much. We are going to Smoky mountains, Williamsburg, Washington DC and New York at Easter. Hoping you manage to complete your trip report in the next 4 weeks for me

[disneylover]

Great day Lisa. One place I'd love go to one day. Food looks great.

[lolalolo86]

Great update. That food at Founding Farmers looked delicious.