We were having a blast in the DC area. On our third day, we met up with some family friends of Jared’s, Ted and Laney.
It’s always great to have someone who knows where they’re going. Laney took us on a ride around town before picking up Ted from work.
Our first stop was the White House.
We weren’t able to get too close since security blocked off the entire frontage street.
My first impression was that I thought it would be a lot bigger.
There were some interesting characters out as well.
We headed to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
We had some fun hanging out at the museum and saw some incredible things.
We also saw the first Washington Statue. Apparently, it was too risqué for the public.
We saw the Flag that inspired the Star-Spangled Banner.
There were swatches cut out of the flag and given to people as souvenirs. Luckily the whole flag was not destroyed for this.
The hat below was the hat President Abraham wore when he was assassinated.
We also saw the Bat Mobile!
There was so much to see!
We ended up in a great coastal restaurant in DC with Ted and Laney! They even took us to a favorite dessert location of their’s. Jared and Ted got dessert crepes! Me and Laney ended up hanging out at Lolli and Pops and taste tested some candy.
We went back to their place for a night cap and talked the night away.
The very next day, we were back at the American History Museum. We took a highlights tour and went through some of the exhibits in greater detail. Our nerdy historian sides were really showing!
We drove down the National Mall after the museum closed and visited the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, and enjoyed a nice stroll along the water.
After our sunset walk, we headed back to Ted and Laney’s for dinner. We walked to a Greek restaurant nearby and had a great time. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was great.
We ended up back at Ted and Laney’s for a night cap. We ended up at the lounge area of their complex and it was nice and cozy. Ted brought down some Strongbow cider, yum! We had a great time just talking about everything. We didn’t get back to the trailer until after midnight!
Our next morning was spent at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I don’t want to share too many pictures due to the sensitivity of the subject. We loved the way the museum was put together and highly recommend a visit.
Afterwards, we drove to the Arlington National Cemetery. We went through the Welcome Center where there were exhibits about the cemetery and its importance.
We walked through the cemetery to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 
We watched the changing of the guard ceremony which was very cool.
We also got to visit John F. Kennedy’s gravesites. 
The sun was setting as we left the cemetery. We were glad we were able to experience all that we had.
Another day, another museum. And that’s the way we like it. This day we were at the National Museum of Natural History!
We checked out some exhibits before the scheduled highlights tour. We were excited excited to see some of the highlights because there was so much to see.
The Hope Diamond didn’t sparkle as much as we thought it would. It might be because of all the security surrounding it.
We couldn’t stay too much longer because we had to head over to the Archives of the United States of America.
This is where the country houses the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution (just to name a few). There were some amazing exhibits here too. There were some recordings from Presidents and old clips from recruitment videos. Because of how sensitive some of these documents were, there were no photos allowed.
We even saw a 1297 copy of the Magna Carta! It was old but incredible! It had such an impact on American Democracy. I nerded out a little bit.
We finally got to the main room that housed the Constitution, Declaration, and Bill of Rights. It was great!
I asked one of the security guards if anyone had attempted to steal any of these. One guard said no one except Nicholas Cage. We all had a good laugh.
We were very excited for our lunch plans so we headed to our destination soon after the excitement from our adventure.
We were back at Ted and Laney’s for some homemade chilli! Man-oh-man was it good. She had these sweet jalapeño peppers for a little added flavor. It was amazing!
We still think about it…
We were planning on going bowling after dinner but we had some time to kill before the lanes were opened to the public so we hung out in the lounge area.
This time, we played shuffle board. It was fun! I found a game that I was good at.
Once we got to the alley, we were bowling the night away. We were definitely rusty (Please ignore the score board).
It was our last night in DC and we were glad we got to spend it with Ted and Laney. They definitely made our decision to extend our stay in DC easier. We ended up staying in DC for a whole week! That’s the longest we stayed in one place.
The Journey Begins 