Day 4 in DC

One Million dollars in ten dollar notes
We awoke this morning to our last full day in DC. We took the hotel shuttle to Regan National Airport where we caught the Metro (DC’s subway) and headed into the city. We had a small list of things that we wanted to see before leaving DC. Our first stop was the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which was the one must see thing on Phillip’s list. As some may know, Phillip loves the history of money and has a good collection of unique finds over the years. After taking a 45 minute tour of the facility, we were on our way to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. After visiting Jefferson’s Memorial we headed over to the Washington Monument to pick up our tickets.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

With an hour and a half wait, before our time to go up in the Washington Monument, we decided to walk several blocks to a restaurant called the Potbelly, a little sandwich shop off of Pennsylvania Ave. We were introduced to this little local sandwich shop on Tuesday by Bob our tour guide/bus driver, and we loved it so much that we wanted to visit it one more time before we left. Of course both times that we ate at the Potbelly it was busy, but they knew just how to get a crowd served quickly, faster then any fast food resturant.
After lunch we headed back to the Washington Monument just in time to travel 500 feet up to the observation area. We were able to take some good pictures of the surrounding DC area. I am so glad that we waited until today to go up in the monument because any other day except for Tuesday would have been too cloudy.
At the bottom looking up

Birdseye view of the Capitol from the obsveration area at top of the monument
.......the White House
.........Lincoln Memorial
..........Jefferson Memorial
Courtney takes a picture of the monument from the ground

After the 500 ft ride

This was the kids first time ever on a subway, they both thought that it was neat and after a few trips on and off they were getting the hang of it. While on the subway the kids made a game of seeing who could stand the longest while the tram was moving without holding on.


After the monument, we headed for the National Zoo, which was the one thing on the kid’s must see list. They both wanted to see the Pandas and really did not care about seeing any of the other animals. The youngest panda truly put a show on for the kids, he was playing with his food container and was quite active.

Across from the National Zoo, we enjoyed ice cream at Baskin Robbins,

before heading back outside in the freezing weather.



Today was the day that the kids were able to see a side of street life that they normally do not see and I felt like it was a true eye opener for them. We had a beggar ask us for money, we saw a man eating out of the garbage, and saw several street performers both on the street and down in the subway. We also saw several homeless people sleeping on the streets this week. I don’t think we realize sometime how good we have it. This evening we enjoyed our normal routine of the evening and that was relaxing at the hotel pool. Tomorrow, we start our journey home. They are predicting freezing rain during the night and in the early am, so I am thinking that sleeping in, sounds pretty good.