Washington DC

We bid Baltimore goodbye and drove to Washington DC early Saturday morning. We were quite lucky to find free street parking and took a walk starting at the White House towards Lincoln Memorial.

It was only July 3rd but it was so smoky that I think Obama's staff was already preparing for the big BBQ on Independence Day :)

Beside the White House was the Treasury Department.

The Washington Memorial must be the most prominent structure in DC.

The White House (above) and Capitol Hill (below) as seen from the Washington Memorial.

Lincoln Memorial from the Washington Memorial.

World War II Memorial in front of the reflecting pool and the Lincoln Memorial.

It was hot and it was a lot of walking. We stopped for ice-cream along the way :)

Finally reached Lincoln Memorial.

Now, the Washington Memorial as seen from Lincoln Memorial.

The famous statue of Abraham Lincoln. This is my favorite among the many memorials in Washington.

We went to the Museum of Natural History in the afternoon (managed to get free street parking again!). It was great and a must see if you ever visit DC! We didn't have enough time to explore everything because Clara was too tired. We found Silver Diner in Arlington and had breakfast for dinner there. Kids got cardboard automobiles with crayons and coloring pages. We requested songs on the jukebox. If I remembered correctly, it was "Dancing Queen", "My Girl" and "We are Family."

We started Independence Day looking for parking and again, free street parking near Capitol Hill. I was really to prefer DC to Boston :)

We walked about 4 blocks to the National Archives which was where the parade started and moved down Constitution Avenue.

The lady sitting next to Clara was hilarious. She was making comments about everything and everyone - nice ones when the people deserved it and nasty ones when they were mean :)

We didn't make through the whole parade because it was just too hot! We were lucky to have an umbrella from the hotel with us. Here's Sonya and Clara doing their own marching under the umbrella.

After lunch, we tried visiting the other memorials that we missed yesterday. It was hot and Sonya and Clara napped in the car while we drove around. We tried going to Arlington Cemetery and many other places but most of the roads were closed because it was Independence Day. We did manage to get into the carpark at the Pentagon. Saw the Pentagon Memorial, the Air Force Memorial, etc.

After lots of driving and u-turning, we found a carpark that was open and only about 10 minutes to the Jefferson Memorial. Sonya and Clara didn't want to get out of the car and so I went alone while Justin stayed in the car with them.

View of the Washington Memorial from Jefferson Memorial.

We went back to the hotel to cool down a little before heading out to dinner and then off to see the 4th July fireworks. We drove again and parked our car in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center garage for $10 and made it to Washington Memorial just in time to see the fireworks went off.

The next day, we had to leave DC by about 7.40am to make it in time for our flight back to Boston. We had thought we had time to make a quick stop at the Arlington National Cemetery but it doesn't open till 8am. I guess I will have to come back another day to see the Kennedy graves.

We did manage to get to the Iwo Jima Memorial.

With this, we ended our trip to Baltimore and Washington DC.