Washington DC - Day 2

We woke up a little earlier on Sunday & the girls were ready to go since they knew what to expect. We started at the National Archives Museum where they got to see the original Bill of Rights, Constitution & Declaration of Independence:

I think they thought this was cool since they had learned about this in school. Since we did something serious, we walked across the street to the Natural History Museum for something a little more fun for the kids:

There are over 20 Smithsonian museums in DC but I had researched which ones were more kid friendly before we went & then one was definitely high on the list. We saw everything from the Hope Diamond, to sea life, mammals & dinosaur exhibits:

From here, we decided to walk to Ford's Theater, when Sadie got excited when she saw the FBI Building along the way:

She has always wanted to work for the FBI but now she is leaning towards CIA. Ha!

On to Ford's Theater. This is another thing I really remembered from earlier trips, and I think the girls really liked this, because again, they were familiar with it from school:

I had no idea this was still a working theater. When we left the theater, we walked across the street to the Petersen boarding house where Lincoln was transported after he was shot and where he eventually died. The ranger who gave us a tour did a really good job, but I didn't take any pictures:

We waited for the bus at this location where there happened to be a beautiful, historic church across the street. We picked up snacks & decided to have a picnic lunch on the bus while we rode around:

The 3 of them were hesitant at our next stop, but I really wanted them to see Union Station. We have never really ridden a train or been to a real train station, so it was exciting for them to see & they realized how similar it was to an airport. However, most airports aren't this pretty!

Across the street was the National Postal Museum & I was excited to take them here also. I think Bryan was rolling his eyes & would have preferred to skip, however, I took Sophie to DC on a business trip with Bryan when she was younger & I remember us really having fun here, so I wanted to check it out again:

Surprisingly, this might have been one of our favorite stops of the day! It was fun to explore how mail has been delivered through the years:

But our favorite part was getting to look at stamps through the years, picking out & trading stamps as well as designing our own stamps:

I didn't get Sadie's because she sent them to her own email address. I'll have to add those on here!

Our last stop of the day was another popular museum great for children - the National Air & Space Museum:

Again, we got to learn about aviation, where it started & how it has changed through the years. I mean look at this airplane entrance - Bryan isn't that big of a guy but he definitely had to bend down to enter:

It was neat to see everything space related also - I don't know why we haven't taken the girls to NASA yet?!

Whew - what a day! The girls did much better on day 2 but of course we went back to the Wharf for Mexican & while we were there, they were celebrating Dios de los Muertos, so it was crazy busy but there was lots of live music & a parade we got to watch. Definitely a fun way to end the day!