Washington DC Day 3

On our third and last day in DC, and Sophie's SIXTH birthday, we kicked off the day with a tour of the White House. These pics were just grabbed from the net, as we were not allowed to bring anything but a wallet and cellphone.

You can request a tour of the White House through your state representative. A background check will be performed and then you are assigned a time to go through a limited area of the White House.

Yeah, there are a lot of people who get disappointed with this tour, considering the restrictions and hooplah to go through to get in. BUT, this is where the Prez lives for goodness sake! It was still cool. In Sophie's words, "This is where Okibama lives!" (hehehehe)

For lunch, we drove (I know, I know! But this time, L's mom and two nieces came with and we had a handicapped sticker to help us out with parking issues) to Capitol Hill to try out Chef Spike's (of Top Chef fame) burgers at Good Stuff Eatery.

Yum! The burgers may even be better than In-and-Out. But I really loved the seasoned fries (rosemary, thyme, and garlic). I ate so much of that I hardly had enough room for the burger itself!

Then, we stopped at the Korean and Vietnam War Memorials.

We then headed to the Museum of Natural History (it was Sophie's birthday after all). We had a limited amount of time, so Sophie decided on the Ocean Hall and Mammals Hall. She loaded up on some serious goodies (she was allowed six for her special day). We also got to sneak in an iMax movie on dinosaurs in 3-D.

This was the girls' first time witnessing 3-D. Liv hid for the first ten minutes, then finally settled in my lap and swiped or jumped at the dinosaurs.

Miss Sophie with cousin Alex.

The gigantic jellyfish that Sophie oohed and aaahed over for over ten minutes.


The next and final stop was at the Air and Space Museum. We headed straight for the simulator section.

Mister D and Alex chose the interactive flight simulator for an F-4 Phantom Fighter Jet. They rode on in twice, each taking turns as the pilot, trying out barrel rolls and all sorts of vomit-inducing moves. The Mister took the girls and cousin Brittney on the tamer ride simulator of a roller coaster. To my surprise, the girls weren't upset or scared of the ride...they were upset that it was over!

We stopped at Chinatown for some grub. We chose to eat at Tony Cheng's. Awesome!

Great food! A little pricey, but great nonetheless. I had Peking duck for the first time and it was scrumptious!!!!

It was a delicious end to our stint in the capital. We were on the interstate headed down to Williamsburg by 9:30 pm. We missed a lot of the other must-see's like the other Smithsonian museums, but we have to put that off for a later time. The kids had a great great time. I loved the fact that they learned a lot as well about this country, past presidents, and war heroes. A great vacay within a vacay. This is a must-see for children!!!