My DC Favorites - so far

1. National Archives - so very impressive and amazing. I couldn't get over all the history that was there, the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Magna Carta, letters, pictures, everything you can imagine. We were given a VIP tour and able to go up to the upper rooms and there they showed us George Washington's inauguration address in his writing, the letters written by Joseph Smith to the President asking for assistance in Missouri when the Mormons were being persecuted immensely. Impressive, I was near tears the entire time.

2. Vietnam Memorial - astounding, absolutely humbling.

3. Lincoln, Washington, Iwo Jima and Pentagon Memorials - I can't describe them. Inspiring. I would recommend doing them at night.

4. White house - this was enjoyable, but not as impressive as I had imagined, but definitely worth doing.

5. Pentagon - worth doing once. I had no idea how HUGE this place is. There is literally a shopping mall enclosed within it. Restaurants, dry cleaning, their own DMV (with no line!), jewellery stores, florists, grocery stores, etc.

6. American History Museum - this was so much fun. My favorite exhibit was the hall of dresses - all the inaugural dresses from the first ladies. So much fun to see the change in styles, the sizes of the ladies (poor Barbara Bush was next to Nancy Reagan, a huge size discrepancy!).

7. Capitol Hill - these buildings are amazing. Full of beautiful architecture, murals, paintings and American history. This is a must do in DC. Then when you are done make sure to visit your senators and congressman offices - they all have souvenirs from your home state for visitors, very fun!

8. Air and Space Museum - this is AWESOME! I like the one out at Dulles Airport better than the one right in DC, but both are fabulous! Kids love this museum.

9. Natural History Museum - another GREAT museum. We spent several hours here and didn't get to see the whole thing. The kids got to see a live tarantula feeding, hold a giant millipede and see just about everything. The knitted coral reef is impressive. Seriously an entire coral reef knitted. Seems to me there are a lot of granny's in DC!

We have several things on our to do list, the next on our list are:

Arlington Cemetery
Mount Vernon - Tate's birthday just happens to be on President's Day this year! Great timing!
Union Station
Old Town Alexandria
International Spy Museum
Native American Museum
Treasury to see how money is made

We are seriously so excited!!