Our Nation's Capitol

Andrews AFB was our base for exploring the Washington D.C. area. On day one we took the kids to the most visited museum in North America, the National Air and Space Museum. 7,500,000 visits were recorded last year!

Such a fantastic way to learn our solar system! Seeing the scale this way is shocking.

Afterwards we walked to the Capitol, thru the National
Botanical Gardens and then to the Washington Monument.

The kids enjoy making crazy faces in photos. Sometimes I prefer the silly ones over the smiles.

The next day we drove back downtown to spend a couple hours at the National Zoo and the Georgetown Riverfront National Park Site before heading back to the memorials.

Journey was excited to find a cicada. We normally only find the shells, so this was pretty neat.

Found out our family weighs 433lbs which means we collectively 

weigh more than a newborn Asian elephant, but less than a one year old.

We love seeing animals that are new to us. This Mouse-Deer was pretty interesting. Its legs are so tiny, he looks like he's walking on stilts. Such an odd sight.

And the Tamandua, which looks like a cross between an ant-eater, and a polar bear with a monkey tail.

The kids were interested to see the White House, but disappointed that they didn't get to meet President Trump, ha! They recovered from the disappointment by racing each other to the Washington Monument.

Lastly we experienced a sobering walk thru the Vietnam, WWII and Lincoln memorials.

We found out how much more enjoyable it is to check out the monuments after 6pm when the traffic, both pedestrian and vehicle, have mostly vacated the area. In the future, I'll only do indoor museums during the day and save the outdoor monuments for early evening. Seeing them lit up is a whole different experience.

We enjoyed catching up with our friend Paz and his sons, whom we haven't seen in nearly ten years. Our last day in D.C. was spent relaxing and swimming at the base pool where Asher jumped off the diving board for the very first time. He loved it and jumped off again and again.