Washington, DC: The National Mall

We made it to the Nation's Capital: Washington, DC today. We stayed in College Park, Maryland last night. This morning we took the Metro into the District of Columbia. It was hot and crowded with lots of tourists, but we walked the National Mall and had an enjoyable time. Our first stop was the White House.

Sierra was excited to see the White House because when we told her that Obama lived there, she joked and said O-Baa Baa lived there. We took a photo of Mommy, Sierra and O-Baa Baa outside the fence that surrounds the Executive Mansion.

Our next stop was the World War II Memorial.

There is a computer kiosk there where Noelle looked up her grandfather who served in the Navy during the war. He was lucky enough to visit the memorial twice before he passed, once on an Honor Flight.

From the World War II Memorial we walked along the Reflecting Pool, which was loaded with ducks and ducklings,

and headed over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. We then visited the nearby Lincoln Memorial. There were lots of people at the Lincoln Memorial, so we did not spend too much time there. We did take a break inside the air conditioned museum there before moving on to the Korean War Veterans Memorial. The Korean War Veterans Memorial is one of my favorites on the Mall. The soldier statues look so realistic.

From the Korean War Memorial we headed over to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.

The memorial here looks a bit different than it did during my last visit two years ago.

An inscription carved into the stone has since been removed. It was a paraphrased portion of a King speech which read  "I Was a Drum Major for Justice, Peace, and Righteousness". From the King Memorial we headed over to the nearby Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial where we ate a quick snack in the shade just outside the memorial.

The FDR Memorial is my favorite on the mall. It is not as crowded as most of the other memorials and is mostly shady. The sculptures and water features are all very interesting.

After our visit to the FDR Memorial we headed over to the George Mason Memorial.

Then we headed over to the nearby Thomas Jefferson Memorial. When we arrived at the Jefferson Memorial, Sierra exclaimed that "we've already been here." She thought we were at the Lincoln Memorial again. We climbed the stairs to the rotunda and gazed out over the Tidal Basin to the Washington Monument. Again we took a break and rested on a stone bench inside the memorial

before heading down the steps to begin making our way back to the Metro Station. We made one last stop before the train station, the brand new White House visitor center. We spent quite a bit of time inside checking out the interesting exhibits and we even watched a really well done movie about living in the White House.