Day 2 in Washington D.C. started with what Regina wanted to do most – visit Ford’s Theater. When we discussed the trip, all Regina cared about was seeing the place where “Mr. Lincoln died,” as she kept telling us. Ford’s Theatre is one of the places that requires timed entry tickets, so we made our reservations for 9:30 and headed that way.

I’ll be honest, this was not the stop I was most excited about. However, I was pleasantly surprised. You begin your tour in the basement of the theater, where there is a great museum set up. It tells the story of what led up to the assassination, and we all learned plenty that we didn’t know before.

The girls took their time looking at everything, but we did have to hurry towards the end because the theater portion was only remaining open for an additional 30 minutes. I didn’t know it is still a working theater, and there was a performance that night. So, we headed upstairs to view the theater from the mezzanine.

After the theatre, you head across the street to the home where President Lincoln died. Someone told Regina that there was still blood on the pillow in the room where he died, so she was very intrigued. However, her macabre hopes were dashed – we didn’t see any. After the home, there is another museum to walk through that ends with a pillar of books written about Lincoln. All in all, I’m glad we made this a stop. I’d recommend adding it to a visit if you’ve never been.

Next up was the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. We knew the girls would love this one and figured they’d want to spend a good amount of time here, so we didn’t plan too much after. Regina was hoping for the Spy Museum that afternoon, but mama didn’t realize that was also a timed entry and there were no times available later that day. There is SO much to see in this museum, and easy to get separated from your group. We actually lost Regina for a bit when she decided she was tired of the ocean room and took it upon herself to move on. Cue a bit of panic because the museum was packed (so many school groups from all over the country everywhere we went), and Regina is 11 and doesn’t have a cellphone yet. So, when we found her (probably about 8-10 minutes of panic), we explained that she has to remain with one of the three people who have a phone so we can find her!

I think everyone’s favorite part of the museum was the early humans. Molly got a great lesson on how early mothers protected their children and made clothes before tools (teeth apparently – the museum docent told us they can tell by the wear patterns on teeth that they were used as early tools). We loved seeing the smaller humans of New Guinea who were so small one of their main predators was the komodo dragon! But we forgot to take a photo. I think it is so interesting to see where we’ve come from and where we are now. The girls love the Egyptian room, the dinosaur fossils, but were very disappointed in the Hope Diamond. They were expected something much grander!

Everyone was starving, so we headed outside to look for food. Patrick found a restaurant a short walk, but Regina was getting hangry, so we opted for the food trucks outside. I have such good memories of the food trucks from the last time Patrick and I were there, but either I misremembered or the ones we chose were just not very good. Lesson learned. We thought the girls might want to go back to finish exploring the museum, but they wanted to move on. We had planned on the Spy Museum, but unfortunately I didn’t get them ahead of time, and there were no times available for the rest of our trip. There were SO many school groups from all over the country everywhere we went, so I assume they booked up all the times. We also weren’t able to get a time at Air and Space (we didn’t plan that one ahead of time because the girls claimed they weren’t super interested, but of course when we got to DC they changed their minds.

So, we headed to the National Museum of the American Indian. Patrick and I had lunch there last time (we met a friend of mine from high school), and I’ve been telling Regina about the fry bread taco. She is a kid who can always eat, so she devoured it! We got there well before the museum closed, but the cafe closed a couple minutes after we got there, so she just barely made it. She loved it and would eat it again anytime!

This museum is much smaller, so we told Regina she could explore there on her own. She is a kid who needs some alone time, and this trip was basically family time 24 hours a day, so we knew she needed to have some time to herself. While she did that, Maddy and Molly explored the children’s area. I honestly didn’t think they’d find this museum super interesting because it is pretty small, but they loved it. Our school does a big study on Native Americans in second grade and in fourth grade there is a focus on Florida history. So they loved seeing the things they’ve learned about in school come to life. (Although Regina did report that she thought some things were glossed over and she thought the museum was too nice to colonialists. and explorers!)

After the museum, we decided to hop onto the DC circulator for what I was most excited about – the monuments. The girls were all excited for the Lincoln Memorial so they could stand on the spot where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his I Have a Dream Speech.

Molly was given a really cool DC scavenger hunt book for her birthday, so at most of our major stops she had things in her book to check off. There were lots at the monuments, so it added a lot of fun and encouraged us to read more than we might have otherwise so we could complete her missions. She loved finding everything and marking it off in her book.

From the Lincoln Memorial we walked to the Korean War memorial (we discussed my Papaw who fought in Korea) and then to the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial.

From there, we walked to the World War II memorial. Patrick’s grandfather and my grandpa Truman both fought in it, and the girls found some quotes from President Harry Truman (since my maiden name is Truman, we always refer to him as Uncle Harry).

I think the memorial that struck the girls the most was the Vietnam Memorial. We talked a lot about how controversial the war was, how we didn’t really understand why we were fighting the war, how scary the draft was, and what that would be like today. As we walked along, the girls looked at the individual memorials people had left for their loved ones. We discussed how if this were happening now, it would be their cousins and their friends going to war – literal children being sent off to fight a war that they didn’t want to be in or understand at all.

When we had finished with the monuments, everyone was starving so we figured it was time for dinner. We found a pizza place and Ubered there – the pizza was delicious and it was the perfect end to our day!