Our final day wasn’t a day to rest. We still had plenty to see, and since our flight didn’t leave until 7, we packed a full day in.
One of the places I wanted to take the girls most was Arlington National Cemetary. Patrick and I went there on our anniversary trip, and I’m not sure there is a place to make you feel more patriotic than this. I honestly had no idea how much it would move me. The girls researched and were very intrigued by the changing of the guard ceremony, so we made sure we factored that into our time there.
There is something to intriguing about this ceremony, and the girls sat attentive to what was happening. I think Regina counted every step because she didn’t believe it is as truly precise as it is.
It started to drizzle, and since it was already a bit chilly, we didn’t spend as much time visiting as we otherwise would have. But, we did take the girls to President Kennedy’s grave so they could see the eternal flame.
After Arlington we Ubered to where Patrick most wanted to take the girls – the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. I had never been there, but Patrick had been many times on his childhood trips to visit family friend Father Dennis. We started by visiting Catholic University for lunch. The girls were very impressed by the Chick Fil A, while Patrick and I loved that they had fresh sushi!
The Basilica is breathtaking! We spend a lot of time exploring and taking everything in. Regina, Molly and I stumbled upon the Adoration chapel and spent a few minutes in prayer before continuing on.
After the Basilica, we headed back to the city. We had a bit of time before we needed to be at the airport, so we asked the girls what they wanted to do. They all agreed they wanted to go back to the Museum of the American Indian, so we spent our last couple of hours there.
This was such a fantastic trip! I love visiting new places with the girls, and this one was definitely special. Listening to them talk about our country, and hearing their insights and opinions fills me with a lot of hope for our future. I can’t wait to go back to explore everything we couldn’t fit in!
Since Patrick and I have been to DC before, we really wanted this trip to be led by the girls and what they wanted to do. They all wanted to tour the White House and Capitol. Unfortunately, our senator couldn’t get us a White House tour as they were all booked for the week we were there. But, we did get a time for a Capitol tour. Our time was 11:30, which wasn’t ideal because it didn’t give us much time to do anything prior, as museums don’t open until 10 and they ask you to be at the Capitol 30-45 minutes before your tour for security.
We took a lovely morning walk and had plenty of time to check in for our tour, so when we happened upon the National Botanic Garden, we decided we should stop in and check it out. It was beautiful and Maddy would have stayed all day. We didn’t have a ton of time, but would love to explore more on a later trip.
Then it was on to the Capitol. Since we were told to be there 30-45 minutes early, we assumed there would be long lines and security would take a while. That wasn’t the case at all – we were through in no time and went to figure out where we were supposed to be for our tour. Luckily, they had some open spots in an earlier tour so let us go on that one.
I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get the tour scheduled. We went through our senator’s office, Senator Marco Rubio. His website has a place to request and it was very simple. I actually had to have it rescheduled because the first time they accidentally made it for the wrong month. But they corrected it right away!
The tour starts in a theater, with a video on American democracy. Honestly, I thought it was the best part of the tour. It does a great job of explaining how different the concept of American government was, and what we should all be striving for.
Then, the big group gets separated into a few smaller groups with a tour guide to lead each one. Our tour guide was fantastic, and we saw some interesting things. However, if we were planning it now, knowing what all the tour encompasses (or rather, what it doesn’t), I’d skip the tour unless you manage to score a private your from your senator or representative’s office. Next time, we’ll ask for that.
You start in the crypt, which is interesting. I had no idea that the original plan was for George Washington to be buried underneath the Capitol. But, since he died years before the building was finished, his family opted not to have his body moved (totally understandable). Also, I think it would be the antithesis of what George Washington would have wanted. Didn’t he resign because he didn’t want to be elevated to status of king, after all?
This is where George Washington would have been buried – there would have been a spot to look down into it, apparently.
Next, you head to the Rotunda, which is quite an impressive room. Our tour guide stopped us right near a statue of Harry Truman, and under the painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This is an image we’ve all seen before, but in person it is huge and gorgeous. The room and the rotunda are so impressive. The attention to detail in all of the artwork and architecture is impressive!
Molly’s favorite portion of the tour was Statuary Hall. All she wanted was to find the statue of Rosa Parks. Molly did a biography report on Rosa Parks and dressed up like her earlier in the year, and she has been in love with her ever since. And bonus, the statue is right next to the Florida statue of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune.
Molly dressed as Roa Parks for her ceral box biography – she made Rosa’s Equality O’sSuccess – she found it!
The girls were disappointed we didn’t get to see more of the Capitol and that we didn’t catch a glimpse of anyone important. But, now we know to ask for a private tour next time. But we did walk by the Supreme Court on the way to our next stop!
Our next stop was the National Museum of American History. This was the museum I was most excited to take the girls to. I love pop culture and weird history, and loved this museum so much when Patrick and I visited several years ago. Honestly though, it was underwhelming this time. I felt like there was WAY too much pop culture, with not enough emphasis on why or how that pop culture relates to our history and culture in general. There were some cool aspects, but it also has become a bit overwhelming and hard to take everything in. The girls enjoyed seeing things like Evan’s cast from Dear Evan Hansen, Dorothy’s ruby slippers, and Prince’s guitar.
One of the things Molly was most interested in seeing was Michelle Obama’s inaugural gown. I think the President and First Lady exhibits are some of the most interesting.
Michelle Obama’s inaugural gownMadam President
The other exhibit Molly and Maddy were most excited to see is the lunch counter. The last time I was there, I felt like this was out in the middle of the museum. This time we stumbled upon it – it’s tucked into a back area of the museum and seemed like it was put there almost as an afterthought. I was a bit disappointed in that.
The girls enjoyed exploring the maker space in the museum before we left.
We walked a LOT this day, and everyone was tired and chilly. We had some time before our dinner reservation, so when we stumbled upon the National Portrait Gallery, we went in. There is a beautiful atrium where we rested for a bit. But. I knew I couldn’t be there without seeing the portraits of the Obamas! Patrick, Regina, and Molly opted to stay put (poor Molly kept telling us that her little body wasn’t made to walk that much!), but Maddy and I decided to go exploring. I’m so glad we did! Not only did we find the Obama portraits, we found some others of people we love.
Beautiful!This is so stunning in person!
We ended the evening with one of our most favorite family dinners ever. Patrick’s co-workers suggested dinner at Carmine’s, and it did not disappoint! The food is served family style and we definitely misjudged the amount of food that was appropriate for our family. But it was delicious! And it’s a lovely restaurant – we had a great dinner, good drinks, and enjoyed recapping our day over an insane amount of food. I highly recommend checking out Carmine’s!
A toast to a successful day!Molly’s face says it all!SOOO much food!
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.
This is the bed where President Lincoln died. This was a replica of his casket.Replica of the hood worn by the conspirators during their imprisonments. So many books about Lincoln!
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!
The girls thought the Hope Diamon should be more impressive!
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.
We walked by an FBI building and Reg needed her photo taken!The Smithsonian Castle
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!
Patrick and I decided to gift the girls an experience for Christmas this year. Last year, we went on a spring break trip to North Carolina, but this year we opted for something a bit bigger. We’ve never done a whole family trip to a big city, so we decided we’d gift the girls a family trip to Washington D.C.
The girls chose the things they wanted to do, and then I created a rough daily schedule around that. Their choices were Ford’s Theatre, the monuments, and a tour of the Capitol Building. They also wanted to tour the White House, but unfortunately, there was no availability for the week we were there.
We debated flying vs. driving. Driving would allow us to make a few stops along the way, like checking out Mount Vernon and Colonial Williamsburg. But, it would make the trip longer, which would tack on extra dollars. And, we would already be filling our days in DC so we didn’t want to push it too much. We ended up finding a pretty good deal on flights through Southwest.
The only bad thing about a family of 5 is that when flying, some combination of us is most likely going to end up with a stranger in our row. My dad checked the flight going up and it was mostly full – fewer than 10 seats left to sell. So, Regina decided she’d go full-on angsty pre-teen to deter anyone from sitting in her row with dad (when we fly, it always ends up with Maddy, Molly, me in a row, and Patrick, Regina in a row). It worked!
Regina’s mission was to keep strangers away! It worked!!Biggest and littlest with mamaAirport selfie with my baby girl
I’ve flown a zillion times in my life (perks of a dad who worked for airlines for most of my childhood and early adulthood), but you guys – this landing was insane. There was a gale warning, which meant high winds. And flying into Reagan International, over the river, in a gale warning is an experience. Maddy and Molly gripped my hands so tightly, and kept asking if we were going to crash. I’ve never experienced a landing like that, but we made it safely, although a bit queasy.
After collecting our luggage and finding a taxi, we headed to our hotel. We booked a Residence Inn because we wanted more space and figured the free breakfast would save us a bit each day. The hotel was fine and in a decent area, but next time, I’d prefer to stay a bit closer to everything. The hotel was packed, and breakfast each morning was a zoo. We ended up Ubering more than we probably would have if we had just stayed at the Marriot or JW. We know better for next time!
We started our afternoon in DC with a walk on the wharf. Not the best idea when the temps are in the 40s and there are 30+ mph winds! Not only were we freezing, but poor Molly kept getting almost blown away! After a quick lunch at Shake Shack, we decided to head to see a few sites. The last time Patrick and I were there, we loved the Renwick Gallery, so since it is right by the White House and right by where we had dinner reservations, we decided to make that our first official stop.
I love this museum because it has modern art that is so unique and different, and a lot of it made the girls think. It was a lovely first stop on our trip.
Next up, we headed to the White House for some photos. Regina was a bit disappointed that President Biden hadn’t rolled out the red carpet for her, and since a tour was unavailable during our time there, this was as close as we could get.
After a quick stop in the White House gift shop, it was time to head to dinner. We made reservations at Old Ebbitt Grill because not only is it a hot spot, it’s where Patrick used to eat on his trips to DC to visit Father Dennis. We had early reservations, but the place was packed! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to sit in the main restaurant (which is lovely with its emerald green booths and the feeling that lots of history has happened in them). We were seated in their courtyard, which is inside the main building in what feels like a giant office complex. They still try to carry the feeling of the main restaurant out there, and it was much quieter.
My plan was originally to visit the monuments and memorials after dinner. But, it was SO cold and the wind was still insane. So, we decided not to push it, and after a lovely leisurely dinner, we decided to head back to our hotel and call it an early night with snacks from the hotel lobby and a slightly inappropriate movie (the girls love vacation daddy!). We knew we’d be up bright and early the next day anyway.
Adventures with the Murphy Girls 