Family Trip to Washington DC
/
I’ve been receiving lots of questions about our recent spring break trip to Washington DC, so I thought I’d write a little blog post about our trip. Maybe it’s just me, but I love reading details of other peoples trips while I’m planning out mine. Washington DC has been on my travel bucket list for awhile. My husband had been there on a school trip, but the rest of us had never been. Both of my older kids have turned down opportunities to go with school because they would rather go with family. My in-laws have become world travelers in their retirement and mentioned something about wanting to go on a trip with the whole family. After checking into several options, we decided that a trip to Washington DC would be a great idea and spring break would be a great time to visit.
I will start out by saying that we traveled to Washington DC with myself, my husband, my three kids (16, 12 & 8), my mother-in-law & father-in-law, my sister-in-law, her boyfriend and their 10 month old. We flew out of St. Louis, MO on Wednesday evening and flew back home the following Monday evening, so we had about 4-1/2 days to explore.
Because we had such a large group of people going, we decided that renting an Airbnb might be our best bet. We had a bit of a challenging time finding something that was close to everything & was large enough to sleep 10 people comfortably. We ended up reserving a row house north of the Capitol Hill neighborhood and very close to Union Station. There were a couple of grocery stores within walking distance, as well as several restaurants, which was nice, but the house itself left much to be desired.
One fantastic thing about visiting DC is that most places that you visit are free! Some things must be booked 3-6 months in advance, however. Once we had our flights & house booked, I emailed our congressman to schedule a White House tour. You can also set up tours for the Capitol Building, FBI, Bureau of Engraving & Printing and more thru your house or state representative. I also went ahead & booked our Capitol Building tour, the National Archives & the Holocaust Museum. I tried not to book too many tours with set times to allow flexibility in our schedule. Once our trip got closer, I was able to check the weather and loosely schedule out our days. We were fortunate that it only rained for part of one of our days, so we planned to visit some of the Smithsonian museums that day since most of the other things we wanted to see and do were outside.
On our first day in DC, we walked to Union Station and took the subway to the Pentagon. You can set up a tour of the Pentagon thru your congressman as well, but we decided to just go and visit the 9/11 Memorial. This was a bit of a walk from the subway stop, but was a neat thing to experience. We spent about a half hour there before getting back on the subway to Arlington National Cemetery.
The 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon
We were all impressed with the sheer size of the cemetery. It expands as far as you can see and can take quite awhile to walk from place to place. We visited Kennedy’s grave before walking to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. At the time we visited (mid-April), the changing of the guard occurred every half hour. It was definitely an experience to remember and gave me goosebumps. After a couple of hours at the cemetery, we took the subway back to the national mall area. We had talked about going to Mount Vernon (George Washington’s home) afterward, however a lot of the recommendations suggested allowing several hours there and we decided that we just didn’t really have time, so instead we decided to skip it.
Arlington National Cemetery
Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Kennedy graves
The national mall is basically a big grassy park surrounded by the majority of the Smithsonian museums and monuments. We were all pretty tired once we got there and decided to lay in the grass for awhile to relax. There were ice cream trucks and food trucks nearby for those that wanted a little snack. After relaxing a bit, we walked over to the Washington Monument (which was unfortunately still closed for repairs) and then to the WWII Memorial. While there, we were able to see the presidential helicopter fly over twice! We then walked over toward the White House for our dinner reservation at Old Ebbitt Grill. We all really enjoyed our meals there & highly recommend making a reservation!
Standing outside of the White House after our tour.
On our second day in DC (Friday), we had tickets for the 10:10am tour of the White House. We took an uber from our house and arrived early for our tour. There are very strict security measures taken to get into the White House. No purses, backpacks or strollers were allowed and there were several different security checkpoints you had to go thru before entering the building. I think we spent over an hour in line before being able to enter, not an easy feat with 4 kids, including a baby! The White House tour was self-guided meaning you walk thru and look at things at your own pace. We were only able to go thru the east wing (lower level) of the White House, but it was pretty incredible to walk thru. We were even able to see a soccer goal set up out on the lawn, which we presume was there for Trump’s youngest son, Barron.
After taking tons of pictures, inside and out, we grabbed lunch at a nearby Potbelly’s. Once we were finished with our lunch, it began raining. We saw this in the forecast so had already planned on hitting some museums that afternoon, but it began before we actually made it to any museums. We took a very wet walk to the Museum of Natural History, where it felt like everyone else in DC also was! We spent a few hours exploring the museum until it closed. Just a little side note… even the museums are free! Some of the ones that require a ticket to get into, like the Holocaust Museum, will charge you a $1 reservation fee, but that’s it!
We had heard that we should try Ben’s Chili Bowl, a local diner that serves “smokes” (smoked sausage) and chili dogs. There was one just down the street from our house, so we decided to try it out for dinner this night. It was great!
On our third day, Saturday, we had tickets for the 10:30 tour of the Capitol Building and were able to walk there from our house (I could even see the top of the Capitol building from a small window in our shower). We all really loved this tour. Unlike the White House tour, this one had a guide. Everyone wore headphones that allowed you to hear your guide well. The guides there are so knowledgeable. We were all very impressed! After our tour, we walked thru the tunnel that connects the Capitol Building to the Library of Congress. One thing I will say about DC is that everywhere you look, the architecture is amazing. The Library of Congress was no different. Such an impressive building. We walked over to the Supreme Court from there and took pictures outside. It’s only open Monday thru Friday, so we weren’t able to go inside.
Outside of the Capitol Building
We then went to grab lunch in Capitol Hill at a little pizza place called We The Pizza. It was yummy! After lunch, we walked to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. There are two locations of this museum, one in the national mall and one at Dulles airport. I’ve heard that the one at the airport is better, but since we flew into Reagan, we visited this one instead. It was a really neat museum. We wanted to watch an IMAX movie, however there weren’t any that we wanted to see playing while we were there. I’ve heard great things about them. Once we were finished at the museum, we were all pretty exhausted and decided to grab ice cream and lounge around at the national mall for awhile again. We walked a ton on this trip and by this point, we were all feeling it! After a little break we walked to the Smithsonian Castle (eh!), then took the free Circulator bus to Union Station and walked home. We picked up dinner at the grocery store and ate before heading back out to Union Station to meet up with our Monuments at Night tour, which I had booked a few days in advance. On this trolley tour, we were able to see the Capitol Building, FDR memorial, Lincoln memorial, Iwo Jima memorial and more, all lit up at night. It was really neat to see the different monuments all lit up, but we didn’t love the tour itself. It was freezing on the trolley and it lasted way longer than what it said it would. When I purchased the tickets it said it would be an hour and a half tour, it ended up being 3 hours and 20 minutes! I loved seeing the Lincoln Memorial and Iwo Jima at night and would highly recommend doing so, but we were so exhausted by the end of our tour!
The national archives building
The next day was Easter. We woke up to a surprise from the Easter Bunny who had hidden Easter eggs all around our house. After a quick Easter egg hunt, we had a 10:30 pass for the National Archives. I will say there was no line here, so advance passes weren’t necessary for us, but maybe that was because it was Easter, so not many people were there? It was so neat to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The guards there were so informative as well. I totally recommend asking them any questions you might have.
Ford’s Theater was just a few blocks away, so we walked there next. For those who may not know, this is where Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. We were able to get free tickets to tour the theater as well as the Peterson House across the street (where Lincoln was taken after he was shot and later died). We really enjoyed both of those, especially after visiting where Lincoln lived in Springfield, Illinois a couple of years ago.
lincoln memorial
Next we got back on the free Circulator bus and took that to the Lincoln Memorial. This was one of the things I was most looking forward to seeing while in DC. We had seen it at night the night before on our tour, but we all wanted to go back and see it during the day time as well. It really is an incredible monument and the view across the national mall from there is a sight to see.
After a short stay there, we hopped back on the Circulator bus and took it to the Holocaust Museum, where we had tickets for 3:30. This was an incredibly moving museum and is quite large. I will say that I was a bit worried about how my kids would handle this museum and they all handled it really well and asked a lot of questions. I didn’t notice anything too graphic and thought it was done really well. We left the museum when it closed at 5:20 and took the circulator bus to the Vietnam Vets memorial. We had some family that was also in town, so we grabbed pizza with them at a little pizza shop near their hotel in Dupont Circle before heading back to our house.
On our last day (Monday) we had a few hours before needing to head to the airport, so we were able to visit the Georgetown neighborhood. We didn’t have a lot of time, but really enjoyed this area and would love to stay there in the future. There was so much to see and do!
We had such a great time in DC! We were all exhausted by the end of our trip, but we were able to see and do so much. If there’s one thing you should know about how I do trips, is that I don’t typically like to go to the same place twice since there are just way too many places that I want to see. So, when we go on a trip like this, I like to pack in as much as possible. My family is great about it, but it may not work for everyone.
Vietnam Veterans memorial
A few tips I have if you’re planning a trip to DC…
-Springtime was a fantastic time to visit! We missed the cherry blossoms blooming by one week which I was bummed about, but the weather was fantastic.
-Make reservations for the White House, Capitol Building and any other tours in advance. The African American Museum & Holocaust Museum can be hard to get tickets to as well.
-As far as transportation while we were there… we didn’t feel like a car was necessary. Parking is hard to find everywhere you go. We took an Uber or the subway or the free Circulator bus everywhere we went. I will say that I thought the subway was harder to navigate than the one in NYC, but not terrible. Lyft also has scooters you can rent all over the city. Since we were traveling with a large group, we didn’t try them, but many people were using them.
-Plan out your days according to what is near each other. The national mall is huge! We planned all of the things on the east end for one day, things on the west end for another day and things in the middle on a different day. Check out a map in advance and determine what you can visit in a day.
-Take breaks when you need it! Like I said, we like to go, go, go on trips like this, but we also make sure to take time to relax in the park if needed and get plenty of sleep. Chances are you will walk a lot in DC, so be prepared and rest when needed.
-Take your kids! We waited until our kids were a bit older before visiting DC. I wanted to wait until I thought it would be something they would remember and be able to connect with. I was very impressed with how much my older kids (12 & 16) knew about different sights and events and it was great for my 8 year old to be able to visually see some of the places he’s beginning to learn about. Since we’ve returned from our trip, all of my kids have talked in school about several things we saw on our trip and they were so excited to be able to say that they had actually seen them in person.
-Have fun! We really had a great time and loved DC. We felt very safe and just had the best time. I know we made memories that will last a lifetime.
