DC - Part 2

After an exhausting, but fun, day 1, we were pretty excited when Stella decided to sleep in the next morning until after 9. It gave us a later start, but we needed the rest. After a quick stop at Whole Foods (the closest grocery store to our hotel and conveniently located right near the metro stop) for baby food and breakfast, my sister and I headed into DC while Mr. Frisby slaved away at his conference. Our first stop was the National Archives.

It didn't take long there, but it was really cool to see original copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. What made me laugh was the occasional visitor who we saw actually trying to read the documents right there. Just read them online later, people.

Next up was the International Spy Museum. This was a great museum, but in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have done it this time around. It was not free, nor was it cheap. This isn't necessarily a bad thing - as I said it was a great museum and, I think, worth the admission fee. However, strollers were not allowed. That meant I had Stella in my arms for most of the over 2 hours we were there. She would go to my sister occasionally, but I had her most of the time and when she fell asleep in my arms, then I was packing around dead weight. It ended up being exhausting and with a very curious 10-month old crawling all over me, I found it hard to really get to enjoy everything the museum had. Oh well. Mr. Frisby would have loved it, so we'll go back some day when Stella can enjoy it, too. Photography was not allowed at the museum, but they did have a little photo booth thing where they email you the picture. Here's the result:

After the Spy Museum, we grabbed a late lunch and then headed to Ford's Theater.

In the basement of the theater, they have a museum that covers Lincoln's presidency and the assassination. Most interesting was the Deringer that John Wilkes Booth used to shoot Lincoln.

After the museum, we headed up to the theater to see the box where President Lincoln was shot. They have it set up to look just as it did the night of the assassination.

After checking out the theater, we headed across the street to the Peterson House. That's where they took Lincoln after he was shot and where he died early the next morning. Strollers were also not allowed in the Peterson House. Fortunately, it was such a small space that Julie just carried Stella and I carried the stroller until we were through it. Here's the room where Lincoln died:

After that it was getting close to when Mr. Frisby would be done, so we headed toward the White House which is where we planned to meet him. Not surprisingly, it was hot and Stella fell asleep again. Since we were close to the metro stop that Mr. Frisby would be getting off at, we decided to go into a sandwich shop to get out of the heat while we waited for him.

We conveniently decided to get dinner there and then it was off to the White House. Hello Obamas!

After checking out the White House, we decided to walk over and see the Vietnam War Memorial. It was really cool. When we first got there, we were almost the only ones there. Then a tour group showed up.

After the Vietnam War Memorial, we headed back toward the White House. We wanted to see the other side of it, so we walked to the other side on our way to the metro stop. And that was it for an action-packed day two. We went back to the hotel to crash in preparation for our final day in DC.