We had been hoping to get tickets to go up in the Washington Monument; so far, we had been unsuccessful. They are gone almost as soon as they become available online. However, there are same day passes available, if you’re willing to get in line on the early-ish side.
So, this morning, Jonathan and Clara got to the Ticket office at about 7. The ticket office opened at 8:45 and they were able to get us all tickets for this afternoon! Hooray!
After acquiring tickets, Jonathan and Clara went on a run around the National Mall; according to them, it is a great place to run, especially early in the morning.
Meanwhile, I woke up with a beastly headache that wouldn’t seem to go away. So that slowed us down a bit. But we still were able to get to the Washington Monument for our 4 o’clock tour.
Alas. As we were waiting in line, a Park Ranger came over to tell us that the elevators were having issues and so they wouldn’t be able to send anyone else up for the rest of the day… But, we could come back tomorrow (tomorrow only!) and if it wasn’t too busy, they would fit us in.
So, that was a little bit disappointing.
But, we figured that since we were on the Mall anyway, we might as well check out some other sights. So, I went back to the car to grab our stroller and other gear, and Jonathan and the kids got in line at one of the many food trucks to get something cold and delicious. (Sidenote: The number of food trucks parked along the mall is CRAZY.)
After we had finished our treats, we decided to go check out the Capitol building. Any time the twins see the Capitol building (or the Washington Monument) they get super excited and make the entire car look and acknowledge that they looked. So, we decided to see it at a slightly closer range.
And it looked pretty close. And so we started walking. And we walked for a long time. This was instance number one where we demonstrated that we are unable to judge distances. All I can say is that the Capitol looked much closer than it actually was. It turned out to be a 40 minute walk.
Along the way, I sang “Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked” to our children. But they didn’t seem to appreciate it. Rude!
Eventually we made it to the Capitol. But we had failed to account for the fact that it is Memorial Day weekend, so we couldn’t get very close, (I think the President does a speech on Capitol Hill at some point over the weekend and so they were setting up for that.)
So yeah, limited views. From behind barriers. But, we wouldn’t have been able to go in anyway (We’d already emailed our congresswoman to get tickets but it was a no-go). So, we fed our hobbits some snacks. And we decided to go visit the seat of another branch of Government: the White House.
This was instance number two where we drastically underestimated the distance between points. All I can say is that it looked so much closer on the map than it actually was. Sigh…
We’re tourists, we had to do the thing. 
Evie and her cell phone. 
The screen is cracked (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!) 
Logan was walking, tripped, and hit the ground hard. He wa 
Pretty… 
… also, surprisingly large. 
🎶The ten-dollar founding father without a father Got a lot farther by working a lot harder By being a lot smarter By being a self-starter…🎶 
🎶What’s your name, man? Alexander Hamilton🎶
Once again, we walked and walked and walked and walked.
It was a beautiful walk, lots of lovely trees and buildings. As we walked by the Treasury Department building, I sang Hamilton songs to our children. And once again, they didn’t appreciate it. Rude!
Eventually, we made it to the White House. And it was quite the spectacle all around: lots of demonstrators and protestors and secret service and tourists. It was cool to see it in person. And, while we were there, Marine One took off, so that was kinda cool.
After seeing the “President’s house” as Evie calls it, the older kids are all firmly decided that they do not want to be president. I say: Amen to that.
After we had gotten our fill of the White House, Jonathan rented a scooter and scooted down towards the car. Because we were pretty sure our children would die if we had them walk all the way back to the car. So the kids and I found a reasonably ok place to wait around the corner
Jonathan returned his scooter, got to the car, only to discover that he had failed to grab the keys. #WellDang. So then he went to retrieve the scooter he had just returned. But there were issues. Long story short, after dead batteries, and app issues, he finally was able to get another scooter. He returned to our location, grabbed the keys and then started heading back to the car. Once again, scooter issues. Dead batteries. App issues. Finally he managed to get to the car and made his way back to the kids and I. When all was said and done, we were waiting for an hour.
Honestly, it would have been faster to walk, even with all the short legs. But, Jonathan got to ride a scooter through DC which he has been wanting to do anyway. And I pumped the kids full of snacks so that we wouldn’t need to worry about dinner when we got home.
Here’s a map of our route. Just the walking we did between sights. There was plenty of wandering off the plotted path that happened as well. So I’m pretty sure it was closer to 4 or maybe even 5 miles. And since he and Clara had gone running this morning, Jonathan’s phone was putting them at about 7.5 miles today.
It was a day of misadventures. But we got to see some cool stuff. And we had a great time despite the craziness.
