he one thing that registered some level of excitement across all family demographics was going up into the Washington Monument. Ascending the Washington Monument requires a ticket. A ticket requires getting up real early and standing in line as the time slots are given out on a first-come basis starting at 8:30 and sell out quickly. I have spent the night sleeping on sidewalks for dumber things like Van Halen tickets and Wii Game Systems – so this was no big deal. It was a glorious sun splashed 4 mile run to the monument from our hotel and I arrived at 7:30AM and was about the 100th person in line. By 8:30 there were probably 300 people in line. With 2:00pm time slot tickets in hand – I triumphantly jumped on the Metro and returned to our hotel.
The game plan for the day was to hit all the major monuments/memorials. The start was the Lincoln Memorial – a classic and favorite of my wife.
We then walked through the Vietnam, Korean and WWII memorials that were each impressive and sobering.
Next stop on the tour was the White House – we were held up briefly from walking in front – as there was something going on the White House lawn. Walking by it is amazing that people have been able to hope the fence and get all the way up to the White House. The kids kept me amused during the walk to the Washington monument telling me what a terrible president that I would make. There is no question I would be a one term president.
The Washington Monument was worth the early morning wait and the views of the surrounding area were spectacular.
As a test of our kids patience we decided to squeeze in a quick visit to the National Arts Museum before hitting the airport. No wonder the kids don’t want me to be president. On the positive end – we ended up with only a $.20 balance on our Metro cards – so at least I have my fiscal house in order !
Smooth sailing to the airport. Thankfully we were taking JetBlue to Tampa so that we could watch the Celtics all the way down... made it a quick flight.
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