Washington D.C 2011 - Day 4

This was probably our busiest day! We woke up EARLY to head out for our tour of the WHITE HOUSE!! My opinion is no matter what your particular feelings may be politically, the White House is soooo full of history, it is a must see! We requested a tour months in advance and found out 2 weeks before we left that we got one! In case you are wondering, they did do background checks on us before we were even notified that we received a tour. The tour was not disappointing by any means, but we were only allowed to see the first floor. (Mitch was disappointed that he didn't get to see the bowling alley...can you picture my eyes rolling right now???! :D)

Waiting for the tour to begin!

Our tour was guided by a uniformed secret service officer and there were secret service EVERYWHERE. I guess I wasn't surprised by this, but it is a little odd to see officers carrying assault rifles while walking up and down the White House lawn!!!! We were not allowed to take anything with us in the White House and our phones had to remain in our pockets. As soon as we stepped outside the doors, we were allowed to take a quick phone picture of us in front of the White House. Oh btw, Luci slept the. entire. time. Not that she would remember doing this, but I would have liked her awake for the pics! Lol!

The WHITE HOUSE!

Outside the White House lawn...why am I the only one paying attention???!!!

After our White House tour, we went back to the hotel and all loaded up on a tour bus to go back through what we saw the day before so Mitch could see it all since he had been conferencing/working most of the trip.

After that we stopped by probably my most favorite thing the entire time: The National Archives. This is where the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and many other important documents to our nation are housed. In addition to these documents they have TONS of other fun and interesting things to look at! Mitch and I are pretty nerdy when it comes to history stuff so we loved it! Check out their website to see what all is there!!

For preservation reasons, we could not take pictures inside...so this is our only photo from the Archives!

After this, we headed out for our tour of the Library of Congress! This was such an awesome and beautiful building! Our tour was unfortunately scheduled close to closing time so we did not get to explore much. Check out their website for more info!

Inside

Outside

Helping Luci get up the stairs

After this we walked over to Union Station. Union Station was the hub of transportation for the railroad in D.C. in the early 1900's. Now it functions as a Amtrak station and Metro station. It also has tons of shops and restaurants in it!!

Finally after eating dinner and shopping, we took Metro back for the hotel and started packing to fly out the next day!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3