Pre-Trip Report: It's Going to be a Capitol Vacation!

[jillyb]

You don't need tickets to get into Mount Vernon. If you are taking a tourmobile type thing there, save your money. A combination of the Metro and bus will get you there for a few dollars vs $30+/person for the boat or tour buses.

We're not doing a tourmobible/metro/bus when we go to Mt. Vernon. We are leaving that day so will be driving there.

 

[Hidden_Mickey]

Sweet! I got an e-mail today that we are all set for a White House tour!!! DH really wanted to do this, even though I told him it was over-rated. I still think it will be cool.

Jilly, your itin sounds great. I hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread but I figured it's better to keep all the info in one place. We leave Saturday morning, and I will update y'all in real time.

 

[mominwestlake]

Hiddenmickey, I am envious of your White House tour! Did you have 10 people or did they put you with another group?

We leave this morning- in about an hour or so if I can get everyone up and out. Hope it doesn't rain much in DC as it is pouring here in Ohio. I will try to give a trip report from the hotel.

Have fun planning everyone!

 

[Kirby]

Can't wait to hear how everyone's trip went!

 

[jillyb]

Sweet! I got an e-mail today that we are all set for a White House tour!!! DH really wanted to do this, even though I told him it was over-rated. I still think it will be cool.

Jilly, your itin sounds great. I hope you don't mind me hijacking your thread but I figured it's better to keep all the info in one place. We leave Saturday morning, and I will update y'all in real time.

Yay for your e-mail! Hope the White House tour is better than you expect.

I don't mind the hijacking. Hope ya'll have a good trip and I look forward to hearing about your trip.

 

[jillyb]

Hiddenmickey, I am envious of your White House tour! Did you have 10 people or did they put you with another group?

We leave this morning- in about an hour or so if I can get everyone up and out. Hope it doesn't rain much in DC as it is pouring here in Ohio. I will try to give a trip report from the hotel.

Have fun planning everyone!

Hope you got every one out the door and that you have a fun, rain free trip!

 

[iluvwdw4ever]

Hidden_Mickey...

How far in advance did you request the White House tour????

 

[Hidden_Mickey]

Hi, there are only 4 of us. Maybe they put us in with another group of 4 or 6? I dunno! But I think it will be cool! Thanks guys!

Hiddenmickey, I am envious of your White House tour! Did you have 10 people or did they put you with another group?

We leave this morning- in about an hour or so if I can get everyone up and out. Hope it doesn't rain much in DC as it is pouring here in Ohio. I will try to give a trip report from the hotel.

Have fun planning everyone!

 

[Hidden_Mickey]

I contacted my congressperson through her website (submitted a request) in March! You can submit your request up to 6 months in advance of your visit. We also asked for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Capitol, both of which we got. Apparently they don't schedule the White House tours until 7-10 days before your tour, so we sweated it out the last week or so, waiting to see if it would come through. She invited us to stop by her office before the Capitol tour, so I guess now we have to go to thank her, lol!

Hidden_Mickey...

How far in advance did you request the White House tour????

 

[jillyb]

Well, I got my bag yesterday. I love it and I don't love it. It's nylon on the outside, which I love, it has lots of compartments, which I love, and I am really loving the giraffe design. What I don't love is it won't hold our water bottles and light jackets for me and the girls.

I am very cold natured. Whenever we go out to eat I always make sure I bring a light jacket with me because otherwise I'll be freezing and miserable. The girls are usually OK but I wanted to carry a light jacket for them just in case. So now I've got to decide between carrying the water bottles or the jackets. Or carrying the water bottles and a jacket just for me.

I was planning on carrying:

water bottles
individual packets of Crystal Lite drink mix
snacks
light jackets
change of clothes for Hannah (she's notorious for waiting until the last minute to go to the bathroom, which results in "accidents")
handheld, battery operated fans w/extra batteries
camera w/extra batteries
bandaids and ibuprofen
UG to Washington, D.C.
cell phone, debit card, cash, keys, ID

I know I'll be able to get everything else in the bag; it's just those pesky water bottles and jackets. Guess I'm just going to have to play around with packing it!

 

[Quiksilvr]

One thing that also bit us in the rear was planning for meals. We ate a late breakfast on Sat. morning and were going to eat a late lunch at the cafe between the two art museums. Unfortunately, we got there at 3:30 to find out that they had closed at 3. That meant we had to walk several blocks away hungry, hot, and tired to try to find someplace to eat. (We ended up at a Potbellys that had great sandwiches). On Sunday night, we wanted to eat at Old Ebbitt's grill. However, since we were a party of 6 they were going to have to split us up and we would still have had to wait almost an hour for a table. (We ended up at Harry's Saloon, which was OK but I wouldn't recommend). I wish I had better planned out where to eat (including maps showing locations) and when to eat (to avoid long waits).

Good luck with your trip!!

Harry's! Harry's is fairly close to my office and I end up eating lunch there several times a month. It's such a dive, but I love it. Good corned beef sandwiches. I think I will go there for lunch today.

Old Ebbitt is overrated. I've eaten there a bunch of times. The coolest thing about it is knowing who else has also eaten there over the past hundred+ years.

There are so many good restaurants in DC that it is defintely wise to plan out your meals in advance. It's not like WDW where there is a quick-service restaurant every twenty yards. Although there are some areas where there are tons of restaurants close to one another, there are also stretches of downtown (especially near the Mall) where there is very little available. DC is weird that way.

 

[NewCrew42]

Hi! We are just back from DC! We had an awesome time! I really need to do a trip report but just wanted to make a few suggestions for you.

I hope you guys have an awesome time!

FINALLY got an e-mail response from visitor services at the National Archives with our reservation. The date/time is Friday, August 14 at 10:45 am. Ugh...not so good. Oh well...I can work with this!

So, without further ado, here's our final itinerary:

Thursday, August 13 (travel day):
Check in to Embassy Suites and get settled in room
Swim a couple of hours then get cleaned up, check out the local area and find someplace for supper
Get to bed early (no later than 10:00)

Friday, August 14:
Breakfast at hotel
National Archives - reservation @ 10:45 (hoping to be out of here by 11:30 so we can beat the lunch crowd)
Lunch at either the Pavilion Café or Cascade Café in the National Gallery of Art
Library of Congress (guided tours @ 10:30, 11:30, 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30)
International Spy Museum (closes @ 7:00 p.m. and last tour is @ 5:00)
Return to hotel; supper; swim before bed?

The Cascade Cafe is very conveniently located to the National Archives. This is where we ate on our trip. The food was very good and the cafe was not crowded at all. The Library of Congress tour was one of the highlights of our trip. The docent was an excellent story teller and kept the attention of my 11 year old daughter. Be sure to watch the National Treasure movies before you go. After the National Archives be sure to pop into the gift shop their to take your photo of the scene where Nicholas Cage is accused of trying to steal a souvenier copy of the Declaration. My kids loved that! You also see the Library of Congress Reading Room in movie and it will help to make the visit there more meaningful for your kids.

Saturday, August 15 (this day will be done with Tourmobile):
Breakfast at hotel
Arlington National Cemetery
Lunch at Old Glory BBQ
The Mall (FDR Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, Washington Monument, 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial, Iwo Jima Memorial and Korean War Veterans Memorial) *will do what can realistically be done
Return to hotel; supper; swim before bed?

We did Tourmobile at Arlington and it was very good. But I would like to recommend Bike the Sites to see the Monuments. The kids and I loved this and it was one of the highlights of our trip. We did the Monuments at Night tour and it was excellent. You bike the Mall and see the monuments, you have opportunites for photos, etc. The guide gives you a brief run down of all the monuments and memorials. My kids loved the novelty of riding bikes on the mall.

Sunday, August 16:
Breakfast at hotel
National Space Museum
Lunch at either Old Post Office Pavilion of Start and Stripes Cafe
Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden
Ride the carousel
National Museum of American History
Return to hotel; supper; swim before bed?

I would recommend seeing the American History Museum first. There are ques for the Star Spangled Banner, First Ladies, and Pop Culture exhibits. We went to this museum at opening and saw these exhibits first. By noon there were lines of people waiting for each exhibit and we were able to simply walk in. There were not any ques for exhibits at the Air and Space museum that I recall, so you can sort of make your way to each exhibit with out having to wait. I might think about this order:
Breakfast
National Museum of American History
Lunch (perhaps at Air & Space the food court is McDonald's/Boston Market/Pizza)
National Museum of Air & Space
Hirschhorn
Carousel

or
Breakfast
National Museum of American History
Lunch (American History has a decent lunch but my kids preferred the McDonald's @ Air and Space.)
Carousel
Hirschhorn
Air and Space


Monday, August 17:
Breakfast at hotel
National Zoo
Lunch at one of the cafes at the Zoo
National Museum of Natural History
Butterfly Pavilion @ Museum of Natural History
Return to hotel; supper; swim before bed?

Tuesday, August 18 (departure day):
Breakfast at hotel
Mount Vernon
Head for home

I still need to get our tickets for Tourmobile, Spy Museum, Butterfly Pavilion, Washington Monument and Mt. Vernon and we'll be all set! Oh, and I also want to print out information on the exhibits at the various museums so Clay and the girls can pick out what they want to see. The bag I ordered should be here Friday so I'll be checking it out and figuring out how much it will hold.

It occurred to me the other day I might need to buy one or two more SD cards for my camera. I've got two already: one 128 MB and one 2 GB. Do ya'll think these two will be enough or should I get another 2 GB just to be on the safe side? And, of course, I'll need to buy a couple extra batteries for the camera and make sure I bring extra batteries for our handheld fans.

 

[jillyb]

Thanks for the tips! We've all seen the first National Treasure Movie. Hannah and I saw the second one. I know Clay hasn't seen it; not sure about Alison. Maybe we need to rent that one before we go.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Thanks for the tips! We've all seen the first National Treasure Movie. Hannah and I saw the second one. I know Clay hasn't seen it; not sure about Alison. Maybe we need to rent that one before we go.

Have you seen the second Night at the Museum? That takes place at the Smithsonian and would really pique the girls' interest!

 

[jillyb]

Have you seen the second Night at the Museum? That takes place at the Smithsonian and would really pique the girls' interest!

Yes...Hannah and I saw it in IMAX. It was awesome! The night we saw it we were supposed to see a sneak preview of Up, but it was already full. Since we'd driven pretty far we decided to watch the Night at the Museum 2. Clay wasn't too happy to hear we'd seen it without him. LOL

 

[mominwestlake]

We are back and I need a vacation from my vacation! We walked and walked. I don't think it was too hot and not that humid. There was always a nice breeze.

Here is my trip report:

Thursday-
arrived 3:45 and checked into Residence Inn Capitol. I really like this hotel. We had a 1 bedroom (2Q bed) suite. It is nice having the kitchen space with full size frig. The bathroom was large with the toilet and tub in a separate room so someone else could use the sink. The bedroom was a good size. Breakfast is included and this saved our group of 7 a lot of money.

We walked right to the national mall (a few blocks from hotel) and visited the Natural History Museum. It was empty and we walked right up to the Hope Diamond. We brought in both water bottles and food and there were no issues. The museum was open until 7:30.

McDonalds for dinner

swimming in hotel pool

Friday

We took the metro to Arlington Cemetery. The metro was 1 block from our hotel.

Arlington tour via Tourmobile

metro to National Mall
lunch- picnic on mall

American History Museum
* I especially liked the temporary Lincoln exhibit

walked to Union Station for dinner

Monuments by Moonlight via Tourmobile-
I think Tourmobile is the only one that stops at the WWII Memorial and lets you get out. I love this memorial at night. Vietnam Wall at night wasn't so great.
* This was a great tour and worth every penny. Mel was our guide and he was super. This was the highlight of the trip for the kids.

Walked back to hotel- we were out for 14 hours straight!

Saturday

My dd14 and I visited the Postal Museum and really enjoyed it
Walked by the Supreme Court for pictures

The rest of our party visited the Air and Space Museum

Lunch in Air and Space food court

American Indian Museum

3:00 Ford's Theater ranger talk, Peterson House

7:00 6 members of our party went up to the top of the Washington Monument

back to hotel, pool

Sunday

drove to Mount Vernon. The drive was very easy. We spent almost 6 hours at Mount Vernon. We arrived a little before 10 am and it wasn't crowded at all. Had to wait maybe 20 minutes for mansion. This was my highlight.

drove to Washington National Zoo to see the Pandas. Arrived a little after 4 pm and the zoo closed at 6 pm. We really only wanted to see the pandas so the short amount of time was perfect for us.

Drove and parked so we could walk by both sides of the White House.


Fridays for dinner.

Monday

Checked out of the hotel.

Drove to the Washington National Cathedral.

Took our own gargoyle tour with information I got off the internet.

Drove back home.

Notes- We were able to bring food and water into all the museums we visited without any problem.

We were never cold anywhere (and I am a freeze baby) except I was chilly in the Mount Vernon museum.

The kids brought binoculars and these were used often by them.

The kids had fun collecting pressed pennies at each place.

Bought a Christmas ornament for our tree to remember our trip by.

 

[Kirby]

Sounds like you had a good trip! Thanks for sharing with us!

 

[jillyb]

Mominwestlake thanks so much for posting about your trip...glad everyone had a good time!

I'm glad to hear there were no problems with bringing in water bottles and food.

Ohhhh....pressed pennies! The girls will love getting those! Guess I better some quarters! Were the machines hard to find?

 

[jillyb]

Things are rolling right along and it looks like there's nothing left to do but wait for August 13th!

On Friday I got our reservation for the Washington Monument for 2:30 p.m. on August 15.

I just pre-ordered tickets for the Spy Museum for 4:00 pm on August 14th. I thought about getting them for 3:00 but decided to give myself some wiggle room just in case.

I also pre-ordered tickets for Mt. Vernon. I got general admission tickets for 8:00 a.m. (I'm assuming that doesn't mean we have to be there at 8:00!) and National Treasure 2 Tour tickets for 1:00.

After reading some bad reviews on TripAdvisor on Tourmobile I've decided not to do the 1 day ticket and am going to stick with the Arlington Cemetery tour only. I know Clay was concerned about how long we would have to wait at each attraction. One of the reviews I read stated that the waits are 20-25 minutes between attractions. I just can't see him being very patient waiting that long; especially if we could walk (or take the Metro) and get there quicker.

The only other tickets I need to pre-order are for the Butterfly Pavillion. I can't order those until Saturday so I'll be doing that first thing.

 

[golfgal]

Mominwestlake thanks so much for posting about your trip...glad everyone had a good time!

I'm glad to hear there were no problems with bringing in water bottles and food.

Ohhhh....pressed pennies! The girls will love getting those! Guess I better some quarters! Were the machines hard to find?

No, they are everywhere. DD got several.