DC family vacation 2012 - Day 5

Today was the last day of our Washington DC family vacation. Shannon and BJ had already flown back to Lancaster the night before and it was just Mom, Dad, Carlos, and me left. We started the morning off with a stop by Potbelly (as usual!) before taking the metro to Arlington National Cemetery. We looked around the Visitor’s Center before heading out to the Kennedy graves and the eternal flame. There were quite a few people at Arlington, but because it is such a large space, we weren’t really bothered by the crowds. We also walked around a bit and visited the Tomb of Unknown Soldiers for the changing of the guards ceremony. While we were there, we heard numerous 21-gun salutes for funerals in the area.

We took a tour shuttle from Arlington Cemetery with the plan of having a leisurely tour of the city’s sites before getting off at the Lincoln Memorial to look around. However, we (or maybe I should say our bus) only made it as far as Union Station. While stopped there, the bus died and instead of waiting forever for a new one to come, we went in to Union Station to enjoy a nice burger lunch at Johnny Rockets. We will have to save the Lincoln Memorial for the next family vacation!

After lunch, we toured around the American Indian Museum for a little while before heading back home for a break before dinner.

We walked from our apartment to Ethiopic (a nearby Ethiopian restaurant) for dinner and it was pretty great. We shared a vegetarian sampler platter and it was a good amount of food for four people to share (although they claim that it is only enough for two!). We walked with Mom and Dad back to their hotel and said our goodbyes -- they had an early morning flight back to Seattle the next day.

I had a really great time having everyone out here visiting and I would love to have another family vacation soon. I know Shannon and I have been talking about another trip out to Disneyworld in November 2013...and Carlos and I will visit Mom, Dad, Shannon, and BJ in a little over a month in Snoqualmie for Shannon and BJ’s wedding. Woo-hoo!