Lincoln Memorial and drive to New York City

Again, the boys had us up early for a nice breakfast. We packed up the room, and headed towards the Lincoln Memorial.  After driving past it yesterday, I really wanted to see it up close.  We found somewhere to park (for free) a short walk away.  The boys were actually able to run across some sports fields before crossing the road to get to the memorials.

First stop was the Korean War Memorial.  This features 19 statues that depicts solids on patrol facing an American Flag.  It is dedicated to 1.5 million men and women who served in the Korean War.  Thats a lot of people.  This was a pretty moving memorial.  

Next we walked to the front of the Reflecting Pool.  I had to hold Seb's hand very tight, as I was afraid he would make a run for the water.

                               

It was a blazing hot morning, and was only about 9.30am.  There were quite a few people around, but not super busy.  My timings in avoiding crowds had been ace so far...

                                

The Lincoln Memorial is something else.  It is so grand, and beautiful.  The memorial was dedicated in 1922, and has been the site of many famous speeches.  It is a tribute to Abraham Lincoln, and the 36 columns that surround the structure represent the 36 states in the Union at the time of Lincoln's death.  Around the top of the structure are the names of the states.  

Inside sits a 19ft statue of Lincoln.  Pretty grand.  The decor inside is amazing too, with the Gettysburg address and Lincoln's second inaugural address both carved into the marble.  

                               

As I stated earlier, the Lincoln Memorial has been the site of many famous speeches and addresses.  Not many are more famous that Martin Luther King Jr's 'I have a dream' speech.  We had to wait for some tourists to move off the spot on the floor before we could get the photo below.

The Lincoln Memorial is amazing.  A kinda wish we had time to do more of the monuments/memorials, but the kids wouldn't have stood for it, no matter how much ice cream we promised them.  Washington D.C is definitely a place I want to go back to, but when we are older, and don't have the kids in tow.  

Now onwards and upwards to NYC.  It took about 4 hours to get there, driving through Baltimore

                              

and around Philadelphia.  Those first few glimpses of the city were amazing.

The traffic, however was not.  We had to travel through Manhattan Island and out the other side to get to Brooklyn, where we were staying.  This is one of the times I was grateful we had an E-Z pass.  This is basically a prepaid transponder that fits in your car, and enables you to go through tolls at slow speed, and the cost of the toll gets taken off your account.  

Brooklyn is an interesting place.  Again reminded of parts of London, where one street looks dodgy as hell, the next is once as pie.  The urban density is immense.  We got to our apartment at dinner time and were greeted by the owner.  It was 2nd floor of an old brownstone, with one bedroom with 2 double beds.  The living area had a sleeper sofa, but there were no doors between the 2.  The owner is an artist, and his work was on the walls.  Very good.  We also had access to a balcony. We walked to the local store, and this was your old style corner store, like the one you used to get in England before supermarkets ran them out of business.

The view from our apartment

                              

The boys had a toast dinner, while we indulged in beer.  As Seb was in a bed here, he was a nightmare, and it took Paul laying with him, then me laying with Isaac to get them to go to sleep.  But they went eventually.

They would need it for the mammoth day the next day touring the city

Full day in Washington, D.C.

Typically the boys awoke about 6.30 am, which enabled us to go down to breakfast fairly early.  Lucky for us, breakfast was included in the price of the hotel, and we opted for a buffet breakfast.  The kids loved it, and had at least 2 mini boxes of cereal each.  A gentleman at breakfast recommended the spy museum for the kids, he said it was really good, but unfortunately this was not in our plans for the day.  

We headed out of the car park from the hotel and went for a quick drive around the monuments.  We decided not to stop, as we had too many other things planned for the day.  We eventually found somewhere to park near L'Enfant metro station.  We may have been better off using public transport, but with 3 young kids, it is not something we are overly confident about.  It did cost us in parking though, about $25!  But we were able to park close enough to the museums, so the walk there took us past the Capitol Building

First stop was the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.  I would say this is probably equivalent to the Natural History Museum in London.  We got there about 20 minutes after it opened, so missed the initial rush, so the queue for bag searches wasn't too long.  The great thing about the museums we visited in Washington, they are all FREE (though a donation is suggested).  

Sebastian loved the elephant in the entrance hall

A particular hit with the boys was an interactive classroom, where they could look at many different things such as fossils, seeds, shells etc.  We entered the room when it was quiet, and left when one of the many school groups visiting entered.  

Another hit was the live insect zoo.  Isaac loves bugs, and was pleased to see so many in one place.  This is a really good exhibit, with plenty of creatures and staff on hand to give you information about the exhibits, and even let you hold the insects.  Here is Isaac with a Carolina tobacco caterpillar.  These things were big, and there was a display of them, some caterpillars, some moths.  

We spent most of the morning in the museum.  It is well worth a visit, very glad we were there on a thursday, so it wasn't too busy (running theme here…).  We were desperately hungry by the time we left, but there are few place to eat within walking distance in this area.  Thank goodness for a McDonalds hut.  We had noticed on our drive looking for a parking place, that there were many food trucks in the L'Enfant area.  I imagine McDonalds placed there hut outside the Air and Space Museum in the hope of generating business, and they certainly did.  

It is a short walk from the Museum of Natural History to The Air and Space Museum, walking back past the Capitol Building again.  There seemed to be some kind of protest on the steps, luckily we were far enough away from it.  

After lunch we ventured to the Air and Space Museum.  May have just been the time of day, but this was much busier, with big queues for bag searches.  Think we waited about 20 minutes to get in.  

So many aircraft in one place.  By now we were pretty museum-ed out, so this was hard going, even though there were may wonderful exhibits.

The boys loved this one, in fact they liked most of them.  

This museum didn't seem as good as the Natural History Museum.  It felt a bit mismatched and hard to navigate, especially with the number of people there.  May just have been tiredness kicking in….

We decided it was time to go.  We headed back to the car, and got back to the hotel in time to go to the bar to watch England get ejected from the World Cup.  

After a hard day museum-ing, our boys did awesome sitting in the bar, playing kindles while we enjoyed some sherbets.  

Thank goodness the bar was empty, and the staff were really good.  The boys even got their promised ice creams.

Having already eaten out at lunch (ok, it was only a McD's), we were in a quandary what to do for dinner.   In the end we decided, sod it, we are on holiday, and looked for a restaurant within walking distance.

There were loads of them….. We took a walk to the Logan Circle area of D.C.  Such an interesting area.  It reminded us a bit of parts of London, its own little mini town within a city.  

We had decided to try Logan Tavern.  We were seating quickly in a nice booth to the side.  This place reminded me a lot of Bacon Brothers in Greenville.  Lots of fresh local produce.  We ordered beers, I went with the Troegs Perpetual IPA, and Paul had the Heavy Seas amber lager, these were decisions made with the help of our server.  We all felt pretty comfortable in this establishment.  It had a nice relaxed atmosphere.  Seb and Isaac had the grilled cheese sandwiches, and Oliver went with a cheeseburger.   After asking the servers advice, I went with one of their signature dishes, the Crispy Chicken Paillard with garlic mash.  Paul decided on the grilled boneless pork shoulder.

Again the food was delightful.  Juicy, succulent and very flavorsome.  Empty plates all round.  Think we were really tiring the kids out, as they became very good at clearing their plates.

                             

Logan Tavern is a good place to eat if you are in that area of Washington D.C.  I might even say it is worth traveling there, as the food and atmosphere are very enjoyable.  The servers were very good also, and it was not too busy.  

Logan Circle area of D.C was certainly interesting….. on the way to and from the restaurants we saw some sights….  men having their nails done…...gentlemen in ladies clothing…...few cross gender people.  Not sure if stumbled into that area of Washington, but it was well worth it!

It was fairly early to bed that night, after a crazy busy day.  We had to drive to NYC the next day…...