I was pretty tired of taking the kids to museum after museum so I decided we really needed a park day! I took the kids to the Tidal Basin, it's the lake by the Jefferson Memorial where they have the Cherry Blossom Festival in the spring, after learning a little about the Cherry Blossoms and how they were a gift from Japan it sounds absolutely magical. The Tidal Basin is also in lots of movies where spies meet up:)
Before heading over we went to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. This was my first time inside at this memorial too because the girls fell asleep when Ken took us on the Monuments by Moonlight Tour.
In the bottom part there is an area that details Thomas Jefferson's life. There were tons of quotes by him on the walls and it felt like we were really able to get a sense of who he was.
I keep telling Ken that Washington D.C. is such a romantic city and that I would love to come back with just him someday. He thinks I'm crazy since he has to deal with all the politics, plus he is working. But I still think if he had a chance to see all the amazing buildings and visit the museums with me he would think so. Our founding fathers were certainly passionate men and I really loved these two quotes by Jefferson about his wife.
When we were upstairs by the memorial Nathan and I had a really great conversation about religion and the restoration of the church. It has been an amazing to experience seeing all these sites with my boys and talking to them about how just one thought can change the whole world and how our founding fathers were inspired to create a completely different atmosphere where freedoms could be enjoyed and different religions could be born.
We walked down the steps out to the basin, they were doing some renovations.
My handsome boys!
We walked around the basin had a little lunch and rented paddle-boats When I declared we were having a park day the girls thought we were going to a park with slides and swings. They decided that paddle-boats are much cooler though!
Once the boys started drifting out on their own, it dawned on me that this brilliant idea of mine might be kind of risky. What if they fall out of the boats? What if they can't steer and end up by the dam? What if they get tired and are stuck in the middle of the lake all day?
Then me and the girls in our boat got pushed out and I started having all those same crazy thoughts about us. After a few minutes of freaking out in my head, I shrugged it off and chalked it up to another time when I charge ahead without fear until I'm neck deep in it. Whoops, Ken will laugh about it with me later, right???
We ended up having a lovely day paddling around. It was fun to be out with the girls and take everything in. It felt very quintessential Washington D.C.
The paddle-boats are launched across the basin from the Jefferson Memorial.
Especially when we saw "Marine One" fly overhead. I'm not really sure if it is Marine One, but my boys found out that was what the President's Helicopter was named so every we saw a helicopter that and saw that it wasn't from a news station that's what we said.
I didn't need to worry so much about the boys paddling solo. They did a great job. Way better then me, actually! They also stayed pretty close to us. That's the Washington Monument in the background.
There were so many ducks it was kind of crazy. The girls loved that they followed us around everywhere we went.
Getting closer to the Jefferson Memorial.
And since what I was doing wasn't crazy enough at one point we hooked boats with the boys and Darin hopped in with me and Rose hopped in with Nathan. You can imagine how pleased Ken was when I told him that:) But see how cute they are together!
These two are pretty cute too!
I love Ginger's little menacing smile.
And then Nathan hopped on the back of my boat.
Yay! Nobody drowned! Let's celebrate with some ice cream.
We walked over to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
We walked around to the front entrance which ended up not being an entrance at all. Can I just say it's hot outside! Not nearly as hot as Texas, but with hoofing it all around and paddling I was hot and sweaty.
They give tours of the Engraving and Printing but you have to get tickets to it in the morning. The guys said it didn't even have to be that early but before 10am they are usually gone. We walked through the little lobby stuff which was enough to see some fun facts about money. It would have been fun to see the money actually being made though.
We walked back to the car and that concludes a very fun park day. I love my kids so much and this day will be a day I remember for a long time. The laughs and talks we had I will always cherish!
The girls loved picking up all the "nuts". Ginger said, "A corn, that's not a corn. It's a nut!"
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