Washington DC--Thursday

  I'm finally back with our last day in Washington DC! After packing up and checking out, we headed out to Arlington National Cemetery. None of the children were very excited about it, but I was convinced that they would be impressed by the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. Changing of the Guard happens every hour and when we arrived we had adequate time to get there. I figured there would be signs so we didn't seek out a map. Problem was that we missed a sign and ended up having no clue where we were going. We kindof followed the crowd and ended up at the Eternal Flame at the grave site of the Kennedy family.

Time was ticking away at this point and what we finally figured out was that the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was on the other side of the cemetery. We started walking as fast as Isaiah would let us as we watched the minutes ticking. I didn't really want to wait around for another hour, but I didn't think we would make it either. When the clock struck 11:00, we were within running distance and Aliza took off. I followed her and, ultimately, we made it only a minute or two late.

Everyone was glad we made it. When the official Changing of the Guard ended we moved to the middle and a few minutes later a wreath ceremony started. We were right in the middle and had a great view.

We took a leisurely and direct path back to the parking lot. 

Our last stop was to view the front of the White House. We were pretty tuckered out and ready to head home, so we opted to pay for a close parking garage. Totally worth it this time!

 

 

There was a protest happening in the park across the street which led to interesting conversation and education about freedom of speech. Aliza had a few more memorials that she wished that we could have seen so she started a "Things to Do in DC Next Time" list. 

This one will go down in the Heslop Family memories. Aliza, Josiah and Anna thanked us over and over for this adventure.