During our summer we usually have at least one planned vacation. Having at least one vacation planned leaves us
the freedom to decide on a random Thursday afternoon to make a 9 hour drive to DC the next day. This is exactly how our DC trip came to fruition. I always have the itch to travel and I am constantly searching for places to go. Originally I was set on Mammoth Cave NP in Kentucky, but with a little research I realized I needed tickets for some of the places and those were sold out. Covid has definitely made a change in the spontaneity of our trips lately, but we can always work around. Literally the first thing Harrison asked when we started talking about going was if he would get to see the Lincoln Memorial. The best part was it was the FIRST thing we saw once we arrived into the city. And at night – it was stunning.
The kids and I have always wanted to visit DC – as well as all of the other places in the world. From a quick search, a text to a trusted DC-expert friend I have and an e-mail to our local state rep we planned our trip. Hotel rates looked great and the city had just opened itself up a bit. I travel often with my kids solo, so when I am booking hotels I always try to find the most central location, as well as one that has some sort of secured entry.
We stayed in a Marriott property – the Residence Inn by the Convention Center in the downtown area. I’ve been a loyal Marriott member for almost 20 years, so I usually seek out those properties specifically when traveling. While this was a great hotel and close, I would probably choose one that is even a bit closer. When traveling solo with kids a small distance can make a huge difference.
We arrived pretty late into DC, but finally got to bed around 11PM. Just
before bed we arranged to rent scooters for the next day. Last summer the kids and I saw scooters in several of the larger cities we visited and I promised them that we would rent them on our next adventure. We rented scooters from dcscooters and had an amazing time. It was the best mode of transportation for our trip. There are several scooter companies all around the town, you simply download the app and then pay by the usage of the scooter, sort of like a taxi. My intent behind renting the scooters for the day was so that we would always have a scooter waiting for us when we needed it.
In our first full day we were able to visit pretty much the entire DC area. We saw just about every site there was to see. I was very thankful we had the scooters because we would never have wanted to walk to much in the heat – I don’t think I even knew it was going to be that hot! The kids were able to collect tons of stamps in their National Park Passport book. I’m pretty sure I need to just take one of their books because it is probably more fun for me.
Day two we did not have the scooters, but I sure wish we did! We turned
our scooters in and then walked around the city. We were able to get walk up tickets to Ford’s Theater. My daughter was extremely excited to visit this museum. Part of the reopening of the city is that you must reserve times online for a majority of the museums. Ford was one of them. Other museums that did not have availability, but that we plan to visit in the future, are the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and Smithsonian National Museum of American History. We plan on visiting DC in the near future, so we will plan our trip around being able to get into these two museums.
Surprisingly, one of the kids’ most favorite museums was the National Gallery of Art and the National Portrait Gallery. We had one of the last time slots and ran out of time, but we could have walked about for several more hours. I was shocked at how much the kids loved this museum. Even a couple of months later we are still talking about this place and how we want to go back.
One of the most moving places we visited was the Holocaust Museum. We were
able to get last minute online tickets to this museum, again, it was free, we just had to reserve a time slot online. This was laid out with such care and attention to detail. I was grateful for the woman at the start who explained there were screens behind a barrier that showed graphic videos, while they were important to watch, I did not want my kids to see it at their current ages. It was hard to see the images, but I am thankful they showed them in the museum. I left there feeling heavy and somber.
Another source of transportation we used was the metro – a first for Harrison! We took it to Arlington Cemetery. We walked around the cemetery and ventured over to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This was Harrison’s favorite part. As we were leaving he actually stated that he wanted to sit and watch that all day. He was absolutely precious about it and I adored watching him watch. While there we also went to see the eternal flame at JFK’s gravesite as well.
As a note, this travel was during the COVID-19 pandemic, during the summer of 2021. Travel is constantly changing, so our trip may not be exactly what is available today.