vacation 2010 - Part 2

Driving through the midwest is a lot of old farmhouses and barns, but really you can't get a good picture from the highway.

and I don't know why Tim Hortons can not move South - I think they would do good business anywhere.

We probably looked weird taking the kids picture by the sign.

More pictures from the road.......

He finally took a nap!  A must for a long road trip if you have young kids - DVD player and wireless headphones.  On our long driving days we stopped the the Red Box so they could get some new movies (you can return them to any red box).

Really the kids did great in the car the whole trip.  The also read a lot and we played the license plate game - seeing which states all the cars were from.

We counted 46 states, 5 canadian provinces and 1 from Mexico.

Now on to day 1 in Washington DC!  We stayed in Rockville, Maryland and caught the Metro train into the city.  

the White House

I guess this is the Obama's organic garden

see the expression on Kate's face?  By this time we needed to get out of the sun and find a bathroom.

First museum to see - American History:

Julia Child's kitchen

the kids enjoyed the popular culture area:

the ruby slippers from Wizard of Oz

Fonzie's leather jacket -

Kermit the frog -

Archie Bunker's chairs -

A piece of the Berlin wall -

a piece of one of the World trade centers

On to the Natural History museum -

out on the mall area

the Smithsonian castle

riding the carousel

Air and Space Museum

a much needed rest stop and place to take off our shoes

views from the Old Post Office building -

Like good tourists we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe -

 

Washington DC has so much to see, you could spend many days here - we decided to do all we could in 2 days, and we did a LOT.  Next up will be our big day 2 in Washington DC.

It is great that everything is FREE to enter, the food is expensive, but the cafeterias in the museums are all really good, have a lot of fresh foods and a lot of choices.

If you don't mind a lot of walking then you can save a lot by walking everywhere too, that's what we did.