good clean capitol funishment

I have now been to Washington D.C. six times. The first five times were for work and I wasn’t able to see everything I would have liked because I was in meetings all day and by the time I was able to get to the Mall, all of the museums were closed. I was lucky if I had a two hour window before my flight to get through one museum (usually about half of it). This last time I was on an actual vacation and had the chance to see nearly everything I wanted to. Here is everything I saw while traveling to D.C and back again.

Day 1—Traveling
Salt Lake City Airport
Atlanta Georgia Airport
Washington Dulles Airport
Comfort Inn at Tyson’s Corner

Day 2—Monuments Day aka Lots of Walking
Washington Monument
World War II Monument
Vietnam Memorial
Lincoln Monument
Korean War Memorial
Holocaust Museum* (A humbling experience and not for the faint of heart)
FDR Memorial
Jefferson Memorial
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing
PF Chang’s with a group of 32

Day 3—Day at the Museum
Fords Theater
American History Museum*
Natural History Museum*
Pizza and Games with the family

Day 4—Another Day at the Museum
The White House tour with an appearance by Alonzo Mourning (President Obama held up the tour because he was in a room nearby)
Top of the Washington Monument
Native American Museum
Air and Space Museum*
Fudruckers

Day 5—More Museums
National Archives (when a big security guard with a deep voice tells you not to take flash photography you better listen. Luckily I didn’t have to learn through experience)
Library of Congress*
Tour of the Capitol
The Golden Corral (not by choice)

Days 6-7—Pilgrimage to the Uncle’s House in Virginia
Church
Tour of James Madison University
Listen to my uncle’s sweet speakers (we’re talking speakers costing tens of thousands of dollars)
Harrisonburg, VA bowling alley

Day 8—Traveling
Washington Dulles Airport with the slowest ID and gate ticket checker ever
Cincinnati Airport
Salt Lake City Airport
Home!

*highly recommended

good timing

I went to Washington D.C. with my extended family for a week in June. At one point we had 40 people wandering around the Mall, getting on and off the Metro, and taking over PF Chang’s.

The timing of our trip couldn’t have been better. We narrowly missed two tragic events. The shooting at the Holocaust Museum took place less than a week before we arrived and the worst accident in the D.C. Metro’s history took place only two days after we left downtown. These two events are incredibly sad and I’m sorry for the families that are affected, but I’m grateful my family had a safe vacation.

Because of this I’m reminded that bad things can happen at anytime and we need to be grateful every time we arrive to our intended destination safely, every time we go a public area and return home again, every time we go to work and return to our families.