Washington D.C. Part Two

Friday was our day to see the White House! I was so excited our congresswoman was able to secure a tour of the inside. 

Riding the metro over.

Stopped for a quick photo at the FBI building. 

On the tour. The guards were so helpful and answered all the boys' questions! :)

I had previously booked tickets to go up the Washington Monument that ended up being at the same time as our White House tour. The guards at the monument were so helpful and let us go up even though we were late!

We met back up with mom, who didn't want to go up the Washington Monument and instead went back to our airbnb to get our bags (since we couldn't take anything into the White House). We walked around some of the other sites like the World War II Memorial and then got lunch at some food trucks before going to the American History Museum. 

For dinner that night the boys and mom got Mr. Beast Burger (another internet sensation that Dave was super excited about) and the rest of us went out to eat at a great Italian restaurant called Sfoglina. 

We came back to find the kids and mom engrossed in another game of Exploding Minions. 

For our last day in DC, it was a little rainy, so we hopped on the metro to go to a couple of museums. First stop was the Museum of Natural History, which Ike was very excited for!

There's a whole section of the museum dedicated to rocks, minerals, meteors, etc. He was in heaven. 

Dave really liked the section on Egypt, but it was pretty small unfortunately.

We busted out our ponchos to go grab some lunch at Shake Shack before it was time for our Library of Congress viewing. 

The Library of Congress was really cool. Wish we could have gotten the tickets to go in and browse the books, but we were able to go to the children's section at least and get a view from up top!

We capped off the trip with some more games and then went to visit the Watermelon House which was about a block away!

 

Such a fun trip to share with the boys. Definitely glad we waited until they were older to go...we saw lots of young families and that just didn't look like nearly as much fun! Dave's favorite part of the vacation was seeing the White House and Capitol Building. Ike's favorite part was the geode section of the Natural History Museum and white water rafting!

Washington D.C. Part One

 We left West Virginia fairly early on Wednesday to head to D.C. This was Dave's main part of the trip, he (and all of us!) was so excited to see everything DC had to offer. Mom left before us to pick up Tony and Ben from the airport, then we all at Arlington Cemetery and ate lunch. 

We spent a little over an hour walking around Arlington. Saw the changing of the guards, JFK and Jackie's gravesites and some others. It was super hot that afternoon so we were looking to go have a cool glass of water and some lunch after this. 

Lunch was at Duke's Grocery, just a little bit away from our VRBO we stayed at. It was super great, my sandwich especially!

Kids in front of our home for the rest of the week.

Thursday morning started off rainy, so we waited it out then headed in to the main part of the city.

First time on the metro for the kids!

First stop was the National Archives. We really had a great visit, and we got to get in super fast and first because of mom's veteran status.

Next up was a tour of the Capitol that I had set up with my local congresswoman. One of her interns took us on a great tour, super informative. 

The Hawaiian state statue was the kids' favorite. 

We were all hungry after this so we headed to China Town to find something to eat. We ended up at Nando's Peri Peri because Dave is kind of obsessed with watching people eat food on YouTube and this is famous on that!

Next up was the Portrait Gallery, we wanted to see all the presidents! And it was close by :)

I loved the one of JFK.

We went back to our house, rested for a bit and had some dinner, then hit the road again to see the monuments at night. Mom decided to skip this one, we'd had a long day already!

Started off at the Washington Monument.

Then over to the Jefferson Memorial. 

Looped around to the FDR and Martin Luther King Jr. memorials. 

And finished up at the Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam Memorial. We saved the WWII Memorial for during the day later in the trip. 

We had a jam-packed first couple of days but we got a lot done in a short amount of time! 

New River Gorge National Park

Dave really wanted to go white water rafting as part of his 6th grade summer vacation, so we landed on the New River Gorge National Park area, specifically Fayetteville, West Virginia.  I had no idea just how beautiful and scenic this area is! Highly recommend checking it out if you're looking for an adventurous getaway. 

Our first stop was driving up miles and miles of winding roads to get to Hawks Nest State Park. We had a little time before our Airbnb opened up, so we walked around this area for a bit. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Checked into our house for the next several days. Of course the kids were interested in the hot tub right away.

The rest of our party arrived shortly after us-my mom, uncle, aunt and Grandpa Dave! 

Bright and early the next morning we were up to go white water rafting. It was kind of a dreary morning, but it worked out great for us. The guy getting us ready convinced us to go in "duckies" instead of the big raft. I was extremely not on board with this plan, but we ended up loving it. It was Dave and I in one and Ike and Josh in the other.

We stopped for lunch, then got back on the river (we went on the Upper New River portion). At one point we were catching up with another group so the kids got to jump in and swim a little. The water was so warm!

Since it was the 4th of July weekend, there was lots of stuff going on at Fayetteville. Grandpa loves live music so we went to the town park (it was walkable from our house) several times while we were visiting. 

We woke up to a beautiful morning, so we drove over the famous bridge to the visitor center and some great views!

Aunt Kathy really wanted to see Diamond Point, so we took part of the Endless Wall Trail up to it. It was a bit more strenuous then we thought but we made it!

 

Kids jumping around in the creek. 

After the hike we took the winding road down to the original bridge and got to see the new bridge from down below. 

I guess we just weren't tired enough because the four of us went on yet another hiking adventure that afternoon! This one was a bit of a bust. I think it will be cool once it's all up and running, but I had read online that Needleseye recreation area was great for kids. There was very little trail marking so we got off the path quite a bit, and it was extremely muddy while we were there!

Mom and Aunt Kathy prepared a water war for when we got back that the kids absolutely loved. Video of the kids playing on the raft and the water fight. 

Then it was time for fireworks, which we watched from the backyard. 

Our last full day was spent driving to the Grandview section of the national park. It was so beautiful there, and no one in sight!

On our way back we stopped in the town of Thurmond, which was abandoned (5 people live there now) after the coal/train business left the area. 

Quick stop at Dunlop Creek Falls. There were waterfalls all over the place. 

That evening, Grandpa, Uncle Denny and Aunt Kathy all took off. We stayed one more night before heading to Washington D.C. the next day!