more dc...

From the Washington Monument we walked over to the WWII Memorial. Kind of a tender moment when you hold those who fight for our country with such admiration. I love the look of this memorial...kind of a Greecian pool look to the whole thing. :) More walking...trying to get my daughter to hold my hand,. Quite honestly, that was the best part of the trip that I took with Chelsea...she would reach over and grab my hand towards the end of the trip. I was parnoid about losing one of my kids! Chantel wasn't quite so eager to be holding my hand..but every so often she would reach over and grab it ;)Walked some more to the Vietnam Memorial and then sat in the shade for a bit. It was so dang hot!! We then went to the Lincoln Memorial and found some relief in the gift shop. They had the air conditioning running so it was nice. There were some little kids in they that literally dropped everything they touched. Books falling, posters tumbling...it was funny. I really think that it would have been so much more enjoyable for Paul and Chantel to see if it weren't so sweaty. I wasn't as awed by it all as I was two years ago; I was just hot, sweaty and tired of walking :) (What a whiner..) From there we saw the Korean War Memorial and then walked forever to the Jefferson Memorial, seeing the FDR Memorial along the way.I don't think that we realized how far apart everything is. In any pictures you see, it all looks like its not too far away..but it really is quite the little hike. By then it was so blasted hot that we tried to find an indoor activity. We stopped at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to take the tour and had about 30 minutes to wait. I was feeling so lightheaded and overheated that we stopped in the shade and ate a little snack while we waited for our time to do the tour. After eating and drinking....I felt much better. The tour was interesting and it was cool in the building so it was all good :) By this time, it was close to 5pm so we walked back to the hotel to rest for just a sec and then went to go eat at the Hard Rock Cafe. Loud music and not so great service but my food was so dang yummy! I didn't really care how long we had to wait for our food..I just wanted to sit down for a long time and drink lots of cold water. We saw Ford's Theater just a couple of buildings over but it was closed for renovation and no tours were happening. Chantel was a little disappointed. Later that evening we walked back down to the mall and saw the Washington Monument lit up for the night. Very coolio!