On day 2 of our trip, we had a great breakfast and took the shuttle to Union Station. We took the metro over to Arlington and spent a few hours walking around the cemetery and were able to catch the tail end of the Changing of the Guard. We also walked thru Arlington House and took in the view of the city. On our way out, we stopped at the Women’s Memorial. It is really nice plus, bonus, it’s air-conditioned! Then we walked to the metro to ride to Pentagon City Mall. During our fam trip, my son really was impressed with this place and wanted to see more of it. So this time around, we walked the entire mall, all four floors. We got a bite to eat and then rode the metro back to the city. The kids wanted to tour the Holocaust Museum.
We arrived at the museum and while I stood in line for tickets to the permanent exhibits, they went over to Daniel’s Story. I soon caught up with them. We had an hour and a half wait until our tour so we decided to walk over to the National World War II Memorial. We considered going up to the Washington Monument but decided against that. It was so hot that we couldn’t wait to get over near the water! Others felt the same way; they were dangling their feet in the pool. One park ranger allowed it but another did not. Anyway, we walked around and got close enough to the water to feel the mist on our faces.
The walk back to the Holocaust was a little difficult. There’s not much shade to speak of and the sun was really beating down on us. We found out later that it was well over 100 degrees with the heat index! No wonder we were melting!
The tour through the Holocaust brings out a lot of different emotions. First, there’s disbelief that human beings could be so cruel to others. Then there’s anger that it happened, followed by sadness and sorrow for those poor families. It was rough, I’ll admit. Personally, I think they shouldn’t allow anyone under high school age to do anything other than Daniel’s Story. There’s so much to see that is of a disturbing nature. It was an experience for sure.
Next, we walked over to the Mall area and decided to visit the Natural History Museum. By this time, we were all pretty much exhausted and while we did see most of it, we just couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel! But we had to have dinner first so we decided to go to the Old Post Office because I really wanted to go up into the Tower. You get a 360 degree view of the city.
Afterwards, we once again got on the metro to ride to Union Station where we caught our shuttle back to the hotel. It was time for a relaxing evening, swimming in the pool and hitting up the hot tub. I think we all slept pretty well that night!
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