Discovering D.C.

Tonight was my Discovering D.C. class at my Church. It was kind of fun to go through this past year and get things ready for it. It also is the reason why I have not posted or done my SPT this week. I had two tables set up with ideas, books galore (I think I checked out 20 library books) I gave little goodies to the person who has lived in the area the longest and the one who have lived here the shortest. I also gave away something to who could name the monument that has replaced the President in one of the Presidential monuments.
I made a Family Home Eventing Quiz to take home and get everyone excited about diving into the city. I am happy to email that to anyone along with the answers. Each answer gives a little bit of a history lesson and is kind of fun.

I tried to make a list of some of the this we did this year.

• tour of the White House (call your congressman 6 weeks in advance to get tickets)
  
• Mt. Vernon 18th Century Craft Fair (this is in mid September)
• National Christmas Tree lighting Ceremony (camped out for Tickets)
• Baltimore Aquarium
• Cherry Blossom Festival (March 29 - April 13, 2008)
  
• Arlington National Cemetery
• Old Town Alexandria
• Antietam
• Harper's Ferry
• Roosevelt Island
• Fords Theatre (closed until Nov. 2008) seeing A Christmas Carol is a must see in December
• Glen Echo Park
• Great Falls MD
• Annapolis
• Bowling in China Town
• Union Station
• The Awakening
• National Cathedral (go to the top and get great photos)
  
• Embassy Row
• FDR Memorial (don't go here without reading the history of this memorial, it is AMAZING!)
  
• General Mead Memorial
• First Infantry Division Memorial (this is in front of the White house, the big red 1)
• Navy Memorial (the charging of the fountains is in the Spring, it is the only time the water is stopped and they bring in water from all 7 seas)
• top of the Washington Monument (get tickets online in advance only $1.50 charge)
• World War II Memorial
  
• Lincoln Memorial
• Korean Memorial
• Vietnam War Memorial on Memorial Day
• Textile Museum
• African American Civil War Museum
• National Museum of Health & Medicine (on Walter Reed Campus, see Dan Sickles leg)
• National Zoo
• National Portrait Museum (this book is a must read before you go)
  
• Museum of the American Indian (eat here!!)
• National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden
• Renwick Art Gallery (one of my favorites)
• National Archives
• Woodrow Wilson House
  
• American History Museum (will reopen Summer 2008, many items are at Air and Space)
• Air & Space on the National Mall (the McDonald's there has cool Air & Space happy meal toys)
• Air & Space , Udvar-Hazy Center by Dulles airport (Sat before Halloween they have a great scare in the Air event)
• Bureau of Engraving and Printing (loved this too went with David and Lenessa, ticket information here. )
• The beach at Ocean City
• Assaeague State Park and saw wild horses running along the beach
• Library of Congress National Book festival (Sept. 29, 2007) a must!
• renaissance Festival (would not do again)
• Whites Ferry
• Historic Leesburg
• Gettysburg
• Lucketts
• Easter Egg Roll at the White House (tickets are very hard to get for this!)
  
• National Art Museum
  
• Smithsonian Castle information center (a great place to start, even though this is one of the last things we have done) you can send mail here that get's hand cancelled with a smithsonian stamp
  
• Spy Museum
• Smithsonian Carousel (every kid needs to rid it once)

My Favorite Finds are:

Ribbon Outlet 857 Willow Circle, Hagerstown, MD 301.745.4714
Value Village 227 University blvd. E Hyattsville MD 301.4222406
Great Stuff by Paul 10 North Carrol Street, Frederick MD 21701
Homestead Farms 156000 Sugarland Road, Poolseville, MD 20837
Barbara Fritchie Candy Stick Resturant W US 40 Frederick, MD 301.662.2500

Favorite place to eat - is Ben's Chili Bowl 1213 U Street NW Washington D.C.

White Events Anyone can go to!

1. Garden Tour Summer July 21 & August 11th. Fall is sometime in October and Spring is sometime in March. Tickets are so easy to get to this and you can get them the day of.
2. Christmas Tree lighting Ceremony (must sleep out for tickets)
3. Easter Egg roll (also camp out for tickets, I think military might get in with ID)
4. Tours (call your congressman, give it 6 weeks to process your social security number)

Some of my other tips.

• Get large magnifying glasses for your kids to take to museums and nature centers. It keeps them really quite in Art Museums. It is the ultimate art of distraction. I bought mine from this seller on Ebay.
• Get a National Parks Passport only $7.00. makes a great wedding gift.
• The more you read and study about each place you visit the more you will get out of it. I try to find any children's book on each monument or Smithsonian before we go. Children's books are a fast read and give you the highlights.
  

It was a fun night and great for me to get together what we did this year. I missed Annie Kate's swim meet and was kind of sad. She finished first in the back stroke and knocked 5 seconds off her time from last week. This girl is a FISH!

So I will send 11.5 yards of patriotic themed ribbon to the first person who can answer my question that I asked the class.

Which Presidential Monument has replaced the current statue
of the President and why? (no googling)

** and it still amazes me a year ago I did not know ANY of this!**