Day Two in DC

Daryl tweaked his shoulder in the car on the way up to DC - we think its the calcium deposit on the back of his right shoulder blade acting up again which was a problem five years ago. He could barely move his arm without pain and couldn't sleep on Friday night, so Saturday morning we added an extra stop to our DC tour - the George Washington University Hospital ER. They confirmed nothing was broken or dislocated and gave him a sling and some pain meds for the duration of our trip. 

For our late lunch, we stopped by the famous Kramerbooks and Afterwords Cafe in Dupont Circle. The bookstore was certainly fun and the food was amazing!

New Orleans Fettuccine for Daryl 

Vegetarian Lasagna for Parker

Salmon for Mom, 

Wesley and Davis both got chicken nachos. 

White House 

Then we went back down to the National Mall to catch a few other landmarks and monuments. We had applied for a White House tour during our trip but did not get approval. So we just walked by the White House and visited the National Christmas tree. It's surrounded by trees representing each state and territory and we found Florida's too - decorated by Lecanto High School in Citrus County.

World War 2 Memorial 

Navy Yards

This was a new stop for all of us. We knew that Parker would like a chance to see even the outside of one of the sports stadiums and Yards Park next door was supposed to have a cool pedestrian bridge and some Christmas lights. It was a super cold night to be walking along the Potomac River, but the boys all enjoyed themselves a lot. 

Chinatown 

And then of course Davis wanted to see Chinatown. The subway stop here comes up right next to the Friendship Arch and the decorations on the road for the pedestrian walkways include dragons and the Zodiac symbols. He loved how all the business signs were written in English and in Mandarin.

Parker loved that the Capitol One Center was here - where the Washington Wizards and  the Capitols play!

Walking Around 

We walked for a few blocks between the Chinatown and Metro Center subway stops and found a few interesting things. The National Portrait Gallery was closed for the shutdown but they had this awesome "Man With a Briefcase" art on their lawn. We walked past the FBI headquarters; they weren't doing tours this week either. And then we walked past Ford's Theater. We had purchased tickets ahead of time for the museum here, but the shutdown had them closed this week for everything except evening performances of "A Christmas Carol" that were already sold out. So we just gawked at the outside and across the street at the Petersen house where Lincoln died.