More About Our DC Vacation

Well, our DC vacation has continued to keep us busy the last couple of days. On Wednesday we got out early and went to the Supreme Court. The judges see cases on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays through April and so we were hoping to catch them in action, but apparently, like Congress, they must have  had a break for Easter because no cases were being heard. We did get to tour the building, see the courtroom and watch a video about the judges and the system. It was all very interesting and I'm glad we made this one of our stops.

After leaving the Supreme Court, we stopped by the Library of Congress and did a quick self-guided tour. There really wasn't a whole lot you could see, but the building is quite lovely as is the one reading room we were able to view.

Our next stop was the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum which was the best of the three Smithsonian museums that we toured. I've got to be honest, the Smithsonian's are way different than I remember them being as a child. I remember being in awe as a child and this time around I could take it or leave it. All of the exhibits now seemed geared towards children (which could be why I remember loving it so much) and there are thousands of people wandering about and there's no order to anything and it really will drive a Type A like me a little nuts.

When we finished up at the museum, we headed back to the condo for a few hours and took a nap. I realize that sounds lame, but we have walked and walked and walked and were tired and had a long night ahead of us. We left the condo about 5:40 p.m. to meet my college friend Casey at the Verizon Center by 6:45 p.m. for the Washington Capitols vs. Boston Bruins hockey game. Once we were at the game, we had some trouble getting in because of a ticket system crash, but eventually made it in and enjoyed a win by the Caps.

Thursday we went to the National Zoo which was quite enjoyable. Not all of the animals were out and about, but the ones that were meandering about were pretty active. It was probably one of the more enjoyable trips we've made here in the nation's capitol. We spent quite a few hours there seeing everything before heading to Ford's Theater where we were disappointed to discover that all the tickets for the day were gone. Y'all, there are so many people here this week. Loads of school children and chaperones and others just taking a family vacation. It's been nuts. So, I was disappointed, but not surprised that we were not able to get in.

We then headed back to the Tidal Basin to check out the cherry blossoms. They haven't been blooming all week and we wanted to check on the status. They have finally started opening up and should be at peak by the parade on Saturday. We then headed back to Alexandria, ate dinner and called it an early night so we can rest our feet before heading to Mount Vernon on Friday.