White House
The boys joined me in front of the White House, but we found out we needed to have gotten approval from our Senator in order to tour it, so we instead walked down to the White House Visitor's Center and explored all sorts of things that were once in the White House. However, first, we took a few pictures in front of the White House.
White House Visitor's Center
The White House Visitor Center was alright - an interesting way to pass a little time in the city, but I wish we hadn't spent so much time here, and had moved on. There were interesting artifacts from previous presidencies and all, so if you like all that history stuff, it'd be interesting, but with so much else to see in DC, I wish we'd spent our time elsewhere.
Vietnam and Three Soldiers Memorial
After the Visitor's Center, we continued walking toward the Lincoln Memorial, and saw the Vietnam Memorial on the way.
Lincoln Memorial
We made it to the Lincoln Memorial and picked up some cool postcards from there before we continued making the loop towards the Washington Monument. 
Korean War Memorial
On the way to the Washington Monument, we stopped for a while at the Korean War Memorial, which was one of the coolest memorials in DC, I thought. It was a sober reminder of the sacrifices these men made, especially with the reminder that "Freedom is not Free" on the wall nearby.
World War I and II Memorials
After the Korean War Memorial, we saw the World War I Memorial, which was much more understated than the World War II Memorial just a few steps further. The World War II Memorial was really awesome! I'm sure it's not quite so cool in the winter, considering so much of it is water fountains, but it was gorgeous on the blistering hot day we were there :)
Washington Monument
We toured the Washington Monument, going all the way up through the center and were able to see the beautiful views from its top. However, it was kind of junky, since the grass was all dead (apparently they were doing some sort of treatment to it?), and there was a big AARP tent up near the Lincoln Memorial. It was neat to see the Capitol Building from up there, though!View from the top
Within the Monument
By the time we got back down from the Washington Monument, we were all ready for a break, so we made our way to the Holocaust Memorial Museum and had lunch in the cafe there. The food wasn't anything to write home about, but the museum sure was!
Holocaust Museum
We thought we might spend a good hour in the Holocaust Museum, but three hours later, we finally left, and I think all of us could have stayed even longer! It was incredible!! The hours upon hours upon hours spent to put this museum together blows my mind! There was so much history, so many stories, and so many artifacts from this time period. While we were unable to take any pictures inside, there are so many images that will be forever etched in my mind - one of which was the railroad car that so many rode in, headed to concentration camps. The mounds of shoes and other things were so sobering.
Freer Gallery of Art
This is pretty much all we saw of the gallery - we were on a very short time-crunch and didn't have time to stop.
Smithsonian Museum and Gardens
By the time we finished up at the Holocaust Museum, we barely had time left to go anywhere else, but we managed to find a half hour at the Smithsonian, and even a little more time in the beautiful gardens just outside it.
Gardens at the Smithsonian
We were more than ready to make our way back to the Metro by the day's end. The entire trip was so fantastic, but it was a LOT of walking, and with temps in the mid-to-upper 90's, we were pretty exhausted.
For supper, Mark and I ventured out to Chili's down the street, and then called it a night!
