I had a Zoom meeting right at 9:00am so we ran to Starbucks for my breakfast and then the kids hit the lobby restaurant for a buffet. We headed out as soon as I was finished for the Ford Theater, the location of the Lincoln Assassination. Tickets included an audio tour of the theater, the museum below and the home across the street where Lincoln would succumb to his injuries the following morning.
The theater has some strange history during the years after the assassination and several more people died here during an accident where three floors collapsed. However, the theater was restored to the original layout and now is a National Park location during the day and active theater in the evening. Tours closed today at 11:00 am because of rehearsals.
After we finished, we grabbed pizza across from the FBI headquarters and then grabbed an Uber to take up to the Washington Monument. We were lucky enough to get last minute tickets to go up in the monument. This was an incredible stop and I highly recommend it. If you miss the early release of tickets, 30 tickets each hour are released at 3:00pm the day prior. But you need to be on it, all the tickets included for the entire day were sold out by 3:01pm.
Next we headed over to Arlington Cemetery to tour the grounds. We saw the Eternal Flame at the Kennedy family gravesite and spent a good amount of time at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We stayed to catch the changing of the guard ceremony. Did you know that the unknown Vietnam soldier’s tomb is empty today? After the body was chosen for internment, improvements in DNA technology allowed them to identify the remains and the soldier was returned to his family home. This got me.
There was much to see on the tour. Its a solemn way to spend the afternoon but very worthwhile.
Afterwards, we went back to the mall to see the monuments during the day. We took a quick break by the reflecting pool and grabbed a treat from a food truck.
Then we visited the National Archives to see the Consititution and Declaration of Independence. For a special event, they were also displaying all of the amendments as well as the treaty following WW2 and the original organizing documents of the First Congressional Congress.
While in line we realized a large group from Mid-Michigan were ahead of us on an honor flight. It was very cool to see this stop from their perspective!
It had been a really big day, so we just decided to head back to our room and get take out. Tyler has to work tonight so Sammy and I will welcome a quiet night snuggled up!
Tomorrow we will head north toward home and will stay at a waterpark in Ohio. It should be a long drive but we are eager to get closer to home.
