Visiting Washington DC before it closes...

I made plans last October, for a family vacation to visit Washington DC during the Cherry Blossom festival of 2011. It would be Kevin & I, his mom and her sister. That way we could have some romantic time and the 2 sisters (both in their 80's) could keep each other company.

We had hotel reservations and tickets for the Monuments by Moonlight tour in advance.

Then Kevin hurt his back- so he couldn't go. So I called Sondra, my friend who lives in WV and she was all up for a girls weekend away.... so away we went.

Sondra, Rose & Lena at the WWII memorial

We were told that because of the tragedy in Japan, there was a larger crowd for the Cherry Blossom Festival this year. They were right. It was VERY crowded. We took the Old Time Trolly tour and what was normally a 15-20 min wait between trolleys, ended up being a 45 min wait. Which was not so great when the rain started... oh well, can't control the weather.

You can see the storm clouds brewing when we were at the Lincoln Memorial.

The Capital Hilton was a nice hotel, but I am used to the hotels that have a fridge & microwave so I was disappointed we didn't have one. We would eat out and want to take the leftovers to snack on later but had no way to keep them... It had NICE beds... very comfy rooms.

Parking is $$ I paid $42.00 a night to park at the hotel. We didn't use the car while we were there... so I had to park it somewhere. It was only a block from the White House and close to the Metro line and the Trolly Tours- so it worked out for us.

While Rose & Lena toured the Botanical Gardens, Sondra & I wandered around the American Indian Museum. This building has no right angles- evil spirits dwell there- and is such a unique building... I loved it. We didn't get that much time to experience it, but it was interesting what we did see.

The cherry trees were beautiful. All around the town, but especially along the tidal basin is where they are planted.

The Monuments by Moonlight was a wonderful tour. It was over 3 hours, but the driver really told you alot about each stop and it was very enjoyable.

It started just about sunset, and the Capital was pretty in this shot.

This is the WWII memorial at night with the Lincoln memorial in the distance. You can see the reflection of the Washington Monument in the glass in this picture.

We wanted to go thru the Holocaust Museum but the line was way too long, along with most of the other sites.

This one really moved me- it was the Japanese Memorial. There were alot of visitors and many flowers that were left there. Along the back wall was carved the names of all the Internment camps that the Japanese were held in during WWII. I am not sure what the significance of the large stones in the water was. On saturday they had music and speakers there.

We saw alot, we walked way to much and we made some great memories. All in all I was glad we went when we did, because THIS weekend is the Cherry Blossom parade and because of the budget mess they will cancel the parade and all the National park monuments will be closed. And ALL of those tourist who are in town will be out of luck! Such a shame....

I recommend going- it is a city that you need some time to really appreciate.

I will go back so I can go thru some of the museums and spend some time seeing them.