Today, we decided to get another early start. We were exhausted and sore, but we had things to do!

We took the metro to Arlington National Cemetery and arrived a bit before 9 am. When we got there, the metro was fairly empty and the people around the cemetery were all locals out for their morning jog. The Cemetery wasn’t crowded at all. We roamed through seeing Kennedy’s memorial/grave and then made it to The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We were in a small group watching the 930 changing. We left the Cemetery shortly after that and what had been completely empty an hour prior was now filled with people. It was amazing how big of a difference just one hour made!


After visiting the Cemetery, we headed out to Eastern Market. My friends recommended it so we decided to check it out! While there, we went into a really neat book store called Capitol Hill Books.

Next, we decided to check out the Holocaust Memorial and Museum. We didn’t have tickets so expected not to be able to get in but we were able to go right in. It wasn’t busy at all! We were there at a perfect time. Very few times did we have to wait in any line while in DC. It was nice and unexpected.

After visiting here, we walked through the mall to head to lunch at BLT Prime in the Trump Hotel. On the way, an elderly volunteer told us to go up the clock tower so we did that too! Apparently it’s a national park but not many people know about it. It’s the highest view in DC when the Washington Monument is closed. Lunch was amazing. We got bacon on a clothesline!


We decided that we had time to visit Ford’s Theatre after lunch so we headed that way and got right into the next tour. It was so fascinating to see that the box Lincoln was shot in was still set up as if it were that night. Seeing Petersen House where he died was also neat.

We were headed to the Air and Space Museum next when Kacie decided she wanted to stop to see the circus. We were there in the middle of the Smithsonian’s 50th Folklife Festival and this year it was circus themed. We had been walking quickly because a storm was about to hit and she thought stopping for the circus would keep us dry. We hopped in line and were almost into the big top when the guard said they weren’t going on with the show because of the storm and to seek cover in the museums. We started running towards the Air and Space Museum because we knew the rain would hit any moment and we hoped we could be inside before it did. We didn’t make it. We did have an umbrella but the rain was so hard and fast and the umbrella was so small that we were completely soaked. The museums weren’t conducting security checks because of the hoards of people trying to get in. They just funneled us all in out of the torrential downpour.


Once inside the dry Air and Space Museum, Kacie and I headed upstairs to break away from the crowd. We walked through each room and even considered visiting the planetarium. My feet were killing me so I was ready to leave pretty quickly, but Kacie wanted to see each room. We ended up calling it an early night that night because we had to be awake at 5:00 the next morning. I think we were asleep by 9!