Fall Breakin' - SURPRISE Edition

I had a surprise up my sleeve for Rachel during the 2nd week of fall break.  I told her I had planned a fun girls day, but I would have to get her up early...like before 5 AM early.  There was a little protesting, but she was game.  She drug herself out to the car and we left at 4:40 AM.  We drove south to Plainfield, parked and got on a shuttle bus.  The bus dropped us off at our 1st destination.  I asked Rachel if she knew where we were.  She said that she had no idea.  I informed her that we were at the airport.  "You know what people do at the airport...right?"  That's when I sprung it on her that we were flying to Washington D.C. for the day!  Immediate excitement set in.

However I was fighting a stomach ache, but had decided that I had to power through.  It was worth it to watch Rachel with her face pressed up against the plane window as we took off.

We landed at Reagan Airport and jumped on the Metro and headed toward the National Mall.

We had no set agenda and I had given Rachel several options on where to begin.  We started our day at the National Archives to view the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.  We were viewing the Declaration of Independence along with a group of British teenagers.  One of them turned around and said "That's when you broke away from us!"  I responded with a quick, "And don't you forget it!!"  ...all in fun

We then made our way to the White House.  

After a quick lunch we headed to the south side of the White House.  The presidential limosuine was parked and ready to go.  President Trump was going to be departing, but since we had no idea how long that would take we snapped a photo and moved on.

We made our way to the Mall and the memorials and monuments.  First stop was the World War II Memorial

We walked down to the Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Monument, and Korean War Memorial

This was my 3rd trip to Washington, but I had never been to the Jefferson Memorial.  We decided that it was much too long of a walk around the Tidal Basin this time as well so we settled for a long distance photo across the basin.

After stopping at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Monument we made our way back to the Washington Monument.

There we had to try out a trick photo....with this result.

One lady nearby was getting a kick out of our efforts and insisted on taking a photo of us. 

We had time to stop by one of the Smithsonian museums, so we opted for the Museum of American History.  We both really enjoyed the First Ladies exhibit....especially the inaugural gowns.  On center display was Melania Trump's gown.

After miles of walking we both were ready to get headed back to the airport.  We jumped off the Metro at the Pentagon and made our way to the 9/11 Memorial.  Time for some contemplation and discussion of an event that happened before Rachel was even born. 

We were back at Reagan with a lot of time left, but we got to rest our feet and enjoy a little Chick-fil-a, so all was well.  Our flight was delayed by an hour since our flight crew was on a delayed flight.  We made great time coming home though and landed in Indy at 12:15 AM.  We were spent, but full of fun memories!