Another night of 9 hours of sleep and we were OFF!! Grabbed some breakfast and jumped on the subway. Taylor - aka our personal photographer - was on the move - snapping pics!!
Our first stop today - Fords Theatre - where Abraham Lincoln was shot. It is NOT ALL original. The building has been used as different functions through the years. Thankfully, it has been restored close to the original. We took the tour and was told the story of his last day on Earth as we all sat in the theatre and envisioned this very sad day in history.
This is the front of the building.
This is pretty much what the theatre looked like the night of April 14, 1865. He was sitting in the box decorated with flags. He died 9 hours later at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865, across the street from the theatre. We were also able to tour the Peterson house where he died.
National Archives! Again, no photos allowed but I have to say, looking at The Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and The Constitution were pretty special! There was quite a wait in line to view these pieces. There were armed guards in a circular, roped off area. We hold these items in high regard!
National Archives building
There are just soooooooo many museums! Each FREE to us all!! I thought they should charge everyone $1 and our nation would be out of debt within the month!! I still need to write my letter. It is special we have all of this FREE for all to view.... but come on!!! The Smithsonian Museum of American History was fun - they save EVERYTHING!!
I especially enjoyed the inaugural gowns, purse and shoes worn by the First Lady's! I could not get a good photo with my camera but they were all very well displayed. It really gave a feel for the size of these women! Barbara Bush was a lot of woman!!
I wanted to see the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz but the line was an hour and a half long! Oh well, next time.
I did get to see Julia Child's kitchen though!!
Just like at the end of the movie - Julie and Julia!
Our last thing to find was the second highest lookout point in the area. While researching online the months before our trip, I discovered what people refer to as a little unknown secret.....when you cannot get a ticket to Washington Memorial - shown in the pic below - go to the bell tower of the US Post Office at no cost and NO LINES!! They were reconstructing some of the area so our views were a little restricted but I was able to get this shot!
Now it is about 4:00 pm and we were thinking about heading back to the hotel but Dick really wanted to show us the "old school" city of Georgetown. We decided to take the detour and hop on the subway. We walked about 1.5 miles from the subway over to the downtown area. Next time, we are staying HERE!! It is beautiful with high end shops on the main street - similar to Chestnut here in SF, and college town atmosphere!!
We ended up in front of 'The Guards' restaurant. We peeked into the window....linen tablecloth, nice glassware on the table, steak on the menu - fits our bill!! We later learned it was established in 1966 and a favorite of Frank Sinatra when he was in town. We'll always remember this restaurant. Taylor LOVES ribs. If they are on the menu, he will order them every time. When it was his time to order at The Guards, he ordered Prime Rib. We did not think any thing about it. Then, when it was served, he said, "Oh, I thought I was ordering RIBS!!" We just assumed he knew what PRIME rib was! hahahah! He does not!! He could not eat all of it so Dick and I helped him. It was probably THEEEEE best Prime Rib we'd ever had!
We walked around the downtown area, hopped on a city bus to take us back to the subway, then on to our hotel to pack up our time in D.C. We'll be back! There was soooo much to explore!! I was surprised 4 days wasn't long enough.
The weather was hot and humid, but thankfully, we left before the BIG heat wave arrived a few days later.
Downtown Georgetown
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