Washington DC – 2024- Part 1 – The Brooks Family

Ben and I had a panic moment about a year or so ago that Sydney really doesn’t have that many Spring Breaks or summer vacations left with us before college, but we have so many places we haven’t traveled to yet. New York. Hawaii. Washington DC. Colorado. France/Italy/England.

I’d like to go on record saying that she *has* been to Jamaica, so even if we miss all the others, she has experienced my favorite place on Earth! But alas, there’s still so many places to visit, and so little time!

We ended up with $250 (per person) airline credit during COVID that had to be used in 2024 or it would expire, so we decided to try to use that (without spending extra or leaving any) for this year’s Spring Break, which led us to Washington DC during one of its most busy weeks of the year. Allegedly. (Cherry blossoms + Spring Break = a very busy national capitol).

I have never in all of my life spent so much time planning for a trip. But I knew that if I didn’t prepare and get it right, it’d make for a lot of frustration and wasted time. I also wanted to make it as fun for the 5 year old as for the 15 year old. So, I’ll admit I dropped the ball on gaining expertise in parking/using the metro system, but Ben was a quick study- but otherwise, we truly got to see as much as we possibly could crammed into 3-4 days.

We started our day on Easter Sunday, getting up at 4 am to make the drive to the Atlanta airport, through security and boarded for our 7am flight.

When your family is so big, you take up both sides of the rows on the plane. (Bottom pics are on shuttle from parking to airport)

The benefit of a 7am ish flight is we were in Baltimore by 9:10. We then hopped on a shuttle from that airport to get our minivan rental for the week! I’m sharing a few of these pics, because Ava Kate looking at her daddy is the sweetest ever. Liam and my seat was like a tilt-a-whirl and 0/10- do not recommend! 😂

We knew we planned to use a lot of public transportation, but the van gave us the flexibility of getting to and from Baltimore/DC without worrying about not having a train when we needed it, AND allowed us to venture out to Mount Vernon.

Getting through the airport and to our car before 10am meant hanging around for a 1:35 Baltimore Orioles game was probably not our best plan. Plus, those tickets went from “look how cheap” to “oh wow- that’s a lot.” So, (on the fly) Plan B.

We drove into Annapolis, saw the naval academy from outside the gates, walked around their picturesque downtown, and had an amazing and expensive as heck lunch at The Federal House (I highly recommend, despite our sticker shock).

Our next stop was Arlington Cemetery. We watched the Changing of the Guard ceremony and saw JFK burial from afar. This was the one thing we’d probably take off our itinerary, if we had it to do over again. I enjoyed the ceremony, the kids, not so much. They were respectful, quiet and attentive, but let us know afterwards, no thank you for next time.

Finally, we checked into our AirBnB in DC. Our hosts lived in the unit above us, and were kind, helpful, and made sure we had everything we could need (including a washer/dryer, parking pass for outside unit, 4 Metro cards, and even a dozen eggs in the fridge!). I highly recommend their condo, and their listing can be found here: https://www.airbnb.com/slink/6hLI42el

One thing I learned during my hours upon hours of researching, aka asking a million questions on Facebook- both to people I know and in DC Travel Groups- was that a lot of places require tickets/reservations that must be obtained through your state representatives. Big thank you to Representative Drew Ferguson and his staff for getting us tickets into a capitol tour, a Pentagon tour, and the FBI experience tour. Boo for not getting us a White House tour (that you have to request NINETY days in advance, which we did, but again, busy week, and no tickets for our crew).

We were gifted passed to Mount Vernon by some sweet Newnan friends, and that’s where we headed first thing Monday morning. (We won’t mention the fact I left said tickets in the backpack sitting inside our AirBnB and didn’t realize it until a few moments before we arrived, and had to go back to get them. If this did happen, my family showed me lots of grace, even though I may have wanted to cry). We were thrilled to find a McDonald’s on the way, with a parking lot!, and it just so happened to overlook the National Harbor. So, we had an unexpected beautiful view during breakfast.

We spent a drizzly morning on George Washington’s estate, Mount Vernon. We were able to tour the grounds, as well as his mansion. This was definitely Sydney’s favorite part of the trip, and a close second for several of us. The staff was beyond knowledgeable, and truly eager to share that knowledge in a way that shows they know the history inside and out- they were very definitely not reciting a script. In the 1700s, enslaved labor was very much a part of the every day life of those who lived there. I felt like they did a really good job at honoring their contributions to the architecture as well as the day to day life, of both those who were there by choice and those who weren’t, often referring to slaves by their first name, as well as having a memorial to them as well. They didn’t sugarcoat the gross history that is history, but they did honor them as people in the places they could.

Following Mount Vernon, we went to the National Postal Museum, which wasn’t at the top of my list, but was very interactive for the kids, paired with a scavenger hunt equaled a really fun afternoon. We spent just over an hour or so here.