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After breakfast on Day 4, we headed to Ford's Theater. It was an easy walk from our hotel. I suggest you go online and get tickets ahead of time. The cost is only $3 a ticket. However, you can't get in without a ticket and there were sold out times. You can see the line of people out front in this photo.
If you include the museum on with your ticket, then you have approximately 30 minutes in the museum. My kids were not that excited about this part. Next you head into the theater were a park ranger gives a 10-minute talk about what happened in the days leading up to and the day of Lincoln's shooting. After the talk, you walk across the street to Petersen House; this is where Lincoln was taken after the shooting and where he died. The Petersen House exit is into another section of exhibits about Lincoln. We probably spent 80 minutes doing all of this.
This is the seat where Lincoln was shot
We aren't sure if this is a real life size of Lincoln or not. But do we know he was known for being tall.
Then we headed to lunch at Union Station. I feel like there is a lot said about Union Station when talking about DC, but in reality, it's a disappointment. Yes, it's a train station. Yet, many of the shops and restaurants inside the station have closed. We ended up having lunch in the basement food court. I'm not sure what I was expecting with Union Station, but it was a disappointment. The silver lining is that we can all say we've been there, done that. (wink)
Across the street from Union Station is the National Postal Museum. It is part of the Smithsonian museums and therefore is free to visit. There were some hands-on activities the kids enjoyed. We purchased a postcard in the gift shop and mailed it from the post office inside the museum. Have your kids do this when they go. They'll get a custom postmark on the card. Fun travel tip for your family right there!
Would TravelMan be able to pass the zip code challenge?
Did you know the post office has a mascot? Could be this guy; could be a dog. We weren't clear - LOL!
Next, we headed to the International Spy Museum. There are several options at this museum of what tour to take or activity to try. Some of the options had age restrictions. We selected Spy In The City.
It takes about 1-hour and you walk the streets of DC finding answers to clues to solve the mystery. This is a fun activity. Now, we were on day four of our trip and had already done a TON OF WALKING – and I do mean a ton! So I don't know if we were to re-do this activity if we would move it to the front of our trip or not. A few of the places the clues sent us to, we had already visited in our prior days – but a few were new. Although next time our boys will be older and hopefully will meet the age requirements so we can do some of the spy activities inside the museum.
My "Spy Guys"
The last activity of the day was to visit the Smithsonian Art Museum. What I can say about this is it was a quick walk through. Our boys were not impressed with this museum, and that is fine. They are 11 and 8-years-old. I don't expect them to have an appreciation for art at this point, but the exposure they got even in a short visit was good. TRAVEL TIP: One very nice thing is that all the Smithsonian Museums are free. So whether you spend 5 minutes or 5 hours inside, you have gained some knowledge and didn't lose anything.
B was so over the museum...can you tell from his face?
Can you make out what it says??
When we came back to our hotel, a live size gingerbread house had been constructed. I know it looks like white cardboard, but this thing was all edible – gingerbread, icing, candy, cookies, and more!
