The Mall with Bri and Kristina

A couple of days after Kristina got here, my sister flew in to visit us during her spring break. Bri is a high school teacher in Texas. She'd never been to DC before. The weather was pretty nice the week that they were here although they might not have thought so being a couple of tourists from Florida and Texas.

So, where do you take someone on their first visit to DC? Well, the National Mall, of course. We were able to get tickets to both the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Washington Monument. While both of these things are free, you do need to get timed tickets that are given out first come, first served. Sometimes they run out very early in the day, but we got lucky.

After leaving the Washington Monument we headed west toward the Lincoln Memorial. Isn't this the coolest tree ever? It has kind of a "sleepy hollow" look to it. I've probably seen it lots of times with leaves and not really given it a second look.

We stopped at the World War II Memorial. My stepdad served in WWII and is an honoree in their database. Since then, Rich and I have submitted his dad and uncle's information. Do you know someone who served during WWII? Would you like to have them added to the registry? You can click here and follow the instructions. It's really pretty simple and a great way to honor a WWII veteran.

Next stop was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. We looked up the name of a young man from the small town that Bri and I grew up in and found him on the wall. I like the way this picture of Bri and Kristina's reflection came out.

We then headed to the Lincoln Memorial and then back east stopping at the Korean War Veterans Memorial. We were a little pooped from all the walking at this point and returned to the apartment. The only downside is that it hadn't warmed up enough for any of the water features to be working. So, no fountains, no reflecting pool. Still, it was a pretty nice day and we were able to get a lot of sight-seeing in.