Trip Report, of course. I will work super-hard to do that.
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Book Air and Space for 2pm. WJ tours are only in the morning. So that should give you enough time. You can always try and move your A&S time as well by calling.
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I am starting to regret getting the big group tickets. I can switch to the other tickets later in our visit. Does anyone have advice?
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Ha. I’m reading this thread and very un-liner of me just booked a trip to DC a month out. So I’ve missed the 30 day windows I just read about it here. 
. That said, we are there for a dance competition invitational for DD. Anything we do will have to fit into a schedule that I don’t have yet. I’m starting a new job July 1 and don’t feel like I can be out more than an extra half day on either end of the competition.
Anyway! Yay for popping over here and seeing names I recognize for my planning! I am just sad I didn’t remember this was here before I missed the 30 day window on the monument.
I hope all of your plans are coming together nicely!
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You can still do most museums. American History and Natural History don’t require reservations. Of course you can walk around and see the monuments too - even go right up to Washington- you just can’t go up it.
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30 days out you should still be able to book Air and Soace as well. The only things you’re missing is Wash Monument and any government tours - WH, Congress or SCOTUS.
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Thanks! Tours would be fun, but I really feel like I only had a half day in which to toss any timed plans (the morning before our flight home).
I’m considering a late afternoon/early evening bike ride/rental to tour the Mall by for the day we arrive. That way if anything goes screwy with our flight and we are running late it maybe won’t be a big deal. I am not mobile enough to want to walk the Mall, but I’d do it. (I can but there will be lots of ibuprofen involved).
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This is how we are doing the Mall.
We are renting scooters by the hour and I bought that audiotour. You aren’t supposed to leave scooters in the Mall because they don’t want them cluttering up the place like they do the sidewalks. So the city gives fines to the owner when they pick up the scooter. But, these will be fine since they are completely charged when you get them.
Rent scooters and do a DC Monuments tour.
Can rent 3 scooters for $225 for 4 hours. ($18.75 / hr)
Can rent 3 scooters for $275 for 6 hours ($15.28 / hr)
Full day is $150 per person, so $450 for 3.
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There are so many things to do that you can fill your days without having any reservations. What kinds of things are you and your family interested in?
It will be just me and my oldest daughter who is almost 16. I don’t know that she has a huge interest in seeing all the things but I’ve peaked her interest with the Mall, National Gallery, Holocaust, and Air and Space I think.
That sounds like a great idea! Thanks for the audio tour link.
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The National Gallery is one of my favorite places! Don’t miss going downstairs to the Gelato bar area where you can see a waterfall. There’s a big cafe there too.
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So, I reserved our scooters. I’d still been having slight hope of a White House Tour, so I held off until now. They are running a sale right now on the 24-hour rental. $100 for each scooter after the discount. There is a coupon code that says,
But online it only takes it once. So, I called and talked to this nice lady named Joey. She said she could do it manually. I thought I’d mention it here in case that is a typo that they plan on correcting.
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Air and Space Museum audiotours, do those exist? Surely they must, right? Online I keep getting dumped to field trips or accessible tours.
Update from my request: “Thank you for your interest in the National Air and Space Museum. Currently we do not have an audio guide available.”
I am ashamed of the &%T&%$ US Government! The Air and Space Museum is usually in the top three of best museums in the world, and they can’t have a stinking audio tour! Do they just assume that everyone that goes is an Aerospace geek, and already knows what those things are? Unfortunately this is a top pick for DH.
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I’m not certain if you just prefer audio tours or if you have a specific need for them, but I can say having gone in April with my kids who are 7 and 4, there are plenty of things that have audio components throughout (videos and such) and everything was labeled. The layout of the museum helps compartmentalize what you might see. It was very easy for us to navigate.
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I do prefer audiotours. It seems that only the Natural History has one. I was at Air and Space once before when it was incredibly busy. I didn’t know what most of the things were because there was line just to read each little blurb. I’m going to grumble about the government and kick some kids off my lawn. 
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Starting the trip report.
We left noonish on Saturday driving to Monticello. Google had said 18 hours drive time. We make frequent gas station stops and DH is known for things like ordering 12 hot wings that have to be made. Then you add in losing an hour in time change. So I thought I’d tell the family we need to leave the house “noon-ish” we would really leave at 2pm and then arrive at noon-ish and hope a room was available. Instead we left at noon and it was only 16 hours travel time and we didn’t spend any time really at gas stations . So we arrived very early. Hotel had been 100% full.
We went to The Nook for breakfast. It is a fancy diner that opened in the 50’s. DD had Brie and Fig Grilled Cheese. It was as amazing as it sounds! Going to try making it at home. Seems like they took 1/4 slices of brie put on a slice of bread and baked. Then just butter version of grilled cheese and then at the end added a generous spear of fig jam.
Then we drove around and looked at houses.
We drove by The Highlands and decided to go in.
It wasn’t that exciting. More a typical example of a wealthy house from the time. The garden had flowers that smelled ghastly. It also had a statue of him that was beyond flattering. Most frequent adjective of his appearance was Sickly and the statue was Majestic. I thought it was interesting that the family had said in a letter that they preferred sleeping in Highlands because they disliked the alcove beds. Jefferson loved those alcove beds.
After that we drove around again. DD asked “What are we doing?” DH said, “Killing time.” DD said “It is dead.” DH and I thought that was the funniest thing we’ve heard in a long time.
Then we went to the hotel and a room was cleaned. Used the Priceline One Of These Rooms deals and used the touring plans technique to know what we are getting. Residence Inn and it is a tower style so no climbing up stairs.
Sorry I haven’t taken photos yet. We used my phone to play an audiobook and it was mostly dead. Listening to Blinding Knife.
Monticello is tomorrow
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Monticello Day.
We had an amazing day. We woke up and had the free hot breakfast. Then drove over to Monticello. Our tour wasn’t until 2:30pm but we did all the non-house stuff first. We got one of the last parking spots. Lots of people here for the July 4th holiday.
We enjoyed the museum at the visitor’s center. Then caught a shuttle to the house.
Shuttles were constant.
We walked around outside. Loved the giant trees. At one point DH said “Everyone loves this tree.” Me, “Huh?” DH , “It is poplar”
I was really glad I’d bought the official book ahead of time. For example, I knew why the South Building was cool.
We then left to eat. Plan was to get drive thru and then relax at the hotel. Slim pickings, we aren’t Sub fans and we are the only family we know that isn’t crazy about Chik-Fil-A. Picked Bojangles since we wanted to try it. For a bisquit place, they were only a 6 on a 10 scale.
We went back and went straight to the Behind The Scenes tour. That was awesome! The regular must be like half a tour since there are such large sections that only our tour saw. I keep remembering the Chrome Yellow room. The tour guide said that it cost 33x white paint. So if it cost $100 in paint for a room, that would be $3300 in paint. That was one if the pictures I posted.
We had planned on walking down instead of the shuttle but I was pooped and it was thinking of storming.
We went back to the hotel and relaxed then went out fir Ramen. DH had seen two that looked interesting. Ended up at Iso Iso Ramen. They had a robot delivery waiter with a smiling cat face. I had a Poke Bowl with Sushi Rice, shrimp and spicy mayo. My favorite sushi but deconstructed.
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