2007-Washington Experience

The Hotel staff were very accomidating to our large group. The rooms were clean and very comfortable. There was an indoor pool (which the kids thourghly enjoyed). We ate a buffet dinner and breakfast at the hotel. The food was delicious.

The Buffet was huge...If you couldn't find something to eat here you weren't hungry! There is a ton of different types of food including, a salad bar, seafood, carving station, Chinese, American, and a dessert station. The service was wonderful. It was very accommodating to large groups.

We had a step on guide give us a bus/ walking tour of the Major Monuments and the far end of the Mall area. We visited the FDR Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, The Lincoln Memorial and the Koren War Veterans Memorial. Our guide was very knowledgeable on the history of each Memorial. It was neat to see the Memorials lite up at night.

The Mall area extends from the US Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, including the Tidal Basin. There are so many Museums to see you need more than one day. This area had the Smithsonian Museums, the National Archives, the Native American Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Air & Space Museum, etc... I was unaware that all the Museums do not charge admission. We had about 5 hours to check out the Mall area. We started at the Air & Space Museum and made our way around the Mall area in a big circle. The boys really enjoyed the Air & Space Museum. If they had it their way we would have spent the entire 5 hours there. Unwillingly the Mom's made the boys go to the Botanical Gardens, to their surprise they actually liked it. We were lucky enough to get tickets to view the inside of the US Capitol. The wait was about 35-40 minutes but it was worth it. We ventured to the National Archives to check out some original documents from our founding fathers. Off to the Museum of Science...Okay maybe not..it packed, you couldn't even get to the steps to get in. We then ventured to the Washington Memorial and the Reflecting Pool before dinner at Phillips.