Bike Ride Around DC

Last Saturday we decided to be tourists again.  The weather was pretty nice and we planned to take out bikes to ride around the city.  So we parked at our favorite free parking in DC, near the Potomac and got on our bikes.  Glenn was really excited to ride around.  I was a bit nervous at first because I don't like riding around a lot of cars.  But traffic wasn't too bad.  We had enough room to ride on the sidewalks most of the way, so we did.  And that was nice.  

We rode to Ford's Theater first and did the tour of the theater, museum, and the house where Abraham Lincoln died.  The tour didn't start for another 45 minutes, so we went walking around that area.  There was a group of ladies who had gotten out of a car and were trying to figure out the parking meter.  I noticed them first and asked Paul, "How many ladies does it take to fill a parking meter?"

hahaha!

So as we walked around we found giant nutcrackers...

...and a beautiful wall on the National Press Building.

 

After walking around a bit we went back to Ford's Theater for the tour.  

Down below the actual theater was the museum.  They had the actual gun that killed Lincoln...

...and the clothes that Lincoln was wearing when he was shot.

It was really interesting reading about Lincoln's presidency and also about what they know about his death.  

The next part of the tour was with a guide in the theater.  He kind of recapped what the museum went through and then showed us where it all happened.

Then we went across the street to a home where people rushed him.  

We saw the room where he died.  The home had original woodwork in it still--and that was amazing too!

Also in that house they continued a museum.  One quote that we found to be interesting was this:

As we came out of the museum, we saw this huge tower of books.  Each book was about Lincoln!  Talk about amazing!  

After Ford's Theater we headed back to our bikes.  We had parked them near a cheese shop and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go in!  We were amazed at all the different cheeses they had there.  When one lady asked if she could help us, I just told her that we had never been in a cheese store before and this was pretty cool.  She then offered to let us try several different kinds.  Yum!

We then rode our bikes to the Capitol Building.

And we rode up the Capitol Hill...I now know why they call it that.  Phew!

We stopped to have a packed lunch up there.  We sat near some Chinese girls and they just loved Glenn.  They thought he was so cute and asked to take a picture with him.  He was kind of loving the attention and was being really silly.  And they just laughed more!

We wanted to go in the Capitol Building Visitor's Center, but because we had food and drinks in our bag, we couldn't go in.  And we didn't want to throw it all away.  So we passed on that and maybe we'll see it another time.

Then we walked over to the Library of Congress Building.

Inside we saw beautiful statues, mosaics, marble columns, and stained glass windows.

We saw quotes and this was one of my favorites.

Also inside they also had several exhibits.  One was on the American Civil War; another was Thomas Jefferson's Library--hundreds and hundreds of books from Jefferson's personal library; another was on Exploring the Early Americas; and another was called Words like Sapphires.  That was about Hebrew and different pieces from Jewish culture.  Each exhibit was very unique and interesting.  We didn't spend much time in each place because Glenn was getting tired of walking around and looking at this stuff.  He isn't old enough to appreciate or really understand most of what he sees.  So we got a little preview.
Oh!  And inside we got to see a copy of the Gutenberg and Mainz Bibles!!  We couldn't take pictures of them, but we did see them.  The handwriting in the Mainz Bible was incredible!
And of course we got to look down into the main reading room of the library.  That was pretty cool too.

We walked down to the Supreme Court Building.  But it was closed on the weekend and it was being renovated.  So we just took some pictures and walked back to our bikes.

We went on a nice bike ride around the downtown area.  We went to the White House...

...and then around the National Mall and the monuments there.  It was such a nice day and it was a much quicker way to see everything.  We really liked being on our bikes.

We wish we had brought our bikes before.  It really was a great way to see the city!