To get out of the metro station you had to ride these very tall escalators. For some reason, I didn't like riding them. I am not scared of heights, but these were straight up and down. The picture doesn't do justice. It took over 2 minutes to get up or down.
After stopped at the hotel to drop off our bags, we were off. First stop.....
It was an extremely hot and humid day so we opted to do the tour, which was a wonderful idea. It dropped you off at a stop, you spent as much time wandering, then got back on whatever bus was there. First stop was the Kennedy grave sites, John and Jackie.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Changing of the Guards Ceremony. It was very cool to watch this. If you go, you must stay to watch. Everything was so precise.
The sea of headstones. Very moving to just sit and take it all in.
The space shuttle The Challenger memorial. Jeff and I were in 3rd grade when it exploded and we both remember when it happened.
Here is the bus we took.
Next stop, off the the Mall area and to the Smithsonian Museums. We first stopped at the Smithsonian Castle, which basically is an informational place about the museums.
We hit the Air and Space Museum today. It was awesome. Can't wait to take the kids some day, they will love it. Airplanes hanging from the ceiling as you walk in.
The Red Barron. We bought Jack a model airplane of this one as his "prize".
I tried to take pictures that I knew the kids would find interesting. And this one had a gun, so Jack and Kyle really liked it!
A space rover that was on Mars.
After a couple hours at the museum we went and had a nice sit down supper to rest our feet and cool off. By then it was dark and we figured we would walk and see some of the monuments lit up. Here is the Washington Monument. 
I took this one farther away, liked the reflection in the water.
Walking from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln, you pass this amphitheater all lit up with a beautiful fountain in the middle.
The pillars of the theater were for the states. We found Iowa right away.
Next to the Korean War Monument. Statues of soldiers walking in grassy fields. Very cool lit up.
The wall surrounding it has faces engraved in it. It was hard to see in the dark, but once I took a picture, you could really make them out.
Lincoln Monument. Very, very cool at night all lit up. It was packed, tons of people there to see it. It is massive and impressive to see!
The stairs of the monument have a plague where Martin Luther King Jr stood and made his famous speech. It had water spilled on it, but still took the picture. 
The Vietnam Memorial. 
This was the one thing I really wanted to see. The pictures are hard to see it great as it was dark and the whole wall is black. But it was very moving to see all the names carved in the wall.
There were lots of people at the wall looking up loved ones and taking pictures. It was very emotional for me to see it all and think that my dad was there and then to see all the thousands of names on that wall that died.
We called it a night after this and headed back to our hotel. We were beat from all the walking we did, but had a great first day.
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