Washington DC trip

We went to Washington DC at the end of March to the annual Cherry Blossom Festival.  We stayed with Anna and Josh and got to see Damien's Aunt Barbara, his cousin Peter and his wife Liz.  It was good to see family. 

We packed in a lot during our long weekend, with Anna being a wonderful tour guide.  Our first day there we went to the National Zoo and saw lots of animals.  Luke's favorite was the tiger.  The tiger was especially cool as it growled at us.  We had never heard a live tiger growl before (seeing as we don't live in tiger territory). 

We also got to see lions, elephants, orangutans, and a bird even tried to eat Lisa.
We toured the National Mall, seeing the Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Washington Monuments and Memorials.  We also saw the WWII and Korean, and Vietnam Memorials. 

During this particular weekend of the Cherry Blossom Festival, we were able to attend the kite flying festival.  It was incredible!  We had never seen so many kites flying all at once.  It was particularly neat seeing them fly around the Washington Monument. 

No trip to DC would be complete without going to the fabulous museums.  We went to the Natural History Museum, the American History Museum, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, the Portrait Gallery, and Damien's favorite, the Newseum.  Damien has a photo from his newspaper days with the Marietta Daily Journal hanging at the Newseum!  He was really overwhelmed to see that he has a photo in a museum in DC! 

Anna and Josh were great guides and hosts.  All in all, we had a wonderful vacation! 

Luke is excited on the flight there.

Luke looks at a model of the ocean temperature.

Here's the tiger that growled at us.

Luke's hands are a little bit smaller than tiger paws.

Same with this tongue.

Cherry blossoms.

From the Roosevelt Memorial.

Our hosts, Josh and Anna.

Damien points to his photo from the Marietta Daily Journal that is on display at the Newseum.