There’s a Starbucks attached to the hotel, but we walked across the mall to Bakers & Baristas for breakfast – everything made in house and soooo good.

Walked across the mall and saw the Capital building in the distance.

At the National Archives, we saw the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Constitution. We even found the misspelling of Pennsylvania in the Constitution. The security guard said the number of visitors to the National Archives has ballooned since Nicholas Cage starred in National Treasure.

Walked through the National Portrait Gallery’s sculpture garden and bypassed a dozen food trucks to enjoy the award-winning Mitsitam at the National Museum of the American Indian for lunch. Named one of the best museum restaurants in the world it specializes in food from various regions across the Americas: I enjoyed a Peruvian salad with inca corn and some buffalo chili while Paul had salpican di pollo (Peruvian chicken salad).

Next at the Smithsonian Museum of National History, we saw the Hope diamond and other exhibits.

And then we made our way to Fords Theatre to see where Lincoln was shot.

A quick trip back to the hotel for a swim at the roof top pool, and spent the evening at the Washington Nationals game. D really liked the park and kept remarking on how open and clean it was. Bryce Harper tossed him a ball and Mari met the Presidents. All in all, a fun night at the ball park!

In general, we’ve been impressed at how clean the city is, and the grid layout makes getting around a breeze. We’ve noticed how friendly everyone is here — from the employees at the historic sites to concession workers. Even the kids have noticed this is definitely not the northeast.