Day 7 - The White House and Braves/Nationals Game

On Friday, we had a tour of the White House planned.  Again, thanks to the good folks at Congressman Meadows' office, we were able to get registered for the tour.  It is quite an involved process to be able to do that.  Only your Congressman's office can get you on the tour and it has to be planned about 3 months in advance.  Our scheduled time was for 7:30 am which meant we had to get up early to be there on time.  We were able to catch an Uber and get there in plenty of time to stand in line to get in.  I must say it was pretty exciting to think we would be able to go inside the White House.  Once we go through the many security checks, we are finally able to go inside.  It was very cool!

After the White House tour, we decided to head back over to the Capitol to use our Gallery passes and see the House of Representatives Chamber where they meet.  I was very impressed with that tour.  Unfortunately, they would not let us take pictures of that room.  It was a really neat experience.  After the busy morning we had, we walked back to our apartment and started packing to go home the next day.  We also had tickets for the Braves and Nationals game that night to cap off the trip.

We were very excited to be able to see the Braves on the road.  It was just good luck that they would resume their season after the All-Star break in Washington.  So we had to take advantage of that.  Tammy made sure that we got good seats right behind the Visitor's dugout so we could see the Braves up close.  Of course, we had to be there two hours before game time so we could see batting practice.  Again, Trey was hoping to get an autograph or two.  We get there as the Braves are starting BP and we hustle on down to get a good spot to try to get an autograph.  Unfortunately, that did not work out, but we did get another baseball thanks to Sean Newcombe who threw Tate a ball!

After batting practice, we head over to our seats which were amazing.  They must have been pretty prime seats because three rows in front of us were Freddie Freeman's wife and his young son, Charlie (who waved at Freddie every time he came into the dugout).  We were only six rows back which was close enough to get a good view of all the Braves players returning to the dugout.

Acuna, Albies, and Camargo

Dansby Swanson loosening up

Ronald Acuna Jr. leading off the game

Ozzie Albies

Freddie Freeman

Acuna talking to Paul Byrd with the assistance of a translator

Our view of the field six rows back

The Braves were able to get a big win against the Nationals which was a great way to end an amazing week.  The next day we would head home with fond memories of our experiences in Washington D.C.  This trip was incredible!  I know the boys will have some memories that will last a lifetime.  It will be hard to top this one.

Days 5 & 6- D.C. Non-Baseball Days

With all of the All-Star events coming to an end, why would we possibly need to stay around our nation's capital any longer?  Well, as you might have guessed, the Social Studies teacher in me felt obligated to take the boys around the city to see some of the historic sights and at least make this trip somewhat educational.  So, on Wednesday after the All-Star game, we had made arrangements with our Congressman, Mark Meadows, to take a couple of tours.  Our first stop was the Library of Congress where we took a tour and got to see the place where Nicholas Cage was running around trying to find the Presidential Book of Secrets (According to the tour guide, there is no such thing).

A lot of neoclassical style in the LOC.

The Reading Room was very impressive

  After that, we went to Congressman Meadows office where his assistant had arranged a private tour of the Capitol provided by one of the Congressman's interns, a guy from Appalachian State named John, who did a  good job (I did catch about 4 or 5 inaccuracies that he told us on the tour but I did not say anything as to not embarrass him).  While touring the Capitol, we were able to catch a glimpse of some pretty big names - Speaker of the House Paul Ryan walked by as did Majority Whip Steve Scalise (the guy who was shot at the Congressional softball game last year) and we saw former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.  John kept going on and on about how fortunate we were to see some of the "Stars of the Congress".

Trey and Tate outside the Capitol

During our tour, we felt pretty important as we got to use the Congressional tunnels which connect the Congressional offices to the Capitol.  As our tour concluded, we were given four House Gallery Passes which we would use on Friday after the White House tour to actually go into the House Chamber.

A Magnificent Building

Upon leaving the Capitol, we grabbed some lunch nearby and then headed back to our apartment for a little downtime.  Tammy and the boys wanted to go and do a little shopping.  That evening, we actually got back in our car for the first time to drive to find the outlets.  There was a Tanger Outlet nearby and we went there for a couple of hours before we went back home for the evening.

On Thursday, we decided to go to the Smithsonian Zoo (Tate wanted to go see the Pandas).  It was surprisingly very good.  I don't think it gets the credit it deserves, but it had a wide variety of animals and was quite a bargain with it being free to get in (just like all the other Smithsonian properties).  And of course, the first stop was to see the Pandas!

They were very cute!

After walking around the zoo, we decided to head back to our apartment to rest and relax since we had been going pretty hard for 5 straight days.  So, we go back to take a nap and then head to the park which was two blocks away.  At the park, I had thought that we could maybe throw the baseball around a little bit.  Unfortunately, there was not that much room.  We realized just how much we can appreciate having a wide open space to throw a baseball around.  After the park, we walked to a little nearby Chinese restaurant called the Hong Kong Carryout.  It looked like a "little hole in the wall place" but the food was incredible and the portions were plenty so that we could eat the leftovers the next day.  Friday would be our last full day in D.C. and we had some pretty cool things planned.