Our Family Trip to Washington DC | Here's Everything We Did

One of the trips we've had on our bucket list for quite sometime is to go see the cherry blossoms in bloom in Washington DC. If you've never heard of this before, let me share it with you! Every spring, hundreds of cherry blossom trees start to bloom all around Washington DC. They bloom with these beautiful pink flowers and they're sprinkled all around the city, but especially by the monuments or other park areas.

People come from all over the country to walk around the city and bask in the beauty of these trees and I've heard they're really something special to see. Alex and I have had this on our bucket list for awhile, but we've never had a chance to go because our boy's birthdays fall around this time and we've always had a lot going on.

Well, this year, we finally got to go and it was everything we hoped for and more! My sister was in Washington DC for a work conference and she asked if we wanted to come join her for the weekend. We couldn't say yes fast enough and immediately started looking for a place to stay. My parents went along as well so we had five adults and two kids touring the big city!

You can also listen to our whole trip via The Messy Motherhood Podcast!

To make this super easy, I'll break it down for you day by day of what we did and while also sharing our restaurant recommendations because you know we're a bunch of foodies!

FRIDAY- TRAVEL DAY

We left for Washington DC on Friday and since it was over a 5 hour drive, we wanted to make sure we got there in the afternoon with plenty of time. Since it was a longer day in the car, we made sure we had our snack bag full of snacks from Thrive Market. Some of our favorite snacks from there are Go Macro Bars, Solely Mango Bites, Skout Organic French Toast Bars, and Chomps Grass-Fed Beef Sticks. You can shop with my link (HERE) and it will give you 30% off your order plus a free gift! Having our snack bag packed for the car ride and long days of walking around the city was a MUST and it was super helpful to have them on hand.

We also wanted to make sure our boy's had their car baskets fully stocked and ready, too. They're car baskets are simple baskets that I got from TJ Maxx. They're a plastic woven basket with a lid which makes them super easy to clean and carry around. If you want a peek inside of our car baskets, you can find that HERE! Does this mean we didn't use an iPad for a movie? Heck no. We absolutely put a movie on for them, we just try to keep that for a "last resort" kind of thing instead of watching all the movies all the time.

By the time we got there, it was late afternoon and my sister was already checked into our Air B and B waiting for us. We went straight there to meet up with her and drop off our bags. Our Air B and B was a full house with four bedrooms, a kitchen, washer/dryer, game room, and back porch. It was the perfect spot for us and everyone had the space they needed. It was pretty central to everything we did and was only a 15-20 minute drive to the main area by the monuments. If you'd like to see where we stayed, you can find that HERE.

After we got settled, we were ready to find a place for dinner and stumbled upon Bacio Pizzeria (pictured here) which was only a short drive down the street. It was the coziest little spot and I still dream about this dinner even though we've been home for a few weeks. We shared two large pizzas, two salads, mozzarella sticks, and a basket of french fries for all of us and it was plenty. We even had leftovers to take with us.

It was drizzling a little bit, but we decided to go drive by some of the monuments so we could see them all lit up at night. We drove through downtown by the Capitol building and the Washington Monument which was really cool. The streets weren't crowded and there were a good amount of people out walking around and exploring the city.

We drove to the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial where we got out and walked around for a few minutes. I was a little nervous about being out and around with the boys at night, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that so many other people were out and that tour buses were dropping people off for the night tour. We felt totally safe which really helped me to relax and enjoy our time.

By this point, it was getting pretty late so we decided to head back to our stay and get some good sleep. Tomorrow would be a full day!

SATURDAY- LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, THE CAPITOL, AND MORE.

One of the biggest things we did to prep for each day was to figure out our plan and our breakfast spot the night before. That way, we could wake up and know exactly what we're doing and head out. Our plan for this morning was to head to Founders Farmers and Distillers down by Chinatown and then head on over for our tour of the Library of Congress. Breakfast was delicious and since we had a larger group, we definitely made sure we made a reservation ahead of time. They had the option of ordering a la carte from the menu or going to the breakfast buffet. They both looked great, but we chose the a la carte option from the menu and was pleased.

After breakfast, we were on the hunt to find parking so we could go to our tour at the Library of Congress. They ask that you reserve a timed ticket (which is free) in order to get in and our time slot was for 11:15am. Safe to say, we did NOT make it to our time slot because finding public parking was more hellish than we expected it to be. It caused a lot of tension between Alex and I because the parking situation was just so much harder than we expected it to be. We finally saw a cop at one of the stoplights so I quickly hopped out of the car and asked for a recommendation on a spot to park. He pointed us in the right direction and we were thankfully able to find a spot quickly. Just a heads up- we parked on the street right across from the United States Botanic Garden. We still had to pay hourly for parking, but that's the case no matter where you go.

It actually worked out well because we were able to park there and then walk up the hill on the path by the Capitol building on our way to the Library of Congress. There were LOTS of cherry blossoms in bloom and it was a brief, yet beautiful walk!

Getting into the Library of Congress was super easy and like most of the other museums or buildings in Washington DC, you need to go through a metal detector upon entry. The library was stunning and absolutely worth going to so I would make sure it's on your list! You can't go into the media room itself, BUT if you go downstairs and go through the 10 minute process to get a free library card, then you're welcome to step foot in the media room. I HIGHLY recommend doing this, especially if you're a book lover like me! Kids under 16 are not allowed in the media room so just make sure someone is willing to stay with the kids for a few minutes while you go inside!

We were in the library for quite awhile and coming out into the sunshine felt amazing. We had beautiful weather while we were there and I was so satisfied with what I had packed for the trip. It was comfy enough for all of our walking, but stylish enough that I felt confident as we walked. I'm linking everything I packed HERE so you can shop my suitcase!

Once we were finished at the library, we walked across the street to the Capitol Building to look around. You are able to take a tour of the Capitol building and it's totally free, but it requires a lot of planning ahead of time so make sure you check into that if you're planning a trip. We didn't do that on this trip, but we talked about maybe doing it next time! Walking around the building itself was fun enough and still really fascinating so I wouldn't skimp out on that even if you don't have a tour.

Now, this is where things started to get a little discouraging. Our plan from here was to grab some food from a nearby restaurant and have a picnic out in the grassy area on Capitol Hill. Great plan, right? Yeah, except for the fact that nothing is open on Saturdays which was a huge bummer! We ended up having to take another 20 minutes or so to then find a new plan and figure out what we were going to do. We decided to give up our coveted parking spots and drive about 10 minutes across town to grab a small bite at a restaurant called Mi Vida. It was very good and the location was perfect! From there we were able to walk to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Again, this was free (which we loved!) and we had about an hour before they closed. This gave us just enough time to fully explore the first floor of the museum, wishing we had more time to go upstairs! This museum is in the heart of so many things and it's really close to all of the other museums, the National Archives, and so much more. From here we walked to Ford's Theatre and grabbed gelato for the boys from Dolcezza Gelato and Coffee. By the time we got to Ford's Theatre they were closed for tours, but we were able to walk through the gift shop. The tours aren't free, but they're only $5.00 all year round.

Okay, we've had a full day of walking by this point and we're all feeling it so let's head back to the Air B and B for an evening break and we'll come up with a plan from there. Getting back to our spot, taking off our shoes, and sitting down to relax felt amazing! So amazing in fact that we didn't want to go back out for the night, which was fine because it was after 7pm. We decided to send a few people to pick up dinner from Ben's Chili Bowl which is apparently a pretty famous spot! We grabbed burgers, cheese fries, hot dogs, and their infamous banana pudding. In my opinion, it was good. Just your normal greasy cheeseburger type of meal. We played some games before heading to bed for a good night's sleep!

SUNDAY- AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM FOLLOWED BY THE MONUMENTS

Our last full day was a good one, probably my favorite day of the whole trip! We decided to go to the National Air and Space Museum in Dulles which was about 45 minutes away from Washington DC. We decided to have breakfast in Dulles instead of in DC, hoping for a lower crowd and easier parking. We went to Tatte (pronounced like latte, but with a T) and I'm SO glad we did. It was delicious and the atmosphere of the restaurant couldn't have been better! We grabbed coffees and an amazing breakfast spread and ate a great meal before heading to the museum, an easy 10 minute drive.

The boys were so excited when they walked in the museum and saw all of the planes and space stuff! We were there for awhile, probably four hours or so, and we just had the best time there! We did pay a little extra to go see the movie playing in the iMax theatre and that was really cool! We all enjoyed that and it was definitely worth the extra little bit of money to do that. Coming out of the theatre, make sure you head downstairs so you can catch the elevator and visit the rooftop area where you'll see planes taking off!

Walking around the museum was so much cooler than I expected and we loved learning about all of the different planes. My dad is a huge history buff so it was really cool to hear all of the things he had to share about the different planes, etc. The boys loved learning about the planes and doing the kid's scavenger hunt that the museum provided. At the end of our visit, once their paper was full of the answers we'd found, they got their paper embossed by the museum's seal and then got to pick out a special space button they could wear on their shirt. Of course, we stopped by the gift shop on the way out and they boys both grabbed a plane that they liked and we grabbed a really cool frisbee that we were excited to start throwing with the boys.

Leaving there, we were all super hungry and decided to head back to the small shopping area by Tatte so we could grab some food from Sixty Vines. This is one of our favorite places to go to because they have delicious appetizers to share, plus a vibrant wine menu where you can taste a lot of different types of wine!

It was early evening when we decided to head back to Washington DC and on the way back into town, it was the moment we had all been waiting for- a tour of the monuments! We parked along the river over by the Abraham Lincoln Monument and from there, we were able to walk everywhere we needed to go! We started by the Martin Luther King Memorial and made our way to all of the big monuments. We had the stroller for our boys which was nice because Graham ended up falling asleep and taking a nice nap while we were walking around. They also took turns walking or we would stop and throw our new frisbee in a grassy area whenever we felt like it. It was the best and most pure evening, full of site seeing and being with our family. Again, the weather was beautiful and we ended up walking around to all of the different monuments for hours. It was about 9pm when we were wrapping up and I was shocked to see how many field trips and visitors were still out exploring the city and around the monuments. I felt super safe being there with the kids and the city was super clean, another thing that I was kind of surprised by!

It was late when we got back to the car and now we were super hungry again (our meals were all out of whack on this trip lol) so we decided to pick up tacos from Surfside Tacos and take them back to the Air B and B while we played some games! Hands down, this was favorite meal we had and these tacos were DELICIOUS! Highly recommend stopping to grab some tacos whether it's eating there by the water or taking them to go!

MONDAY- SCOOTERS, NATIONAL ARCHIVES, AND HOME!

It's our last morning and we're sad to go, but also ready to get home and back into our routine! Obviously, the first thing we had to do was to clean up the place and get our bags loaded in the car. Once that was all done, we waved goodbye and scooted on to breakfast! We went to Maman and it was the cutest, coziest little breakfast place. We really loved it and it felt very welcoming. It also didn't hurt that there was a public parking garage right next door- ha! Biggest tip about Washington DC- parking is going to be one of the biggest and most annoying challenges. Try to plan your day around your parking, meaning that you should try to stay in one part of town and do all of the things you want to do and then figure out another section to move on to in order to maximize your time and your parking.

From here, we had just enough time to squeeze in one more thing before my sister had to catch her flight at the airport so we decided to head on over to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.

They had a public parking lot- yay!- and there were a lot of beautiful cherry blossoms in bloom right along the water in front of the memorial. If you really want to see some of the cherry blossoms in bloom, head here! You can walk on the path around the water and it will take you to a place where you can rent paddle boats or if you keep going, then you'll be over by the Martin Luther King Memorial. It's a beautiful area and it looked like they were planting even more cherry blossoms!

From here, we had to say our goodbyes. My parents took my sister to the airport and we took the boys back into downtown Washington DC because one goal- find some scooters we could rent and ride them around! They boys saw these all over town and kept asking to do it, so this was the perfect way we could end our trip and we decided to go for it!

We parked down by the river by the Abraham Lincoln Monument again and immediately, we found some scooters. Alex downloaded the app and got it all set up so we could go! Aspen rode with me and Graham rode with Alex and as soon as we took off, they were shrieking with joy! This worked because Alex and I sat on the seat of the scooter and the boys stood on the platform in between our legs and held onto the handlebars. We made sure to keep at a safe speed to prevent anyone getting hurt and I'm here to tell you right now- this was so worth it. We decided to drive them over to the National Archives Museum so we could pop in and see the Declaration of Independence.

The museum, again, was FREE and not really all that crowded. We were in there for less than an hour and the boys were honestly itching to get back outside and see if our scooters were still there. You can imagine their excitement when they came out to see the scooters in the same place we had left them and once again, we hopped on and went for a ride. We took the long way back to the car and then said our very sad goodbyes to the scooters as we got in the car to head home. Overall, it was $60 for the entirety of our scooter ride for both scooters and it was so worth it! This would be a really great way to get around town, especially if you have kiddos!

Our trip to Washington DC was one for the books and we had a great time! There's so much to do and you'll never be able to do it all in one trip so my biggest advice would be to really plan out where you want to go, what you want to do, and what you want to eat ahead of time. That way you can make sure places will be open, reserve your timed tickets if necessary, and also potentially book a tour! We hope you have just as much fun as we did and as always, if you have any questions- please let me know!

Until next time,

SB