Last Day of Washington DC - Large Family Travel

On Sunday we had planned on simply travelling home. However, Sarah wanted to visit the Holocaust Museum again. She was young the last time we visited. We didn't think that the little ones were ready to go to the main part of the museum but there is an area for the kids called Daniel's Story.

So on Sunday morning we took our van from the oversized car lot and headed over to the museum. We paid $30/day to be able to park in this area behind the hotel.  Our van wouldn't fit in the parking garage.

 

 

 

Daniel's Story was a very good way to introduce the kids to the holocaust.  It gives the facts but not in such an emotional way that the other part of the museum presents it.

 



 

The way it is presented helps the kids to interact with the displays.  Warning - many of the journal pages are written in cursive.  Anthony could read them because he loves cursive.  I wonder when they will have to change the signs since many schools are no longer teaching cursive.

As you go through the displays it gets darker and colder. 

All the kids wrote cards to express their thoughts. 

We finished before John and Sarah so we had some waiting time.

We headed home after visiting the museum.  For our crew it was a 9 hour drive, many food and bathroom breaks.

This was quite an expensive weekend trip for our family.  Riding on the Metro got costly when buying 7 cards, driving and parking was actually cheaper for us. 

 

Food was crazy expensive.  We brought snacks but we still had to buy three meals a day.  Staying at the condo in Myrtle Beach was cheaper because we had a kitchen. 

 

We also don't fit into a typical hotel room, at all.  Not even close.  Parking was not included with the hotel rate.  There were no free breakfasts.  We did however stay a block away from the Air and Space Museum so could walk to things in that area.

 

All of the museums were free.  We did pay for the kids to ride the simulators at the Air and Space Museum but we didn't do the IMAX movies. We spent $80 at a street vendor for 4 shirts, one hoodie, three purses and one hat for the kids.

 

We also had to pay for my mothers aide and prepay for the days the kids were in respite care. 

 

We only had 6 weeks to budget for this trip so we cut corners wherever we could. I bought the book  Daniel's Story from the holocaust museum and a rock (tradition) from the Natural History Museum. Everything else was bought from the street vendors.  Shirts can be bought for $5.  We brought our own snacks and drinks for in the hotel room although we actually spent very little time in the room.  We ate one big meal at the mall which was actually cheaper than many of the restaurants downtown.  Still it was a very expensive trip!  We ate very cheaply at home and cut back all extra activities to make up some of the cost. 

 

I think that our next weekend trip will be to a condo with a kitchen!  Maybe we should go visit Kathy, she might feed us!