Day 2 of the Exciting Adventures of Flat Tucker!

Day 2 was a beautiful spring day. Sunny with highs in the 80's with a slight breeze. The weather was so warm I had to break out the shorts! A little scary after this long winter. My legs are whiter than the White House and I was worried I would blind everyone in Washington DC with my pale legs! I risked it anyway because the weather couldn't have been more perfect for what we had planned first, walking the Tidal Basin to view the Cherry Blossoms!


The sight was as beautiful and walking right under the thick canopy of pink flowers is as neat as it has been described in all the research I did. Also found in the thick canopy of flowers was the thick crowds of people! Again, from my research I knew it would be very, very crowded, but the crowds started to wear on our nerves a little! Handy tips when walking in crowds: Walk on the right, don't stop in the middle of the walkway to take a picture, text, read email, or anything else that will distract you from paying attention to what you are doing! If you are going to get in the way then step off the path! Flat Tucker didn't seem as bothered by it as Joey and me, but he was being carried in my purse! He did really enjoy the fragrant cherry blossom blooms!


Along the Tidal Basin we stopped at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.





















We also stopped at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. Flat Tucker got a picture there and it turns out it appeared he was almost eaten by FDR's dog, Fala!

We left the Tidal Basin and headed over to the Reflecting Pool area in front of the Lincoln Memorial to see the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial and the World War II Memorial.


Flat Tucker stopped for a photo at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial at a spot where a child had left a memento thanking the service people for their sacrifices.

At the World War II Memorial Flat Tucker stopped for a picture at the pillar for his home state of Oklahoma!


Next, we left the National Mall to go to Ford's Theater, which is where President Abraham Lincoln went on April 14, 1865 to watch a play and was shot by John Wilkes Booth. President Lincoln was taken to a boarding house across the street from the theater and died the next morning, April 15, 1865. The theater is still a working theater with a museum in the basement and another museum across the street in the Peterson House, the house where he died.

Right above Flat Tucker is the Presidential Box Seats where President Lincoln, his wife, and two guests sat when John Wilkes Booth came in from behind and shot him. John Wilkes Booth then jumped over the balcony onto the stage to escape. He caught his foot on the picture of George Washington which caused him to land badly and he broke his leg. He still managed to get away but was found and killed 12 days later.

The gun that John Wilkes Booth used to shoot President Lincoln.


We walked many miles today so we ended our evening at the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner next to Ford's Theater and then headed back to the hotel for rest and recovery. Flat Tucker has us all tuckered out! We need to get up early and be at Nebraska's Senator Johann's office in the U.S Capitol building by 8:30 tomorrow for our tour!






The Exciting Adventures of Flat Tucker!

I was so excited when I saw a post in the seller forums on Teacher Pay Teachers from Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie's Danielle Sanders asking for volunteers to participate in her class Flat Stanley project. My father had taken Flat Joey, Flat Ally, and Flat Sam on vacations with him for all three of my kids when they were in first grade and had such fun, so with an upcoming Washington DC trip on my agenda I jumped at the chance to sign up!

A couple weeks ago Flat Tucker arrived at my house in Omaha. I prepared Flat Tucker for his upcoming travels by laminating to keep him fresh and dry! Don't want him looking shabby in the nation's capital!

The trip to DC is for my 8th grade son, Joey, and myself. Joey is studying American History this year in school so I decided to take him on a mother/son field trip! Mix some learning in with some bonding! Honestly I love to travel so I'll do just about anything to come up with an excuse to take a trip! At first Joey was a little apprehensive about bringing Flat Tucker along on our vacation because that might not be so "cool" for a teenager you know! I convinced him it would be fun and I promised I wouldn't tag the pictures on Facebook!

Today the big day finally arrived. We were up and ready for the airport at 5 AM! The flight from Omaha to Ronald Reagan National Airport with a stop in St. Louis went smoothly and we even arrived a little early!

Got our luggage and found the Metro for Flat Tucker's first subway ride! Headed for the Hilton Garden Inn only blocks from the White House!

After getting settled we walked over to check out the White House. Joey and I have been here before, exactly 14 years ago. Joey was only 4 months old so he doesn't remember a thing! His impression of the White House was the same as mine was the first time; it's much smaller than you expect it to be, but cool nonetheless! Flat Tucker was pretty impressed too!



Some cute college girls offered to take our picture when they saw the Flat Stanley project! Joey decided it wasn't so uncool when it attracted cute college girls!

It was a beautiful day so we walked from the White House to the Smithsonian's American History Museum. There were saw Dorothy's Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz, Miss Piggy, many things that belonged to different presidents and first ladies, and much, much more. The picture of Flat Tucker and Miss Piggy didn't turn out well due to the dim lighting.

After touring the museum we had our first mishap! The subway station we planned to use was closed so we had to take another and in the confusion we got on the train going the wrong direction! Fortunately we weren't on a time crunch and had time to get off and re-board going the right direction! Needless to say we got a good lesson on subway riding and got to experience lots of it!

After finally arriving at Union Station we ate a quick dinner and then found the spot to board our trolley for the Monuments by Moonlight tour with our driver, Mr. History! Mr. History knew it all! He even knew trivia about the states that everyone was from on the tour! We drove by the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court Building, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Monument, Arlington Cemetery, the White House, and we stopped and got out at the Iwo Jima Memorial, the MLK Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial.



The tour got over about 11, even though that was only 10 Omaha time we were all pretty tired so we took the subway (no wrong way this time!) and headed back to the hotel. Need to get rested to walk around the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms tomorrow, the Ford's Theater, and maybe a bit of the Air and Space Museum!



Could you be a Real Life Flat Stanley?


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The Teaching Bank will no longer be affiliated with Enotes.com

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