Friday, August 2, 2013

Keep It Local: Double-Decker Bus Tour



It's been a gorgeous week of sunny, but relatively cool weather and mom thought it would be a perfect time to hop on a double-decker tour bus to be tourists in our own city. Actually, mom tried to go last week, but both of us were still getting over the summer bug we'd caught. Then, mom tried to get everyone on board this weekend, but daddy wasn't game. Too bad, 'cause we had a sweet time earlier this week riding around the sights. OK, actually, mom and I had a sweet time -- I loved riding with the wind in my hair. Kane mostly complained that he still didn't feel good. Although he perked up outside Ford's Theater when he heard that was the site of President Lincoln's assassination.

In any event, mom had a bit of a hard time deciding which tour line to go with, but after reading No Monsters in My Bed's review of Gray Line's Big Bus tour and hearing slightly better things about their tour guides, she went with that. As with the other company she was considering, kids under 5 ride free, which was the other reason she wanted to do it this summer -- Kane turns the big 5 in a few months.

And it turned out to be a great ride! Mom knew we probably wouldn't have a long attention span for this and anticipated, given Kane's complaints, that we likely wouldn't get off to do any sight seeing. So we settled on doing only our tour loop (there are 4, all of which are included in the price of the 24-hour ticket) and hopped on at Union Station (one of the 60 stops you can pick up a ride). It was crowded, but seats up top opened up after just a few stops.

We spent the next hour (plus a few minutes) looping around the major DC sights -- monuments, government buildings, parks, etc. -- and learned a great deal of new and interesting facts. Did you know that Constitution Avenue used to be a canal running all the way to the Capitol?! That's what that random "Lock Keepers House" on Constitution and 17th was for. Plus, almost off the bat, we saw Marine One land on the south lawn of the White House (it looked like they were actually picking up the Prez). Just a bit around the Mall, we saw the removal of the current inscription on the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial (supposedly the sculptor was under the draping overseeing the removal himself).

It was a fabulous way to see the city and we'll cross that off our bucket list. If its not on yours yet, put it at the top!







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