Washington DC Day 4

So Friday was our 4th day in DC. And honestly this was my favorite day. It was also probably the busiest. Well we started the morning early b/c we wanted to get down to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving to get tickets. Well we got there about 8:30 and we had 3:15 as our come back time. We were glad we rushed out there though. Afterwards we decided to spend some more time in the National Mall. We went to see the Lincoln Memorial and enjoy the Reflecting Pool and such.  It was a long walk down there, but the kids were troopers. We took our time in that area then went to see some of the War memorials. After that we took an Uber down to the Zoo. Lindsay's teacher had told the class all about the panda bears and Lindsay was insistent that we go see them. I also really wanted to go since I had never done that before. We got right in and headed to the pandas. We saw a few other animals on the way, but our main goal was panda bears. We spent about 15-20 min just soaking that up. They were so cute! Afterwards we went to the gift shop to buy a couple things. We then ended up taking another Uber down to the Ford Theater where Lincoln was shot. The middle school from Calvary was also in DC this week and they had extra tickets and told us to come join them. It was so neat seeing familiar faces. We had a blast with them. It was also nice to check another thing off our list. After the tour we went on to eat lunch. We had thought about having lunch with them, but the Food Court they chose was super crowded so we stopped at McDonald's instead. After that we made our way to see the White House. It was neat checking that out. I hated we couldn't get an inside tour, but it was neat nonetheless just for the kids to see it in person. We went to the front and back sides. After that we were all getting pretty weary so we found a nice bench near there and sat down for about 30 min. It was nice just to refresh and let the kids have a snack and relax. Afterwards we started walking closer to where the Bureau of Printing and Engraving is. We parked it again on a bench and took it easy before our tour. We got there and only had to wait in line a few minutes. I think everyone enjoyed the tour there. It lasted about an hour. After that I think we were all ready to head back to the hotel. We walked to the nearest Subway and rode back. We had a little while to relax and chill before heading out to dinner. We were tired of all the restaurants close by so we decided to do something different and take an UBER back into the city and eat at a Family Italian place called Carmine's. The food was super yummy and it was nice to have that nice dinner like that. I think this contributed to it being my favorite day. After dinner we walked a little bit and just enjoyed that part of town before heading back to the hotel.