Next stop- US Botanic Garden

The US Botanic Garden is right next to the Native American museum so we hopped over there for a look.

The outside garden is dormant for the winter so there wasn't much to see, but it was fun for the kids to just run along the paths playing the instruments they got to buy at the NA museum.

I wanted to go in but Shane was beginning to dissolve so we'll save it for another trip.

Then we headed to Union Station to meet daddy. As we passed in front of the Capitol, we saw this sign:

All the years I've lived in the area, I don't remember being downtown around the time of an inauguration.

So up the big hill (pushing a double stroller) to Union Station we went. Daddy met us part way and helped push (thanks!) and we looked at the train display at Union Station.

My memory isn't very good, but I could swear that years ago (10-12) they had an elaborate train display at Christmas time. What they have now is, well, sad and small. It was just 3 tracks and a handful of buildings. It wasn't a complete loss because Shane loves trains in all shapes and sizes.

Daddy got a phone call while we were there and wasn't able to leave for the day as early as we hoped. That meant I had 2 more hours to kill. 4 exhausted kids and 1 tired mommy. No sweat! :)

But Daddy remembered one more museum that he thought the kids would enjoy....