The capital of our nation is a beautiful, vibrant city, and we enjoyed visiting the seat of the government.
The U.S. capitol building is a stately, dignified building. The elected leaders of our country work here.
Dramatic lighting keeps it visible at night, and people can walk right up. The bollards in this picture keep vehicles from driving in.
The capitol building is the workplace of our legislators, who make the laws, and the Supreme Court building is the workplace of the judges who interpret and clarify those laws.
The President of the United States and the First Family live in the White House and it is the workplace of about 500 government workers. The White House is the people’s house, though. It does not belong to the president, and people are allowed to hang out here .
They’re also allowed to protest, demonstrate, and assemble here to express their opinions. This is an important part of American democracy.
These three buildings represent the three branches of U.S. government. Check out some of our lesson plans on the subject:
The National Mall
The National Mall is a beautiful national park, and the National Park Service calls it “America’s front lawn.” It’s surrounded by the White House — the people’s house, the capitol building, museums, and monuments. It contains many significant monuments and a beautiful reflecting pool between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
The Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial represent two of our most beloved presidents. Another presidential memorial honors Franklin D. Roosevelt, an important 20th century president.
These memorials showcase important statements by the presidents, such as the one below from the Roosevelt Memorial: “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much: it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” We took time to read and think about the information at the memorials.
In addition to the presidential memorials, the National Mall includes war memorials honoring the servicemen who protected our nation in  major wars that included the United States.
The World War II memorial has an interesting sort of archway with eagles, the national bird, holding a wreath of laurel leaves, the traditional symbol for heroes. 
Then there are columns with wreaths for each of the states and territories of the United States.
The Korean War memorial is haunting.
Another of the memorials honors Martin Luther King, Jr., a civil rights activist of the 20th century.
Georgetown
Many people live in Washington, D.C. The citizens living in the District would like to have statehood. The proposal is to make the District small enough to contain just the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court, the National Mall, and some other government buildings, but no residential neighborhoods. The rest of what is now Washington, D.C. would become a state.
We visited one of the neighborhoods in D.C.: Georgetown.
It’s a charming neighborhood with shopping, restaurants, and interesting walks.
Like the rest of D.C., it is full of people. If you walk down the street, you will hear many different languages as well as many different American accents. It’s partly because D.C. is a popular tourist destination, but it’s also a great reminder that the United States is a rich mosaic of people from all over the world.
