Day 4 in Washington DC 11/18/14

Today we visited the U.S Bureau of Engraving and Printing to learn about how are money is made. Tours run every 15 minutes from 9:00 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. We made it to the 10:30 tour and with it being off peak season we did not need a ticket. Tours are free like most other museums in DC. :) 

Before the actual tour you can watch a video on how money is made. During the tour no pictures, videos, or cell phones are allowed in use so I was not able to take any pics. The pics below are all from the gift shop.

I enjoyed the tour as I thought it was pretty neat to see how our bills were made. I also learned a few things. One, I did not know that they redesigned the $100 bill recently. Probably because I never have $100 bills on me. :p Secondly, they print almost a billion dollars a day at that facility. They have another facility in Texas that prints a bit more than a billion a day. Thirdly, I learned that of the billion a day, 99% of it is replacement money. I did not know that our banks go through the bills and take out of circulation bills that are written on and torn, any bills that don't look right are then replaced with the new bills. 

The tour wasn't very long and I'm not sure if the kids enjoyed it so much. However, they did enjoy the gift shop.

After the tour, we exited and the first thing we saw was the Washington Monument. It was pretty cold out but when I asked the kiddos if they wanted to go to the top of it, they both screamed out yes. With both of them wanting to, we hurried over in the freezing cold to get tickets. Of course I had to get a shot of them beforehand.

Once I got our tickets, we did not have to wait long which was awesome. Only had to wait a little less than 10 minutes before we got to go inside. The views at the top were great! I remember the last time I was up, the windows were cloudy, and now they were clear which made for better pictures.

After exiting the monument, the kiddos wanted to run around a little bit. It was cold but they still had fun! :)

After playing around a bit, we headed to the Air and Space Museum to eat lunch. We then explored exhibits we missed on the first floor and a lot of the second floor. It was interesting to see that the kiddos weren't as interested in the museum this time around. I think with all the hands on crafts they did on Saturday they were hoping for more of the same. My 5 year old even mentioned it was "boring" during parts, but I totally understood as a lot of the stuff in the museum is for older kids/adults. 

I did notice that the things my kids did enjoy were the exhibits with buttons and the ones where you could touch and use an object or push a button. They also liked to watch some of the movies for some of the exhibits.

In all it was a pretty productive day. They had a good time for the most part and I enjoyed learning new things.