The Lincoln Memorial: I can tell you from personal experience that there is something extremely powerful about standing in front of a memorial to one of the greatest men who ever lived in the United States. In case you aren’t familiar with the specifics of the Lincoln Memorial, the statue itself is nineteen feet tall, while the murals that are around it are sixty feet high.

Washington National Cathedral: Although people normally think of Europe when they think of beautiful cathedrals, the Washington National Cathedral is actually the sixth largest cathedral in the entire world.

The Newseum: While there are a lot of museums that aren’t normally of interest to children and teenagers, this museum does a great job of bridging the gap and successfully offering interesting things for children, teens and adults as well. My family and I spent three hours in theNewseum , and we were having such a great time that we could have easily spent more if we didn’t have previous reservations made at another destination.

US National Aboretum: It’s hard to put into perspective how large this attraction is, but if you can even come close to picturing what 446 acres of flora and fauna is like, you might be able to get an idea. What I really like about theAboretum is that it is a great place to bring a packed lunch and spend the majority of one of your days in Washington DC.