Date of Visit: February 23, 2026
On our way up to Philadelphia to see Independence Hall for America's 250, we spent a day in DC collecting national park stamps. Our original plan was to start at the White House Visitor Center than head out to Arlington, but due to the overnight snow Arlington House was closed for the day and the White House Visitor Center wasn't open at 7:30am despite no notice on their website or door that it was operating under different hours. Thus, instead we ended up starting at Ford's Theatre, which was operating on a delayed start, but their box office was open as usual at 8:30am so we could get tickets for the first time slot for the museum at 11am.
Since we had a few hours before we could do Ford's Theatre and we hadn't had much of a breakfast, we decided to go to Lincoln's Waffle Shop across the street. We enjoyed a second breakfast/early brunch and worked on the Ford's Theatre Junior Ranger booklet.
As we still had time before our Ford's Theatre tour, we decided to walk over to the White House Visitor Center and see if it was open. It was and we got the 250 stamp.
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White House Model
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At Ford's Theatre we got our 250 stamp and got a rare look at where Lincoln was shot as they do not often have the area open to see if from the back.
Next we drove out to the George Washington Parkway Headquarters at Turkey Run to get the 250 stamp and also the over 30 other stamps they have for the area.
Mom and Dad dropped Nora and I off at the Lincoln Memorial to start our walk for 250 stamps at the memorials. The Lincoln Memorial gift shop at several 250 stamps including for the Lincoln Memorial and Korean War Veterans Memorial. We then got stamps the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, and met Mom and Dad at the Jefferson Memorial to get the stamps there and walk to where they had parked by the Tidal Basin.
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| Korean War Veterans Memorial |
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| Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial |
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| FDR Memorial |
At the FDR, I dropped Ranger Dan while trying to take the photo. His legs came off and it took us a few minutes to find them. Pieces of his hat also broke off. Thankfully, the stamps that got wet did not get too smudged.
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| Jefferson Memorial |
We drove to the Washington Monument where Mom and Dad dropped Nora and I off nearby to get the stamps while they went around the block. Our final stop was at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial where we did the same thing, except I remembered to take the time for a photo here.
While the overnight snow meant we didn't get to do Arlington House, at least we knew in the morning it was closed for the day and we had already modified our plan for the day, which allowed us to still get all the other 250 stamps we planned even with the delayed openings. Plus, we had a good relaxed breakfast/brunch at Lincoln's Waffle Stop.
See full list of Ranger Dan's National Parks Visited here.
