Visit Arlington National Cemetery

Visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. I dare you not to get teary. 🇺🇸🏛️🫡 But my favorite part of Arlington National Cemetery? Learn the history of Arlington House. Try to keep up with this story… You just thought you had family drama. 😉 Once upon a time… The widowed Martha Custis married Mr. George Washington. They never had kids together, but he raised Martha’s as his own. ❤️ Their grandson (George Washington Parke Custis) came to live with them. When GWPC inherited land, he built Arlington House in Virginia to honor GW. Later, GWPC’s daughter married US army colonel Robert E. Lee.😳 Read again… 👉George Washington’s step-granddaughter married the now infamous Robert E. Lee. 🤯 With their children, Arlington House was their home until they left when the Civil War broke out. Virginia seceded. Lee sided with the Confederacy - Arlington is in Virginia after all. (Just imagine that dinner table conversation. 😨) The Union strategically took over the house as it overlooks DC and eventually began burying on the land. The South lost. Lee couldn’t go home - it was now a cemetery filled with 16,000 Union dead. All that to say… 🤓 Go to Arlington Cemetery during your Washington DC road trip, but leave time to take your family up the hill for an American history lesson. 🤩I love making connections with all the homeschool history we’re learning! 👉After a couple of hours, take the subway down the road to see the Pentagon and spend some time at the 9/11 memorial. 👉Share this with your second favorite history nerd. I’m your favorite, or you wouldn’t have made it to the end. 🤩 . . .