DC Highlights

We had a fabulous time in DC.  A much needed break and lots of fun stuff to do.  We stayed pretty busy, but we both agreed we could probably handle one full day of relaxing and then we would be bored.  We had so much fun and the kids had so much fun staying with our parents and Tara and Brad.  Here are some of the highlights:

 We stepped off our red-eye flight and headed straight to a tour of the Library of Congress.

 It was beautiful!!

 We were so tired after the tour we sat on the grass to rest up for a minute....I may or may not have fallen asleep and so Matt takes pictures at weird angles of me sleeping. 

 Next, we headed to Arlington National Cemetery.

 We watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

 A Metro stop on the way to the tour of the Pentagon.

 The National Conservatory.  We didn't go in, but walked through the outdoor gardens. 

 A tour of the U.S. Capitol.  One of my favorite things we did.  And below, we have me chilling outside our Congressman's office where we met our tour guide.  After a few days, I got really tired of being alone in all the photos, I think we have one photo of us together the whole trip. 

 A view of the Capitol. 

 We headed into the National Archives where we saw the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

 The Museum of American History led us to this train car panel:

 We found some familiar faces hanging in the Portrait Gallery.

 We toured the White House.

 Another favorite was visiting all the Monuments along the Mall.  Here is the World War II Monument.  It was stunning. 

 The Vietnam Memorial was very sobering.  As we were leaving, a group of Vietnam Vets from Indiana, all wearing matching shirts, some in wheelchairs, descended on the Monument.  I watched the group, one man in particular, enter laughing and joking.  The man who was laughing the hardest, looked over at the first panel and I heard him say, "This is it.  This is my group."  He reached out and put his fingers on some of the names inscribed there and knelt to the ground.  Then he burst into tears.  He cried there for a while and you could tell that he was trying very hard to get control of his emotions, but he was completely overcome.  It was very touching and horrible all at the same time.  They brought a bag piper with them.  I hung around for about twenty minutes, because I wanted to see what they were going to do, but we ended up leaving before I heard the bagpipes. 

 The Korean War Memorial is really different and beautiful.

 The Lincoln Memorial.

 The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was so cool.  So cool!  We ran into a group of Boy Scouts there and we talked to them for a little bit. 
We also went to the Holocaust Museum.  Horrible and eye-opening but something no adult should miss.  I left with an upset stomach.  There was so much information and we read it all, I think we spent two hours on the first floor.  It wasn't as graphic as I had expected, but there were two displays that I really couldn't get out of my mind, it was very, very sad.  I cried a little bit while in the museum, but it quickly turned into a numbness.  Kind of like I couldn't even process so much horror.  Matt said he felt the same way. 

The Air and Space Museum was fun.  Here is the Mars Rover.

 We touched a Moon Rock!  That was cool to show the boys.

 Mt. Vernon was my favorite part of the trip.  George Washington's home.

 George and Martha's  tomb.

 It was stunning.  We hiked around in the surrounding woods and it was so beautiful. 

 This woman was Lady Washington.  She told stories and answered questions, I thought it sounded pretty hokey, but she was fabulous. 

 We snapped many pictures of their gardens.  They were amazing. 

 Gettysburg was cool, but also pretty overwhelming. 

 The DC Temple is so beautiful and so different.  I loved it! 

We left DC pretty exhausted, but we saw lots of cool things and learned so much!!  I read books about Abraham Lincoln, the Holocaust, North Korea and Thomas Jefferson before I went.  Also countless wikipedia articles on our founding fathers, the Civil War, Revolutionary War, Korean War and Vietnam.  Matt and I both had so many questions about history and lots of fun discussions about politics, and many discussions about war.  It was a great trip, but it was so great to come home to our kids and be together again as a family.