Washington, DC 2012

So me and my girl took a little trip to the nation's capital this past week.  We left ridiculously early on Sunday and arrived home about 9 p.m. last night.   We had an excellent time.   We missed our boys, but I think it was a trip she won't soon forget.

Sunday
Our flight left at 6:30 a.m., so we got picked up at 5.   Jillian had to wake up at 4:30 - an hour she has never seen before.   We had a wait a while in the airport, of course.   See - all smiles.

 

There she goes toward the plane.   

Ready for take-off.  This was her first time flying.   I was a little concerned she might have trouble with her ears, but she did not.   She did a little too much watching out the window on the first leg of the trip and felt a little dizzy.   Luckily, that passed quickly and we didn't have that problem again.

 She got her wings and we were ready to see the sights of DC.

Sunday night we did a monuments tour.   We walk the monuments which is a pretty good trek.   We started with the Washington Monument.   When you are there, you can see the cracks from the earthquake.  

The World War II Memorial was next.   She liked this one - so much water.   It was pretty hot this day - in case you can't tell by her red face.

We saw the Vietnam War Memorial, but there aren't any pictures of that.   I just can't bring myself to snap some shots when you are looking at a wall full of the names of people of died.   After that, we moved on to the Lincoln Memorial.   Mr. Lincoln is one big dude.   The fellow in the picture is Cooper.   His brother was participating in National History Day.  

From Lincoln we moved to the Korean War Memorial.   It is my favorite war memorial.   Again - no pics.   Then we had a little walk to the MLK Jr Memorial.   I hadn't seen this one myself.   When I was there in 2010, they were working on it.  So this was a first for me as well.  

FDR Memorial is next.   This particular one stretches on for a while - I suppose that is a testimony to the length of his presidency.   Here are our kiddos in line at the soup kitchen.   That would be James, Cole, Cooper, and Jillian.

Monday
Sunday was big.   Early morning. First flight. Lots of walking.   Monday we had to go to the University of Maryland to register one of the kids.   What better place to take my daughter than to a place where the mascot is a terrapin.  

After registering, we moved into town and visited the Natural History Museum.   We saw skeletons, mummies, snakes, and gems.   Then we went to the Museum of American History and saw the First Ladies' dresses, the flag that inspired the Star-Spangled Banner, an old house, and some old musical instruments as well as Dorothy's ruby slippers.    From there we visited the Old Post Office where we had lunch and went up into the Bell Tower for a beautiful view of the city.   Then we visited the White House.   Guess who was there?   You might say the President or the First Lady.   But the person I speak of is... Betty White!   We saw her in the garden area, but unfortunately we didn't know until later it was her.  

Jillian wanted to see Ford's Theatre, so we walked over there.   This turned out to be Jillian's favorite thing from the whole trip.  

Tuesday
So I have no photos from Tuesday.    We got up and it was raining - or trying to anyway.   We went to the International Spy Museum.   We looked at gadgets and participated in several interactive missions.   We crawled through the duct work and solved some coded messages.   And then we went out into the rain.    We had a Capitol tour that afternoon.   We got to watch a movie in the the new Capitol Visitor Center and then saw the crypt, Rotunda, Old Senate Chamber, and Old Supreme Court.  

Wednesday
Wednesday was a beautiful day.   Really.   We headed out to Arlington Cemetery.  We always take the tour so we don't have to walk the whole thing.  We saw the Kennedy's grave site and the eternal flame, the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown, and the Arlington House.   The picture below is taken in front of Arlington House.   We also saw several funerals going on.   The first one we saw was pretty simple.   Horse drawn caisson with a casket covered in black.   No family, no band - just some soldiers and the casket.   The next one was a bit bigger.   Still the caisson, this time draped in an American flag, but with a group of Marines marching in front of it and a drum corps playing.   The last one we saw was one our way out.   I couldn't see many of the details.   It looked like the Air Force was doing this one.  And as we were leaving, a hearse was pulling onto the grounds.   The guys giving our tour said they had 28 funerals that day.   Humbling.

From Arlington, Jillian and I went to the Postal Museum.   She really liked this one, too.   It is fairly interactive, and she liked getting to touch and climb and do.

This was our last metro trip of our time in DC.   Jillian got pretty good at.   She actually said on this particular trip, "We are looking for the Greenbelt."   She had it figured it - the Greenbelt Green line train gets us to our home for the week.   

Thursday
We got up and packed up.   Thursday is the awards assembly for the National History Day contest.   It is LONG and BORING...   Our student, Cole, did get the Arkansas award for the junior division, so at least we didn't leave empty handed.   Jillian finished one book and then read two other small ones while we sat there.   I was so ready to get out of there, but I waited and went to my happy place -  a lot.

And then we got home (to my other baby who I missed like you will never believe)!!!!   We really did have a fabulous time.   Jillian was good and she got to see so much.   I am hoping this will be one unforgettable trip for her.