DC day 2

Our second day started at Arlington Cemetary in Virginia. Talk about a moving experience!!! We were looking for a particular headstone...belonging to a young soldier I knew of, and the brother of a very dear friend of mine, Courtney. She had given me the headstone # and row #, as well as telling us he was in section 60--the Iraq section.




When we found it, I was absolutely overcome with emotion. I think that Arlington Cemetary is one of those places you can see in books and photographs, but it is NOTHING compared to what it is like in person. Not to mention, a few rows up, there was a funeral going on. The media was there and we even saw the horse-drawn carriage with a flag-covered casket, and the 21 gun salute. Before we left the cemetary, we heard the guns from another funeral.



From there, we went to the Tomb of the Unknown. It just so happened that we got there just in time for the changing of the guards.








We left Arlington, walked across the bridge over the Potomac River and into DC.



Our plans were to go to the Lincoln Memorial, but we were all so hungry. Luckily, we saw a concession stand between the Lincoln and Korean memorials. It was incredible.





Then we went to the Korean memorial and onto the Lincoln. We stood at the end of the Reflecting Pool for some quick pictures and asked a sweet Chinese woman to take our picture. She shook her head and said, "no", pointed to the girls and said "them". We didn't understand, but then a man said he would do it. After our family picture, a younger Chinese woman asked if she could have a picture with our girls. We said ok. Then, a whole group of Chinese tourists came up and asked if they could as well. It was hilarious! The younger woman kept telling us thank you. We had asked if she was visiting, and she said yes, from China. She said that they wanted pictures with our girls because they had yellow hair. Our girls thought they were celebrities!








We checked out the Lincoln Memorial and took a few more pictures of the Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument. There was this helicopter that kept flying in front of it when I was trying to get the picture. Brian kept saying, "take it!" "Take it!", but I wouldn't. Later, we were told it was the Presidential helicopter...whta a cool picture that would have been. Oh well.





We walked from there to the WWII Memorial, on down to the White House,





and then over to the Museum of American History.




However, but by the time we got to the museum, Bella had HAD IT! We had forgotten her stroller in Brad's car and she had to walk (or ride on Brian's shoulders). We looked around for a bit, but the museum was hard to navigate in, and several exhibits were closed so we hung out in the cafe with a diet coke and candy bars until we headed toward the Metro. Brad ended up picking us up downtown on his way home. We planned to hit the Museum of Air and Space the next morning before heading home.

Our first day in DC

We took the Metro into DC and got off at the Federal Triangle stop. We began our day at the Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian). Our first stop was the food court and then headed out to the dinosaur bones, animals, ocean life and even the Hope Diamond.













Then, we headed out on foot to the US Capitol for our tour with Vic Snyder's office (one of our AR Representatives). Well, when we got to the lawn, we realized we were right in the middle of a big health care rally. We could not get to the building we needed to get into, so our plans changed, and we were told to meet at the visitor's center.




Once there, we met up with several other AR families and our tour guide. We went through several hallways and saw chambers, statues, and plaques. Then, we went into the House Gallery and watched a debate of the House of Representatives. It was pretty cool.


the whisper spot





the inside of the Capitol dome



recognize this painting from the $2 bill?

Three hours later, we left the Capitol, walked in front of the Supreme Court, and down the mall toward the Washington Monument. It had rained a little while we were inside the Capitol, and the sunset was amazing with the clouds. The monument was SO incredible!






(don't you think this last one is amazing! I can't believe the sky really looked like that. Seriously, not much photoshop needed!)

Then we took the metro back and Brad picked us up and took us to meet Lisa, and the kids at this terrific pizza place. What a great day!

Our trip to DC

We took a trip to Washington, DC this past week. Our friends, the Johns, moved to Fort Mead, Maryland earlier in the year and offered to host us if we wanted to visit. We had a few days off for the AEA conference, so we took off early and drove out there.

Last Tuesday, we left after school and drove to Cookeville, TN to spend the night about 11:30. Then we woke up (earlier than we'd hoped thanks to the girls getting up at 4:45!!!) and drove in the rest of the day. Our 'lovely' GPS had us get off of the interstate somewhere in Virginia and travel on 2-lane country roads for a few hours. It was beautiful, but it put is into DC right at rush hour traffic...and then took us directly THROUGH DC. LOL!




We got in, ate, and got the kids down so we could plan our next day. The Johns had all had the swine flu the week before so they couldn't take off school/work to hang out with us. But they helped us plan our day. We were so excited...and tired! ha!