Sorry it took us so long to get this posted! Enjoy! :)
"Far from me, and from my friends, be such frigid philosophy, as may conduct us, indifferent and unmoved, over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. The man is little to be envied, whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona."
--a quote by Dr. Samuel Johnson that I was constantly reminded of while seeing and experiencing the various sights, sounds, and ideas of DC.
Our trip began rather ominously with our flight experiencing lots of turbulence for about thirty minutes as we approached Reagan National. Needless to say we were more than ready to get off the plane and get to our hotel as soon as we could. Foreshadowing our next few days, Washington DC welcomed us with a cold rain. We had been reading Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, which takes place in DC, so we were doubly anticipating and looking forward to our experience there. Although our vacation wasn't quite as intense as Robert Langdon's visit to DC we still thought it was awesome!
On our first morning at the hotel we were awakened by somebody drilling our door frame—yes at eight in the morning,without warning, somebody had a drill and was doing something to our door. Of course Kaitlin was completely composed but I was a bit unnerved. Since we hadn't been warned by hotel management, I thought it was pretty freaky that somebody was trying to drill our door off. Even the front desk said there shouldn't be anybody messing around outside our door. Eventually, we found out that it was just hotel maintenance re-installing parts of our external door frame. Still, it was an odd way to start out our trip.Pictures below: Us in the Metro station and looking down the tracks.
Because it was raining we decided we should hit the Smithsonian Museums for the next couple days. We decided to see the Museum of Natural History first:
Pictures: Museum of Natural History, lots of animals, the Hope Diamond, and a huge shark jaw.
After that, we went to the Museum of American History. Probably the coolest thing at this museum is a huge display that contains the actual star spangled banner. The flag is massive despite being cut off a little bit. Apparently back in the day people used to cut off small pieces to take as trinkets from it. It's behind a giant glass wall now though so no more of that. Unfortunately, the museum did not allow anybody to take pictures of it for some reason ( as good revolutionaries we tried to anyway).
Pictures: The Star Spangled Banner, The Pennsylvania (a war ship), George Washington statue, old money, World War poster, old piano, and Abe Lincoln's top hat.
The next day we tried to go up to Library of Congress and to the Capitol Building but both were closed since it was Sunday. So we went to the Botanical Gardens instead.
Pictures: A giant (fake) tree, Strangler Fig, Devils Tongue, The Jungle :), and the Chocolate Tree. I bet you know what was Kaitlin's favorite! ;)
Then we decided to see the Smithsonian Museum on the American Indian. This museum was a bit underwhelming since quite a few of the exhibits actually contained more about the Europeans meeting and influencing the Natives than information about the Natives themselves. However, the architecture of the building (to be fair, the architecture of pretty much every building there was awesome and possibly the best part) was really cool and there were a few very nifty sculptures.
Following our visit to the American Indian Museum, we walked up to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. We were only able to see about half of the museum because it was closing about 30 minutes after we got there.
Pictures: Rolls Royce jet engine and a plane that landed on the south pole (complete with skiis and penguins)
Monday we finally got to see the Library of Congress (Jefferson Building). This building is quite possibly the most beautiful building I have ever seen and probably my favorite thing that we did/saw in DC. Whether covered in sculpture, texture, painting, fresco, or any number of other amazing masterpieces, every inch of the building is artistic. The exhibits were also really interesting—especially a reconstruction of Jefferson's library that he sold to the Library of Congress after it burned down during the War of 1812, which included many of Jefferson's original books.
Pictures: The Library, Recreation of Jefferson's library, art inside and outside of the Library, the Gutenberg Bible, and Kevin (the Thinker)
After the Library of Congress, we followed an underground tunnel that connects the Library to the Capitol Building. We felt like we were in Dan Brown's book! Sort of. Okay, we didn't at all...but it was still cool. We actually got to the Capitol pretty close to its closing time so we didn't get to see a whole lot of it.
Picture: Kaitlin with Lady Liberty.
Tuesday the weather was finally improving so we set out to see the monuments. Although I have seen all of these monuments in photos or movies, seeing them in person is a completely different experience.
Pictures: Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Monuments, the Law Enforcement Monument where Kaitlin's Grandpa Black's name is, and the National Masonic Monument.
Wednesday was Old Town Alexandria day. I think I expected more old and less town. It was pretty much just a touristy shopping district and there didn't seem to be very many historical things there. We did, though, still find fun stuff to do—a great place to eat and an amazing street performer. You have to watch this video!
We spent our final day in the DC area at Mount Vernon, which was amazing.
2 comments:
Awesome pictures. I loved the Star Wars water song. I can't wait to show it to the boys!
I am so envious that you got to go to D.C. I love it there. It looks like you got to see lots. The trip of a lifetime--especially since you got to see the water man. He was amazing!
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