Our DC Trip

So James and I took a trip to DC a couple of weeks ago. I have never been before and he goes all of the time for training with his work and I finally decided enough was enough and I was tagging along this time. So we took a Friday, Saturday and Sunday to spend there. His aunt Jane and uncle Paul were kind enough to let us crash at their borrowed home. (theirs is under major renovation and they are staying at a family friends while she is in Florida.) So thanks to Jane and Paul for letting us crash and Evan for giving up your room to share with the other 2 boys. We appreciate it.

We spent Friday going through the Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum which are enormous! But lots of really cool stuff there. Here is James with one of the Wright Brothers Planes at the Air and Space Museum.

This is a picture of one of the vehicles from a moon mission (I think Apollo 16??) which if we could have gotten close enough he would have loved to see.

This is the best pic I could get of the lunar rover. It is incredible all of the stuff on there and that it actually worked.

This is the Smithsonian Castle. The architecture of this city is fabulous. I love it. I wish I had sold them all the granite for these buildings. :-)
The giant T-Rex which all the kids around us loved and swore was from Night at the Museum.
They were completely entranced.
Below are the remains of a giant sea dinosaur. It was probably a good 15 feet long. I would hate to run into that guy.

And here I am at the Natural History Museum with a giant elephant.

They had a lot of really cool set ups with different animals. My favorite part of this museum was all of the minerals and rocks. And the moon rock that you got to touch. There was also an asteroid that was kind of greenish. Must be kryptonite. Oh and the Hope Diamond was pretty cool. It's on my next Christmas list in case any of you needed an idea of what to get me.

After all of that walking around we were pretty beat and met up with James' Uncle Jerry for dinner. Jerry lives in Alexandria but works in downtown DC so he took us to one of his favorite bar and grill restaurants down there called Clyde's. We got to enjoy hanging out with him for a bit and then took a taxi over to Lincoln Memorial. (Well worth the money to save my feet)

My other pics didn't turn out due to the lighting issue but this monument was so much larger than I expected. You see it on tv and it doesn't do it justice. I have always liked the Lincoln Memorial and was so excited to see it in person. From here we walked back to the metro thinking it wasn't so far. But the Washington Monument is very misleading for any future visitors. It was way farther than we expected. We did however get to pass the Korean War Memorial and there are all of these statues of the soldiers in different combat positions that in the dark were quite a sight. I had goosebumps while we were there.

And then we passed the World War II Memorial. This is obviously not my picture as I saw it at night but I think it was so much more impressive in the dark sky. People were just sitting all around the pool with their feet soaking taking in the gorgeous fountain.

Finally we came to the Washington Monument and were able to walk around there a bit and then still had a distance to get to the Metro.

Saturday we got an early start and had breakfast at Bethesda's own Tastee Diner - Thanks for the recommendation Paul. The blueberry pancakes were fantastic. We then made our way to the Holocaust Museum so that we could stand in line and get tickets to get in. Luckily we only stood in line for about 30 minutes and were able to get tickets fairly quickly. We weren't able to take pics in there but it was a very well worth it wait. It really put things in perspective. They did a wonderful job with that one although it wasn't near big enough for the crowds of people coming there. We actually got in around 10:15 and were there until just after 1.

When you get to the museum you are told to get in line and pick up an identification card from either the girls side or the boys side depening on what you are. Each booklet tells a true story about someone impacted by the Holocaust. James received Jakob Frenkiel from Poland. His house was burned by the Nazi's and then he was sent to Auschwitz with his family. He was one of the lucky ones who lived to tell about the experience and came to the states after being liberated. You are then loaded in to the "gas chamber" or elevator and taken up to the 3rd floor to make your way down. The 2 parts that were just a must see were the box car (I couldn't take pics in here so this is just from their website)that you can walk inside and you just try to imagine 1000 or more people crammed into, and the shoe display. The shoe display was quite a bit to take in and the whole thing made me just think a lot about how something like that could happen. How an entire country could turn a blind eye to what was going on and yet we see it all over the world today still occuring. I guess we really don't learn from history. But it was a great memorial to those who suffered through the Holocaust.

Then it was on to the International Spy Museum. Again you couldn't take pictures so I pulled these from the website. This is the James Bond car they had on display and it would periodically turn on and do some of the special effects from the movie it was in. The kids all loved it.

Here is my favorite item....I think I will get one of these. It is the Lipstick Pistol. They had all of these cool little inventions that have actually been used throughout "spy history" in our country and others and what people have come up with is pretty impressive and I would never have thought of it.

This is a tree stump "bug"....listening devices were put in some of the most random things. One being a piece of doggie doo.

Sunday morning we went to Arlington Cemetary and speaking of a place that humbles you. Wow. I had goosebumps walking through there. Below is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It made me so grateful that we have people willing to serve our country and I'm so glad that we also have a place to honor them. I later found out that James' aunt Emily has family buried there from way back. Her relatives have been naval captains for quite a few generations and most recently her father was buried there.

It was also really interesting to see how many of the people buried there were veterans of WWII, Vietnam and Korea. It just seems like those were all so far apart that none of the same people would have fought in them.

And it was on to a Washington Nationals game. Baseball is not my thing at all I have decided after going to this game. It was insanely hot and very boring so mental note to me that I will not go to another baseball game. On the bright side the Astro's did win. Had to stick with my fellow Texans on that.

Sunday night we celebrated Evan's birthday with the family and really enjoyed that before heading over to Silver Springs, MD to check in to the hotel for James' week of training. I did my part shopping around on Monday morning and flew home that afternoon.

So a really long post to update you all on my trip to DC since I have been so terrible about updating. I have more to follow for my month of July. :-)