This year we planned a BIG vacation to Washington DC, Gettysburg, Lancaster, PA and New Jersey. We took two weeks and met Pop Pop Messner (Jeff’s dad) in Washington DC. It was a wonderful trip with our family. Here are some pictures I wanted to share with you.
Sunday-Our day at Arlington, Cemetery
The “eternal flame”-John F. Kennedy’s grave (along with his wife and son)
Our Sunday preacher-My dearest husband-Jeff
Our little congregation…(at Arlington)
Tomb of the Unknown Solider
Changing of the guard ceremony
For me, this was the most moving part of the cemetery . I went to DC on my high school senior trip 23 years ago (can’t believe it’s been that long) I saw this ceremony then and knew what to expect, but it still touched me. It is done so precisely, and solemnly. I couldn’t help but cry. I’m so glad my boys got to see it. Also, I really appreciated how respectful everyone in the crowd was. All the men removed their hats, no one talked or hardly moved. It was great. And to think they do this every 1/2 hour. The facts behind this whole ceremony are fascinating. Look it up sometime on the internet.
The amphitheater behind where the tomb of the unknown soldier is. Different ones have made public speeches there, including our current President.
Taylor-sitting in the big chair at the front of the theater.
Monday-Washington Monument, World War ll Monument, Vietnam Memorial Wall, Smithsonian Museum, Lincoln Memorial,
The Washington Monument (taken from the Lincoln Memorial)
It was Flag Day the day we visited
We felt as small as we looked next to the monument!
These “characters” were there because of it being “Flag Day” Jorden wanted to go up in it so bad, but you had to get there really early in the morning to get in line to get your ticket to go up. We never did get there early enough.
I look like I stuck my head in a dryer!! It was very windy and very bright!! LOL ( I was the only smart one to wear sunglasses, too bad I forgot a hat! )
World War ll Memorial-1st time seeing this. It is beautiful!
They have one of these for both the Atlantic and the Pacific theaters.
Beautiful fountains!!
These 3D images go all the way around the monument. They are fascinating to look at and to touch. They depict different battles from WWll.
Our boys in front of the monument for Alabama.
The path to the Lincoln Memorial. It is beside the “Reflection Pool”.
The Lincoln Memorial of course…
Mr. Lincoln
The Vietnam Wall
Taking a rest on the walk back…it was sooo hot!!
Inside the American History Smithsonian-good ole Kermit!
Jorden, trying out the “wind sailing”.
Jacob giving a JFK speech…
“Mr Gorbachev, tear down these walls!!” (the group of people gathered around watching Jorden clapped after he said those words. Ha! Ha!)
Tuesday-The White House, The White House Visitors Center, Smithsonian (again), The Archives, Washington DC Botanical Gardens and Crystal City
The White House
This is really how away you are from it.
Using the zoom lens on the camera.
The Obama garden…
The street where the White House is located is now blocked off. Of course there is a fence that goes all the way around it. You can walk down the street in front, but you can’t drive down it unless you have a special pass. Guards and policemen are everywhere. It’s pretty sad…It is very hard to get a tour inside and I heard someone say (that knows) the tour is pretty simple. They only let you see a couple of rooms now.
Outside the Smithsonian. This was our 19th anniversary. We wore our “I love my husband/wife” shirts that day. It was interesting the looks we got, and several made comments. Believe it or not they were all positive!
We went back in the same Smithsonian to finish what we didn’t see the day before. No pictures this time.
The National Archives building. We stood in line about 45 mins just to get in this place. Went through and saw lots of interesting things, then stood in another looong line to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The Declaration of Independence doesn’t look anything like it did in the movie “National Treasure”. Ha! Most of the signatures have faded because they didn’t take care of it. It hung in a room with a window shining light on it for 35 years!! hmmmm… wonder whose idea that was? I wondered why they didn’t think about it when they first noticed it fading. I don’t think it took 35 years for that to happen. I’m pretty sure paper starts fading from sunlight in just a few weeks/months??? It is still very heavily guarded though. Only about 30-40 people at a time go in to see it. There are other documents located there also.
I have no clue what this is…somebody's idea of art I guess…
A metal spider…hmmmmm…..
This was the neatest thing. It is a stainless steel tree!
The artist for the tree.
Just a note, we don’t have pictures from inside the White House Visitors center. It was really neat. I guess they built that when they stopped allowing visitors inside the White House. Anyway, there was a lot of security there. Actually every building you went in had security, but it seemed the heaviest there. (and the Capitol of course)
Tuesday night on our way back to our hotel we got off the Metro at Crystal City. It is a “underground shopping mall”. We ate supper at Sbarro’s Pizza.
Wednesday-Touring the Capitol, Air and Space Smithsonian
Jeff called our State Representative-Spencer Bachus to see if we could get a tour of the White House. They couldn’t do that but offered a tour of the Capitol. It was really cool. We went to the Rayburn Building which houses all the the State Representatives. We met most of his office staff (not sure where he was) and then two “summer interns” Rich and Amanda took us on the tour. Amanda was from a city very close to where we live. Small world! They were both very nice and did a great job. We were able to skirt most of the lines of other tour groups and school field trips!! We also got to go to the gallery of the House Chambers and listened for a few minutes. There wasn’t anything too major going on right then. The day before that BP was there! Too bad we missed that. Ha! Security was at it’s highest there. No cameras of course.
These busts of Lincoln show him before he was President and after he had served in his second term. Notice how much he had aged!!
Each state is allowed one statue in the visitors center section of the Capitol. Alabama just had this one put in. It replaced a statue of “Fighting Joe Wheeler”. I love this statue of Helen Keller. It is the only one of a child represented in the Capitol.
The largest chandelier in DC. It takes 2 days for them to clean it.
Inside the Rotunda…beautiful!
The very center of Washington D.C.
Rotunda ceiling.
A special “underground trolley” for members of Congress to ride from the office to the Capitol building. There were none present, so we got to ride back to the Rayburn Building. It was very cool!
Next was the Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian).
It was neat, but at this point, we were so tired!! Airplanes started all looking the same…Ha!
Jeff and the boys stand in line to get on a plane.
I think this was Orville and Wilbur Wright’s plane…
Riding back to the hotel, on the Metro….
Wiped out after another long day in Washington D.C.!!
coming next…Part 2
2 comments:
Lisa:
The piece of art that you didn't know what it was -- it is an eraser and brush. The red part is the eraser and the blush part at the top is the brush to clean up after the eraser. A tool of the past.
Neil Shillington
Thanks Neil. Yep! You're right. My husband told me that too, and believe it or not I remember those things. It just didn't register with me what it was before. I don't always think "outside the box". LOL
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