Aug. 7, 2006 - Wow what a trip...
We just returned from Washington DC with Guy's family...what fun!!! There were 18 of us in all...11 children...all homeschooled. I had planned to blog everyday while we were gone to detail our trip, but I just didn't have the time. So, I will run down the schedule of what we did and touch on the highlights.
Day 1: We all arrived in DC...3 families all coming from different directions. After checking in, we decided to go to Arlington National Cemetary for a quick afternoon tour. Of course this was the hottest day in history...LOL...but with water bottles in hand, we managed. We did start off walking, which is the best way to get the whole effect, but later took the tour mobile back down. We walked up to the Kennedy's burial site, then up to the Tomb of the Unknowns to watch the changing of the guard. Jackson has been talking about being in the military and when we reached the Tomb of the Unknowns, he saw the soldier. His first reaction was, "that's not a real man". Then after watching the soldier for about 10 minutes, Jackson decided he might not want to be in the military afterall. It was really special to watch this scene. We happen to be there late in the afternoon and saw them take down the flag and fold it. That was neat, too.
Day 2: Spent the morning at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. Very cool to see all the "firsts" in air and space history. Saw samples of the tiles on the space shuttle. It was neat to see the before and after of the tiles and see just how important they are in protecting the shuttle upon re-entry.
After lunch, we headed over to the Capitol building where we took a staff led tour. That was fabulous. One of the highlights on this tour was the art gallery in the basement tunnel that goes from the Cannon building to the Capitol building. Displayed there is art from students of each state. Very nice work. After the art has been displayed for 1 year in the gallery, it is then archived in the Library of Congress...how cool is that.
Day 3: First stop was the White House visitors center. Great photos and information displayed. We then walked over to the White House for the tour. On they walk over, we saw the Marine One helicopter fly in to pick up the President. I got a great photo of that. Then we watched as he flew out. After he was gone, they opened the gate to let the tour begin. That tour is short and sweet, but nice to see.
After a hotdog and ice cream from the street vendor, we headed off to the Museum of Natural History. That was great...the insect zoo was really neat, especially for the children. And the hope diamond was spectacular...largest blue diamond in the world. We breezed through the Africa exhibit and saw many familiar thing, but the most unique was the coffin that looked like an airplane.
Day 4: Started the day by calling my grandmother to tell her where we were. She is a huge history buff and geneologist and loves DC. Each day we began our tour from the Arlington National Cemetary and took the metro or the tour mobile, so that is where we were when I called her. She told me about her uncle that is buried there...I didn't know that. More on that later.
This was the day of the memorial tours for us. I really was not excited about this, but everyone wanted to go, so off we went. I am so glad we did this. The Vietnam Wall was the most incredible thing. It was so neat for the children to be able to see the effects the wars have had on our country. They were able to look at items left by people at the wall. Someone even left a purple heart and that was neat to see. Logan wrote a prayer and left it under the purple heart...it was so sweet. The children had paper and were able to "lift" names off the wall. They randomly chose names, but looked for ones like Davidson or Jackson. When we got to the end of the wall by the statue, the children saw a man sitting in a wheelchair that had on a Vietnam cap and jacket with medals and badges. They just walked over to him and began talking to him. He was so sweet to answer their questions and within a few minutes, there was a crowd gathered around. He was a man that was there just like us taking the tour, but he sure drew a lot of attention. We got great photos of the children talking to him, shaking his hand and even giving him a salute at the end. It was very touching and at this point I was a blubbering idiot and went into the "ugly cry". I couldn't stop...it was just so sweet to see this with the children.
We then saw the other war memorials, the Lincoln Monument, Washington Monument, the reflection pool, etc. I wanted to run through the reflection pool yelling, "Forest, Forest"...I didn't.
We had lunch at the USAID building. They have a huge food court. Then on to the Museum of American History. I really wanted to see the First Lady's Inaugrual gowns, but only a few were there. A lot of things were out for restoration or cleaning. We did see the Star Spangled Banner exhibit and the flag that flew at the Pentagon after 9-11. Very cool. We also visited the National Archives and saw the documents: Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and Bill of Rights. That was really neat, too. Now we have to find our National Treasure movie and watch it again.
The end of the tour that day brought us back to Arlington National Cemetary where I was able to find my great, great uncle's burial site and take pictures. His wife died before him, so she was buried first. Then he remarried. He died and was buried on top of his first wife. Then when his 2nd wife died, she was buried on top of them...isn't that a hoot?
Day 5: I stayed at the hotel with 3 of the children to swim and pack. Guy and his mom took Logan to the Holocust Museum and to the African Art Exhibit. They said the Museum was an incredible experience and it had a big impact on Logan. I was surprised she wanted to go, but it was her decision.
All in all the trip was incredible. We really rushed through a lot of it, but we wanted to see as much as possible. I think you could live there and still not see it all. It was very touching, inspiring and was a great kick off to our school year.
Now back to reality...Blessings,
