Washington DC 2nd Edition!

Saturday

Kelly and I started the day by going riding the metro to Iwo Jima. Well the stop ended up being a little further than we hoped from the memorial! So about ¾ of a mile later we were at the Memorial! It was so cool. We had no idea it was that large!

Isn’t is bigger than you thought?

This is the plaque that told who placed the flag. Turns out only 4 of them survived the war. It was amazing to read the story!

This is Kelly and I in front of the memorial dressed in our Husker Garb!

It was opening game day!!!!
After Iwo Jima it was off to Arlington National Cemetery to visit the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

On our way we saw the Kennedy family gravesite which was very special.

It is amazing just how many soldiers have given their lives for our freedom.

We got to experience the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The soldiers who guard the tomb have a tremendous story:
The soldiers who stand guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier are hand picked and rigorously trained. They have come from every state in the union, every walk of life. There are men and women. For some this is their first unit in the Army, others are veterans of many years. Over the years there have been Regular Army and Draftees. The duty is not for everyone. Over 80% of the soldiers who tryout for this duty do not make it. Each soldier must have strong military bearing, discipline, stamina and present an outstanding soldierly appearance. Each Sentinel must be able to flawlessly perform seven different types of walks, honors and ceremonies. They must retain vast amounts of knowledge concerning the Tomb, Arlington National Cemetery, the United States Army and their unit.

This was a humbling experience for Kelly and I thinking of all the men and women who died for their country known only by God.
After walking another 3 miles or so inside the cemetery we stopped for a picnic lunch on a bench just outside the cemetery. We had waited to eat because we felt it was disrespectful to eat in the cemetery. We were amazed at our disrespectful visitors were to the cemetery. After all it isn’t a tourist attraction but a place to pay respect to those who have served our country.

Then we headed across the bridge from Virginia to Washington DC. (we didn’t know until we got back to the hotel it was a 2 mile walk!) The Lincoln Memorial was packed with people! It was pretty cool to see.

Here we are posing again!

Kelly and I took a photo at the steps of Lincoln Memorial with the Washington Monument behind us!
Then we started on our mile long journey to the monument. It doesn’t look that far away does it!? Well you’d better believe our feet were feeling it at this point!!

On our way we stopped at the Vietnam Wall. It was impressive. So many sacrificed for us!

We headed to the WWII memorial that was commissioned by Bill Clinton and posed by the Oklahoma sign!!!

Look at all those fountains! We were so hot it was tempting to jump on in!!!
After that we headed for a potty break in the Holocaust Museum and realized the extent of our sun tans (burns) lol! I had a really good farmers burn on my arms and my forehead looked like I had blush all over it! Goodness we were tired!

No rest for the weary! We headed off to the Capitol building the last stop of the day! On the way we passed the Smithsonian Castle so we stopped for yet another photo op!!!

We were almost there! In total it was another mile or so to the building! Of course it was closed so we didn’t get to go in but at least we can say we stood on the steps!!!

Look at those burns! Wow were we tired after walking about 7-8 miles! So we decided to spend the 3 bucks to ride on the metro back to the hotel for a nap!

After a refreshing nap we headed to Dupont Circle and found a great pizza place! We shared a pizza and headed to a recommended irish pub and had nachos and watched football!

Notice my face is less red, it’s amazing what concealer can do! Kelly wasn’t so lucky!!

Next edition to come: Sunday

Washington DC Vacation!

THURSDAY

After getting off the plane in Baltimore we boarded a bus to the train station! We waited and waited…our ticket time passed and finally this train shows up!

But Kelly and I don’t notice that the train doesn’t say Amtrak! It’s the MARC train. Which we find out is a public tax payer train! They let us stay on since it’s heading to DC too! Whew that was close! We finally arrive in DC and board the metro to head to our hotel.



The Hilton Garden Inn

It was a very nice hotel located a block
from the White House! In the center of the attractions to the south and the restaurants
to the north! And it was right across
the street from a metro station.



After unloading we headed to
Hard Rock Café for dinner! We made a
short diversion into one of my favorite
home stores West Elm! Then it was onto the café.
We shared awesome quesadillas and a burger!
We picked up our collectors glasses
we get at every Hard Rock Café.
It was a great time!

FRIDAY
We headed to the White House at 6:30am! And stood in the rain waiting for our scheduled tour! It was a little disappointing. There wasn’t anyone to tell stories about the rooms we saw and once we were out we both looked at each other and said “Was that it?” Of course we have no pictures from that tour as they don’t allow cameras! But we took a few that night after our dinner!

After a short nap back at the hotel we proclaimed Friday museum day! It was destined to rain all day. On our way to the National Mall (not the shopping kind) we saw a building that was cool. We found out it was actually one of the first post office buildings in downtown DC. We certainly don’t have anything like this in Yukon!




This is a close up of the arches on the building! Aren’t they cool!?




This building is the International World Trade Commission. We thought it was neat too.



These were the doors to the Department of Justice Building. I wouldn’t want to have to go in there. They had handles larger than our heads. It reminded me of the doors to Oz!

As we continued our walk we passed the US Navy Memorial. They had a flag pole
made to look like a mast with many countries flags attached.


In front of the National Archives Building we found the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden. This was one of the many sculptures we saw but the only one we liked! Yikes people come up with some weird stuff! They had a giant spider that was sure to give you nightmares!


There was a fountain in the center where we met a young couple with a boy who was 2 years old! He saw the fountain and was so excited! He was grinning ear to ear! We offered to take a photo of their family and in turn they took one for us! It’s a pretty big fountain!


Still making our way to the Air & Space Museum we found the National Archives and for anyone who’s seen National Treasurer 2 they know what we are taking about! It was the most exciting part of our trip! We got to see the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights! While Kelly was video taping it reminded me of the scene in the movie where they set off the alarm to steal the declaration! Don’t worry we were just taping!


We finally made it! The National Air and Space Museum! Of course neither Kelly nor I are museum buffs so we made it through the whole museum in about an hour! We laughed that it was good that we were both alike in that or one of us would be really bored!


This was a massive bomb that was carried by one of
our many bombers! Look how big they were!!
I had Kelly stand next to it so you could tell
how big it was!


Hanging over the entry was the Spirit of St Louis. This was the plane that Charles Lindbergh flew from New York to Paris non stop! I can’t imagine flying in this plane for that long. They said he had to sit over the gas tank so the weight was evenly distributed!




This was a replica of a naval warship the USS Enterprise. It made me think of my Granddad’s service in the navy on these kinds of ships! I thought I’d take a picture to show him!






In the space portion of the museum they had a thermographic camera! We took a picture of what we looked like on the screen. I told Kelly my nose was cold but now I can prove it. It was blue!


In the air side of the museum they had an old motorcycle that was used in the making of some of the first planes! I took a picture of this to show to all the motorcycle buffs! Bet you wouldn’t like riding this one! It said it could go 137mph, but I wouldn’t trust those bicycle tires to go that fast!!

We were greeted with rain as we left the Air & Space Museum so we headed across the mall to the National Portrait Gallery. It was a little disappointing after you’ve been to the Louvre. But nevertheless we found one painting by my favorite author Claude Monet! We were out of that museum in less than an hour I think! Art is not Kelly’s cup of tea! He was making me laugh impersonating an “artsy fartsy” person!
Saying “exquisite, magnificent”


After that adventure it was onto the Natural History Museum. But we stopped for a quick photo opt in front of the Washington Monument!


Here we are at the entrance of the Natural History Museum! How long do you think it took us there? Well if you count the bathroom break….just kidding. This was was pretty cool. We decided to hit the Dinosaur and Gem sections!


We thought this rock reminded us of the blob! Its one crazy rock. We also took a picture to show to our nephews who like green!


Now we went into the gem section of the museum. They had some amazing jewelry. Just look at this diamond necklace!


This is the Hope Diamond. It was impressive but not nearly as impressive as some of the other gems we saw!


These earrings were given to Marie Antoinette.
They were gorgeous! After seeing all these things we decided to head to the hotel to get ready for our dinner out on the big town!


We stopped and saw the Ronald Reagan building on the way back to our hotel. It’s just amazing what is in DC, the architecture and the history. What a great day now onto the evening!


We didn’t want to use a flash at McCormick & Schmicks so that’s why our photo is a little dark! This was the restaurant of our engagement dinner courtesy of Aunt Denise! And our engagement anniversary dinner also courtesy of Aunt Denise! So we decided to carry on the tradition by having a wonderful dinner out. Our favorite thing was the yellow fin tuna appetizer!



Full and Happy we set out for home! But we ended up passing the White House and decided to stop for a photo opt! So here is us in a little more light than at the restaurant! (Yes Joylyn that is my vegas shirt I’m wearing!)



DC part 2 to come tomorrow!