Washington DC

And now for the rest of the trip.

I haven't been to DC in about 16 years. I went on a school trip when I was in 8th grade. Trevor has never been there. So going to see the sights was very exciting but a little overwhelming. We weren't really sure what we wanted to spend out time seeing and we weren't really sure how much time each place would take AND we were on vacation, away from our kids, I wanted to relax....at least a little. So we hit the basics....

Like the White House which I couldn't bring my camera into. But funny story about that...as I was setting up the tour I noticed that pretty much nothing was allowed on the White House tour (understandably). I asked our state representative what people generally do with their stuff. She said they leave it at their office but our tour was at 7:30 am so that wasn't an option. She also said there was no lockers available. Hmmm, what to do? So the night before our tour Trevor went and asked our hotel if they had any ideas. Here is how the conversation went (according to Trevor).

Trevor: We have a tour in the morning at the White House. Do you know if there are any lockers either on the Metro or anywhere down there where we could store our camera and belongings?

Lady at the front desk: I don't think. But you know what you could do?

Trevor: What?

Lady at the front desk: You could just find a near by bush and shove it all in there.

Silence....maybe even the sound of crickets.

Lady at the front desk: I know your looking at like I'm crazy but its true. People do it all the time. Just find a nice bush that will hide it well.

Really lady? You've got to be kidding me? Can you imagine what would happen if someone saw us stuffing a big backpack in a bush, by the White House? I'm pretty sure we'd be the lead story on the news that night. So we left it all in our hotel, toured the White House and came back for it.

Have I mentioned we walked alot while we there. ALOT!

We toured the National Archives.

When we left the Archives we had about 15 minutes to get to the Capitol for our scheduled tour. It was quite a walk, we were a little late and sweaty.

Did I mention how far we walked?

We saw this statue while we were there.

And learned that the President is actually standing on part of the Berlin Wall. See that small strip there? That's the Berlin Wall.

When we left the Capitol we thought it would be a brilliant idea to walk back up to the Lincoln Memorial to check on the status of the rally. You can't see the Lincoln Memorial in this picture but its on the other side of the Washington Monument...about 10 miles from this point. Ok, maybe not ten, but it felt like it.

We got to the rally early enough that we experienced many of the Memorials in the dark. It was so neat. I can't urge you enough to visit them in the dark if you go. They look completely different and will take your breath away.

Lincoln looks so much different at night. It's hard to describe.

World War II Memorial

From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. See the Capitol down there? Told you it was a long walk.

Having fun with the Washington Monument

When we left the rally on Saturday afternoon we decided we hadn't walked quite enough. Actually, we knew the line for the Metro would be insane so we opted to walk, thinking it would be faster. It might have been faster but it was 90+ degrees with no wind and it was a 3 mile walk. But, lucky for us we did literally, run into the Iwo Jima Memorial.

Jefferson Memorial

And last but not least. Happy Anniversary to us! We celebrated by enjoying ourselves at Legal Seafood. Two Lobsters....just for Trevor. It was delicious.