Washington D.C.

Hope you like looking at pictures, cuz this post has a LOT of them.

Yesterday we took a trip out to Washington D.C. It's about 2 hours from where we are staying. Let me just start by saying that you could easily spend 3 days or more checking out DC, and we tried to cram it all into an 8.5 hour trip. It was a LOT of walking and just kind of looking and moving on, but we saw as much as we could.

We started out at Arlington National Cemetary. That place is so huge! We spent almost 2 hours there and didn't even see everything. This picture is JFK gravesite and the eternal flame. You have to look really close to see the flame coming out of the circle at the top. It doesn't show up on camera very well. Jackie is also buried here, as well as two children that were lost as babies. Did you know they lost a 2 day old son just 2 months before JFK was killed? So sad.

I think this was the coolest part of the whole day. This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is guarded 24 hours a day. And the guard is very precise. It was cool just to watch him march back and forth. He does this whole thing with his gun every time he turns around to march the other way. In this picture the gun is balanced on his hand. I had to go sit in the shade after about 5 minutes. This guy does this for a full hour in full dress uniform. He has my ultimate respect.
The best part is the changing of the guard. They do this every hour. Everyone has to stand and be SILENT while they change the guard. They go through this whole ceremony that is very precise and all three of their movements are perfectly timed. I was kicking myself for not having a video camera. You can't see how cool it is in still pictures. The officer in front is their commander. The soldiers in back are the guard going off duty and the new guard. Both are balancing their guns on their hands.

The commander escorts one soldier away while the other begins his march. Each step they make is perfectly in time with each other.

The retired guard walking away followed by his commander. It was so cool. It gave me chills. If you ever go to DC, this is the one thing you have to make sure and see.

Moving on. After Arlington, we rode the DC Metro over to the Smithsonian Museum(s). There are actually many museums that make up the Smithsonian. This is where we started having to just cruise through. We didn't get to see half of what we wanted to. We started out at the Aero Space Museum. Lots of fun things for the kids here.

And look who found water on the way to the next museum! My kids are water magnets. This fountain is one they let you get into. Well, at least you can get your feet into it. Nice way to cool off on a hot afternoon. Kids just wanted to spend the rest of the day here. But, alas, it was off to to another museum!

This is the Natural History Museum. This would be where we lost Jarod. That kid just wanted to see everything and he wasn't about to make sure he stayed with us. If he saw something he liked, he took off! Well one of those times I couldn't find him. Anywhere. And these museums have so many twists and turns! I was really starting to panic! A few minutes later, Jarod comes walking out of the bathroom! I don't think I saw another thing in any museum except the back of Jarod's head cuz everytime I looked up he disappeared and I wasn't going to let him out of my site again!

Keep walking buddy! We only have about 3.5 hours to go!!

This is the Museum of American History. I think it might be the biggest with four floors of displays. I expected to see a lot of stuff you might find in history books, but it is so much more. History of movies, cars, toys, etc. Just stuff that makes America what it is. Unfortunately for us, they close at 5:30 (which we didn't know) and we didn't even go in until 4:50. Needless to say, we didn't see much of this one. Too bad, too, cuz it looked really fun. Maybe we should have started here, but then we wouldn't have seen anything else!

Madame, Mr and Mr President!

And then Jarod discovered the Legos! You should have seen his face when he came around that corner. I wish I had my camera ready! This is a hands on display. Too bad for Jarod they had already shut it down. But then we might have NEVER made it out of there!

Boy were we getting beat by this time and we hadn't even seen any of the monuments yet! YIKES! But we moved along. Here we are in front of the Washington Memorial. Let me just say it is really hard to get a good picture of this one because it is so TALL! I had a really good picture posted, but I accidentally deleted it and stupid blogger doesn't have an undo button. If I upload it again, it will put it up at the top and I will have to move it and . . . .well, let's just say it's a pain. If you want to see the really cool picture, come to my house in about two week! : )

This is the new WWII Memorial. Dean went in and took these pictures while the rest of us sat on a bench in the shade. Hey, we could see it good enough from the outside! : )

Vietnam Memorial.

Here we are having a popsicle in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Man I don't think a popsicle ever tasted so good (or cost so much!!).

The Potomic River

Crossing the Potomic to get back to our car at Arlington. That last stretch of walking was a long one, but we made it!

Hey! Where did everyone go?!?! See that lonely little van in the back? We were the only ones left! I guess everyone else bugged out already!