On our way we drove through so incredibly curvy roads. One road the speed limit was 55, but Chris wasn't able to get it above 45 because of all the twists and turns that were happening. I was actually quite green, so I was getting dressed for the holiday.
While in Arlington, we took the metro into DC on both Friday and Saturday. On Friday we managed to do the American History Museum, walk around the Mall and see the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Monument and a TON of cherry blossoms. We also went to the Air and Space Museum. In the American History Museum I really liked the original flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner. I also really liked seeing the different First Lady dresses and china. I still don't like the dress Michelle Obama wore for the Inauguration a few years ago, so here's hoping we don't get another awful dress this time. We also got to see the Jefferson Bible, and that was interesting. It makes sense that he would have a Bible in Greek, Latin, French and English. Also the parts he kept and what he felt wasn't important were interesting to see. We had lunch at the foot of the Washington Monument. We weren't able to go up it because of the damage done in the earthquake last August. We walked around the mall from that point. We walked to see the Jefferson Monument and got to see a ton of the cherry blossoms. The festival technically starts tomorrow, so they were part way in bloom, but not yucky on the ground yet.
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| This was as close as we got to the Lincoln, but it made for a good picture. |
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| Blooming cherry blossom |
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| In the Wright exhibit at the Air and Space Museum. This was Chris's favorite thing from the trip. |
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| A with the original Wright flyer. |
On Saturday we hiked to the National Cathedral and the National Zoo. While the National Cathedral was really cool, the zoo we could have done without. The National Cathedral sustained a fair amount of damage in the earthquake last fall as well. There was fencing everywhere and they put up a net to catch anything that fell inside from the ceilings. It was impressive that the building was still structurally sound, and so we were able to take a tour. A really liked the children's chapel and I really liked the "space" stained glass window. A also really liked the echos. We went downstairs and it was essentially just our group so she kept clicking her tongue and listening for the echos.
At the National Zoo we got to see the Red Panda, which I didn't even know existed, and the Lions. We sort of got to see the gorillas, but there were too many monkeys on this side of the glass to see the gorillas or the orangutans up close. We also got to see a lot of lion cubs. The cubs were probably just over a year as some of them still had a fair amount of spots. They were very playful while we were there, so it was nice. A also had a blast riding around on shoulders and playing in the prairie dog town. She made a great impersonation of a road block in the tube she was managing to crawl inside.
Sunday before we left we managed to see Arlington National Cemetery. We walked up the the tomb of the unknown soldier in time for 2 wreath laying ceremonies. Then after we saw the different plaques inside we got to see a guard changing ceremony. As we walked to the Pentagon burial stone for 2001, we saw the new 2001 Memorial there. We don't know why it is the three things pointing to space, but it was visible from all around the cemetery.
Well, that was quite a trip in a very short amount of time. We also got to play games with our friends and just catch up with them. We are working on making friends here, but no one shares our game love so far.
The weather here is definitely warming up as everything is starting to bud. This also means we are taking a ton of meds for that. Hopefully it won't go on forever. I need to finish getting dinner around, but this should be a good wrap up for the past week. Hope all is well by you.
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