Washington D.C.

Day three: We got another early start today, and split up to stand in line at Washington Monument and The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, since both pass out tickets on a first-come, first-serve basis. Unfortunately, Rob didn't realize that the monument didn't open until 8:30, so he got tickets for that time for The Bureau of E & P, and I had to leave my prime spot in line to make the tour. However, the tour was fascinating. No photos allowed during the tour, but here's one in the gift shop:

And out front:

By the time Rob and Robbie got back to the monument, the tickets for the day were gone.

But I, in the meantime, was standing in line for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, which wrapped around the entire block, and we did get in there. It was sobering. Although I've read quite a few books about the Holocaust, it was sickening to see the images. Hopefully it serves as inoculation for ever taking part in any similar horror. My favorite part was at the end, about the heroes of the holocaust. Denmark was able to get about 90% of the Jews in their country to safety (I had recently read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, which is a story based on this, and highly recommend it).


After the museum we started a long walking tour, beginning on the Mall:

Clear over to Ford's Theater, where we got tickets for a National Park Guide's presentation inside.

Funny story here. Rob snapped a photo of Robbie in front of the box and sent it via facebook to Jake, who offered to pay Robbie $20 to stand up and yell "sic semper tyrannis" (that's what John Wilkes Booth yelled after shooting Lincoln). He had no idea that Robbie is saving up for an iPod Touch and is willing to almost anything for a few bucks. Yep, he did it. Right when the ranger asked if anyone knew what line in the play Booth was waiting for so the gunshot would be muffled in the noise of the audience's laughter. Rob stopped him from fully standing up, but the people in front of us definitely turned around to see what was going on.

We grabbed a quick lunch at a nearby food court and then headed over to the White House. Of course there was a protest going on in Layfayette Square. Something about conditions or rights in some Arabic country.

Although we requested them through Senator Hatch's office, we did not get visitor's passes for the White House. So this is as close as we got.

I was going to take a photo here, in front of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (where the VP has his offices), mostly for the tulips that were out, when someone offer to take one of all of us. Mark Twain called this building "the ugliest building in America" and it really is pretty ugly, but I'm not one to turn down a photo.

This photo of the back of the White House would be better without the rust-stained concrete barriers, but I didn't want to alarm any security guards by having Robbie hop the fence for a photo-op. :)

Couldn't resist this pose though.

We happened upon this statue for the Boy Scouts, so yet another chance to torture these two. They had a way of rolling their eyes at each other every time I asked them to pose for a photo. Hopefully someday they'll thank me.

Anyway, I did leave my camera back at the hotel before we headed out to catch a movie (we couldn't take any more walking!). We saw The Conspirator, which was cool, since we had just been to Ford's Theatre that day. It was a fun, but tiring day.