Washington D.C., continued

Day four: It was rainy and windy all day. Luckily we only had to walk a block to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and Rob even picked up hot chocolate for us to drink while we stood outside waiting for it to open. What a great museum—it's easy to see why it's the 2nd most visited in the United States. And on a Saturday morning, it was, as expected, packed. But after a quick peek and some of the lunar exhibits, we ducked into the first showing of the Legends of Flight movie at the IMAX theater, and it was awesome.

We left before lunch time, just as the crowds were reaching capacity.

We walked up the mall to the Capitol for our scheduled tour.

Overcast, but beautiful.

Thanks to the legislature for passing the budget at the very last minute. We were a little worried about what we'd do if the government shut down.

Every state has two statues, and here we are in front of Brigham Young. Our other statue is of Philo T. Farnsworth, who I'd always thought was from Idaho, but apparently he was born in Beaver, and lived many years in Utah.

After the tour we had lunch in the Capitol cafeteria, and were fortunate enough to be sitting next to a Ben Franklin impersonator. You know me. Of course we didn't pass up that photo op.

Next we went to the Library of Congress for a tour. It was by far the most beautiful building we saw.

You have to be at least 14 to get a library card and enter the reading room, so we didn't ditch Robbie, but how cool would it be to have a library card to the Library of Congress?

They did have a cool interactive "Passport to Knowledge", and Robbie saved different collections on his, which he can now access online. Rob and I coveted Thomas Jefferson's library, set up, as he always wished, on bookshelves in a circle, so you are surrounded by books. No photos allowed, but you can see it online here.

We had hoped to tour the Supreme Court as well, but ran out of time. Next trip.

We stopped by Union Station. Traveling used to be so romantic. It almost made me wish we could hop on the Orient Express or some equivalent.

On our walk back to the hotel:

We picked up some Potbelly sandwiches for dinner, and some Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast on Sunday morning, and called it a night. It was another great day.

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.

Gettysburg

Day Two: We got up early and made it to the Battlefield Museum by opening, at 8:00 a.m.

We booked a two-hour car tour with a registered battlefield guide, and I cannot recommend this strongly enough. Our guide was awesome (his name was David, can't remember his last name) and the tour was a bargain at $55 (the group bus tour actually would have cost us more and covered less ground). Plus we had someone to take photos of the three of us. :)

According to Wikipedia, there were, as of 2008, "1,320 monuments, 410 cannon, 148 historic buildings and 41 miles of avenues, roads and lanes." We'd have been lost without a guide.

I've already forgotten which monuments are which. As you can see, it was a gorgeous day.

Robbie almost finished reading The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara before our tour, and recognized many of the key figures in the battle, including General Longstreet, in the statue here.

I was reading it too, and kept looking for the "high ground" that was mentioned repeatedly. I guess when you're used to the Rocky Mountains, hills like this don't seem very high. This is the view from Little Round Top, with our guide, David. He told us that he recommended The Killer Angels as a first introduction to the Battle at Gettysburg, so I was glad we'd already read it. It was also nice that he was able to tell us where the novel strayed from historical fact.

Robbie at the top of a monument on Little Round Top.

I think we're in front of a statue of John Buford, the calvary officer who held the high ground until infantry could arrive.

After our awesome tour, we returned to the museum.

The museum was well organized and in-depth. There were lots of displays, historical artifacts, short films, touchscreen computers, etc. We also watched the 20 minute film, narrated by Morgan Freeman.

Here's Robbie looking at a very small part of the restored Cyclorama (he noticed that this part is seen on the cover of The Killer Angels).

Although I pictured the battlefield as being nothing more than open pasture, the town, which looked like this at the time, was occupied and used as well.

After the museum we went to the cemetery, where Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address.

We also visited the Pennsylvania Monument, which is the largest in the park. Robbie and I are the small specks up on top.

Although our whole week was amazing, we all agree that Gettysburg was a highlight. I had been been advocating a day-trip to Williamsburg instead, but I'm so glad we went with Rob's recommendation to visit Gettysburg.

Mount Vernon

Still Day Two: We left Gettysburg around 1:00 p.m. and headed straight for Mount Vernon, since that was the only other place out of the metro/walking distance of our hotel.

Although a tomb was built into the Capitol for George, his will specified that he wanted to be buried at Mt. Vernon, and Martha is alongside him.

Here is the back porch, overlooking the Potomac. I can see why he loved it.

The carriage house/stables:

This might be my favorite photo of the trip. It was an unbelievably beautiful day.

Check out this view. Amazing.

These are the chairs on the back porch. Definitely where I'd spend my time, with that view.

Here's the front of the house. Not as breathtaking as the scenery, but not bad.

When I read a biography of George Washington, I was surprised at how much correspondence he had concerning his estate, even during the war, but now that I've seen it, I can understand his passion for it.

I didn't take any photos in the visitors center, but it is fairly new, and well done. I'm glad we went.

By the time we returned the car and took the metro to our hotel we were exhausted, but walked around looking for someplace to eat. Since we were right by the Capitol, there were plenty of places to eat, but most of them had already closed. We ate at the hotel and called it a night. It was a great day.

Robbie's Trip

About a year ago, we decided it would be a fun and memorable tradition to take each of our kids on a trip with just mom and dad when they turn 12. We'd let them pick the destination (within reason) and give them our undivided attention for a week. We were excited when Robbie picked Washington D.C. Again, it was a major effort to get everything arranged, but it was a great trip. I'm breaking it up by day, and backdating, because it's just too overwhelming to blog all at once.

Day One: We dropped the kids off at school and were at the airport by 9:00 a.m. We had a direct flight, but with the time difference, arrived just before 5:00 p.m. We had a nice tour of the parking lots before catching the right shuttle to car rentals. :) Oh well, at least I got this photo of Robbie in front of the old, rat-pack era terminal. (Rob and Robbie were both rolling their eyes at me every time I pulled out my camera by the end of the trip, but on the first day I hadn't hit my stride, and only took one picture.)

We finally got on the road, headed for Gettysburg for the night. Of course we were starving, since we opted to skip the small, overpriced sandwiches they were serving on the airplane. So we stopped at a Chevy's in Gaithersburg, Maryland on our way. We waited almost an hour for our food before we finally left in frustration and went to Subway. Worst service ever.

Although Rob will tell you that I was dozing for most of the two-hour drive there, I was awake enough to notice the beautiful scenery. There were spring green trees everywhere. Funny how Salt Lake doesn't seem like a desert unless you visit someplace that isn't. We stayed at the Wyndham in Gettysburg, and were only there long enough to sleep, but would definitely recommend it. I didn't take photos, but they have some awesome ones if you click on the link. It took all day, but by the end we were finally ready for our adventure.

Guilt-Trip

That's an appropriate name for our girl's weekend at St. George. I mean, it was a fun weekend with Melissa and Judy (and Ralph) and no kids. We enjoyed the warm weather, eating out, general conference and several chick flicks. But our real reason for going was a massive dose of guilt. Here's the deal. When Robbie was born I started scrapbooking, and finished up his baby book well before Joey was born. I had Joey's one-year book completed before Ellie was born. I only completed about half of Ellie's book before I had Ainsley, and in the five years since then, I haven't done a single page. After reading Council of Dads, I decided this would be one of my biggest regrets if anything happened to me. And after reading The Happiness Project, I decided to tackle something I'd been procrastinating. I knew it'd never happen at home, where there is always another load of dishes or laundry to be done before I could even begin, so the plan for a weekend away was hatched. We're lucky to have such supportive husbands, and welcoming parents/in-laws!



I always wonder, as I'm doing the ten million things that have to be done in order to leave town, if it's even worth it. But this trip was, if only to see Ainsley's smile as she looked through the beginning of her book.