Week 3: Washington D.C.

You guys.

Washington D.C. was awesome!! It was weird seeing all these monuments and memorials in real life after seeing them in pictures and on TV my whole life. So you better believe I took a million pictures. We better get started otherwise this post will never end.

DAY 20: Glen and I leave Philadelphia and enjoy a beautiful drive. D.C. is almost 3 hours away so by the time we arrived it was dark outside. As we were driving down the street, looking for our hotel, something catches my eye. I look over and it was the Capitol! It was all lit up and so much bigger than I expected! Then we drove around until we found the Washington Monument and the White House. 
 

DAY 21: Glen and I woke up early to make sure we got in a full day's worth of sight seeing. Our hotel had an amazing complimentary breakfast so, naturally, we stuffed our faces. Before our trip, I had done a lot of research and decided that we should take a 2-day trolley tour of D.C. Basically the trolley takes us all over D.C. and we can just hop on and hop off, because the trolleys run all day about every 20 minutes. On this day we were able to see the White House; National Archives where we saw the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of rights; National Gallery of Art; Union Station; the Capitol; and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. 

 Glen, trying so hard to keep his eyes open... 

My new Chacos, I am in love with them! I could walk for days in these, seriously. (Glen better watch out for our next Disneyland trip... I will truly be unstoppable.)

The White House

The National Archives. They don't allow cameras inside, which I was bummed about. But seeing the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights was so amazing. The display room is very dim-lit because they are trying their very best to preserve the documents. 

The following are pictures from the National Gallery of Art. No offense to Philadelphia, but we thought this art museum was like 10 times better than the Philadelphia Museum of art. Plus it was free! We love free. 

We learned that this is the only Leonardo DaVinci painting in public view in the United States. It is called Ginevra de' Benci. 

The Adoration of the Magi, by Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi 

The Japanese Footbridge, by Claude Monet 

Woman with a Parasol--Madame Monet and Her Son, by Claude Monet 

The Dancer, by Auguste Renoir 

Girl with a Hoop, by Auguste Renoir 

The Boating Party, by Mary Cassatt 

Still Life with Apples and Peaches, Paul Cezanne 

Self-Portrait, by Vincent Van Gogh

This monument was the inspiration for the movie "Glory."

Union Station

Around Union Station they have the flags from each of the 50 states. I found Utah! (Third from right)

Here are some other buildings in the area, including the Library of Congress 

And then we visited the Capitol! We got to tour the inside which I really enjoyed. It is so big I really had no idea how overwhelming it would be. The tour was really neat and we learned a lot. One cool thing is that they have at least 2 statues from every state. Of course I went searching for the ones from Utah, and I found Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of the TV, and Brigham Young, the second prophet of the Mormon church.

This is the top of the dome in the rotunda. If you look to the right of the picture you can see little grey drawings. These go around in a circle and depict several historical events pertaining to America.

The banner with the Latin phrase "E Pluribus Unum" means "Out of many, one." 

This is how they depicted George Washington. Also, my camera is AMAZING for being able to zoom this close!

Here are some pictures displayed in the rotunda

This is in the room next to the main rotunda

Outside in front of the Capitol

Jefferson Memorial

See those little spikes coming across the skyline? That's the Air force base.

This is the Newseum. It is a museum of news and journalism. Down there in front of the building they post the front cover of a newspaper from each state, every day. We thought that was pretty cool.

Then we decided to visit the National Museum of Natural History. Glen was SO excited for this. Here is a picture of him just before entering. (Ignore the big wet spot on his shirt. The camelback he was wearing all day was leaking on him.) Also, he failed to tell me that he wanted the picture to look like he was holding the sign that says "open until 7:30 pm. Whoops. But if you kinda squint your eyes it looks like that girl is perched on his forearm.

This next picture is for my mom, who has a very big fear of sloths. MOM! This is a giant sloth! Tonight in your prayers don't forget to thank Heavenly Father for not letting you be alive during this time.

This is the Hope Diamond. Legend has it that there is a curse associated with it. Apparently, everyone who has ever owned it has gone crazy, died a horrific death, or committed suicide.

And this is the world's largest flawless quartz sphere

This was an exhibit about the Chilean miners and how they got rescued. It was really neat.

Day 22: The next morning we woke up early again and headed out. We started at the Holocaust Museum. Unfortunately, in order to get into the main exhibit area you had to have a ticket and we wouldn't be able to get in until much later, so we just explored the other areas in the museum and watched a couple of videos. We then headed to the Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Veteran's Memorial, Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, and WWII Memorial. After spending some time there we visited the National Museum of American History, and then to the National Cathedral. 

This is in front of the Holocaust Museum. That statue is a broken swastika.

The Lincoln Memorial

Washington Monument

Vietnam War Veteran's Memorial

Korean War Veteran's Memorial

WWII Memorial

The National Museum of American History

One of the first things we saw inside the museum was the original Star-Spangled Banner, the very flag that Francis Scott Key was looking at when he wrote the song by the same name. Cameras were not allowed inside and the lights were very dim in effort to preserve the flag. They have it laid out behind a wall of glass, and it is HUGE! Supposedly it was even bigger than the house of the women who made it. Anyway, it is barely held together, but it was really, really cool. 

This is the entrance to the exhibit

George Washington displayed as a god

This made me feel right at home. Well, my second home, as many of you may know.

So, as amazing as everything else was, this next part came close to being the highlight of the trip for me. There was a whole exhibit dedicated to the First Ladies. The museum had many of the dresses that each first lady wore at the Inaugural Ball. It was really cool to see all the different fashions, and even the different sizes of all the women! For some of the women they couldn't get their gown, but instead got another item of clothing.

 

 This is Michelle Obama's Inaugural Ball Gown

National Cathedral

The size of this cathedral was overwhelming! If you look at this picture you can see a man in front, he is so small standing next to it!

This is the view from the top floor. Waaaaay in the distance we spotted the Washington D.C. LDS Temple!

After a very long and eventful two days, we headed home. We can't wait to return! Tomorrow we head to the beach for some family time with Glen's brothers and their families. It will be a successful trip if I come home with a tan and Glen comes home without a sunburn.

 Have a great weekend!