Washington D.C - Day 1

The much anticipated aspect of this trip was our nation's capital.  Last school year we studied American History so this was quite a way to finish it off and also to launch us for next year.  Icing on the cake was that my sister met us in the city and spent some time catching up with us (Thanks Aunt Susie!).  It was so hard to choose some photos to represent our time here but here is my snapshot view. 

The kids were quite surprised to see how tiny the Washington Monument was.  Spiderman was ready to put this in his pocket to bring it home. :)  Actually, he spent the week squinting at everything thanks to those glasses sitting in the Atlantic somewhere.

Jaybird and Goose each tried their hand at reading from a teleprompter at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History.  I don't recall what speech Goose picked but Jaybird read Regan's famous speech, "... Mr. Gorbechev, tear down that wall!"  Though you can't see it in this photo, the scene behind him substitued his body in the same scene where Regan was supposed to be.

And here they are at a piece of that actual wall.

I'm not sure the occassion but the Marine Corp band was playing a concert while we were at the World War II Memorial.  Awe inspiring!  It was a pretty warm day and I marvelled at their stamina to play in full dress uniform.  

We took a short break to reflect in the fountain and relieve our ACHING feet!  After spending 7 hours in the History museum and walking the National Mall to see the monuments, every one of us could barely walk.  This was only a temporary reprieve.

My man cringed at how much these shirts made us look like tourists but who are we kidding, most everyone there was a tourist.  The kids loved it and the size and scope of the Monuments was worthy of some patriotic shirts.  This city has the unique ability to stir up a deep sense of pride in what God has done in our nation over the years.

This photo is precious to me.  While visiting the Vietnam War Memorial, the woman in black struck up a conversation with me.  As it turns out, she and her mother (also pictured) had just attended a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetary to honor her father, Richard Castillo.  He had been shot down over Laos 38 years ago and that afternoon had been laid to rest at Arlington.  The story is powerful enough on its own but she also shared with me how her mother had raised 6 children without a father and that her faith in God has carried her all these years.  Then she insisted that I meet her mother and see her father's name engraved on the wall.  It was very emotional for me but I thanked them for their sacrifice, losing a father and a husband.   This meeting was a precious highlight.

By the time we were finished for the day, we were exhausted and very hungry.  We never really stopped for lunch (just snacks) and by now it was 9:00 pm.  Some locals guided us to a small burger joint called Ollie's Trolley that they considered to be in walking distance from the mall (our feet disagreed but we kept on).   We ordered too much food but made short work of all of it.  It's never tasted better.

Then began our trek back to the hotel.  We'd used the metro to get around that day and this was a first "subway experience" for all of us country bumpkins.  To Jaybird it was just an underground train and he has ALWAYS loved trains!  Everything about the metro was exciting to the kids and on this night, we missed our shuttle back to the hotel so we even added on the kids first taxi ride to their list of new things.  We collapsed at the hotel by 10:30 pm and dreamt about the next day.