There and Back Again

We had such a fun trip to DC last week! We had an absolutely terribly delayed departure (think 7 extra hours at the airport) but once we arrived everything was fantastic. I took over 100 pictures in the 4 days we were there, so I will try to spare you. The one picture I should have taken and didn't was of the Little Guy on the Metrorail. He absolutely loved it! He told me he wants to visit every city that has a subway system. Something tells me if he gets to NY he'll quit there. The metro in DC was so clean. I was very impressed, and not at all sicked out. The only metro-ish pictures I did take were these:

Pictures of quite possibly the longest escalator in the world. The Dupont Circle Metro station is apparently way underground. Jon walked up it once, but I opted for the free ride.

Our hotel was right on Dupont Circle, about two miles away from the White House, etc. It was nice and newly remodeled, so no cooties. Always a good thing.

The first day we toured the White House. It's cool to be able to say we've been inside, but the tour left something to be desired. No pictures, stay in the line, no facts (unless you ask questions), and DO NOT walk on the rugs. Apparently my feet aren't worthy enough to step on the floor coverings. They roll them up and put the ropes between you and the carpets. Anyway, since we weren't allowed to document our journey through the White House we had to settle for taking a picture on the outside. The day we went through it was rainy so we snapped this one on our last day in DC:

Later, after we went back to the hotel and collected our things, (Did I mention you can't bring anything with you? Just your ID, your cell phone [but don't even think about snapping a pic], and luckily an umbrella in case of inclement weather.) we went to the International Spy Museum. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but with my mad spy stealth I managed this:
It was a very kid friendly museum, and Jon had a lot of fun too. They even had an authentic shoe phone (yes, they really had those during the cold war), and a lipstick gun. Oh, so clever.

We also ate at the Spy cafe. I had a salad with green olives, so of course I dared the Little Guy to eat one. (I won't touch them, unless it's to pick them off my salad.) Here's his face after giving it a try:

We were also able to walk into Ford's Theater and the house across the street where Lincoln died.

It's kind of weird to be in these places where such horrible things took place. I wanted to have the pictures but was thinking, Should we be smiling. The Little Guy really seems to have taken a liking to Honest Abe. He asked so many questions. He told me that Lincoln was brave because he stood up for what was right, even though he knew people wouldn't want to be his friend.

We rounded out the first day by heading to the Natural History Museum:

Super gross giant squid, that's shrunk considerably in it's lovely preservative bath.

AAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Oh wait, they don't look scared at all.

Jon was going to buy this for me, but apparently it's not for sale. Whatev.

The second day was Air and Space Museum day. Did you know that the Air and Space Museum is HUGE!! We spent forEVER there. I could have been good after about an hour, but we were there for over four. I took a lot of pictures, for the Little Guy's benefit. It sufficeth me to say, airplanes are great, space is amazing, and I'm thankful for smart people.

Then it was off to the National Archives. I was a little disappointed to find out that the Declaration of Independence is so faded that you can barely make out any of the words. It was still really cool to be in the same room with such an old and important document. We also got to see the Magna Carta (the first written document limiting the power of a king) which was written in 1215. Amazing that it's still here. And the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution written and used by the colonies during the Revolutionary War. Written on one continuous (and very long) piece of parchment. Seeing as you all know what they look like I'll spare you the pictures. Here's one of my cute family though infront of the National Archive Building:
We also went to the Museum of American History. It was really cool to see the Star Spangled Banner. You can't take pictures of it though so I am without. There were also so many more artifacts, much more well kept than the flag, that were really cool to look at. Of course, the little guy loved all the old guns, and on the first floor they had a ton of old trains. Heaven, for my six-year-old.

We walked around the Memorials and Monuments in the evening. I, of course, cried. I can't even tell you why, except for that I am so grateful that there are so many amazing men and women willing to give their lives for our country. I LOVE America and I recognize how truly lucky I am to be born in, and live in such an amazing country. I get choked up every time I think about people giving up their lives so that we can keep our freedoms, that we so often take for granted. I don't really care if you agree with war or not, those men and women deserve our respect and honor and I am touched by their service every time I think about it. Anyway, (sniff) God Bless America. Here are a few pictures of the memorials:

Sunday, and treat time at the National Zoo:

"Can somebody hold this? It's getting heavy."

By that day the Little Guy was pretty beat. We spent a lot of time resting and enjoying the animals at the zoo. The panda's were really cool. But for the life of me I can't figure out why they call them "giant". They're kind of smallish. Anyway, one of the gorillas had a baby, and we saw real pirannah's, and the largest lobster I've ever seen. It's a nice spread out zoo, but could really benefit with a couple extra bathrooms. When are people going to start catering to the small-bladdered people of this world?

So this is getting really long, and mostly boring so here's the cliff note version of the rest. We walked a lot, saw a lot of cool old stuff, had a lot of fun, fed squirrels about 20 bags of airline peanuts, smiled a lot, saw police with automatic weapons on the steps of the US capitol and smelled a lot of smelly bums (not pictured).

Thanks for sticking with my abnormally long post. It's not too often I actually have something to blog about!