D.C. Day Three

I'm so behind on my blogging - we're just having too much fun our last hours here in the Florida sunshine.

So our last day in D.C. was jam-packed as we tried to see as much as we possibly could. We started our day at the National Museum of American History.

The Spark Lab was a lot of fun for the girls - the lab was filled with hands-on science exploration activities as well as guided experiments.

That's Katie with her glasses on her head looking down.

Meggie loved the truck area - no surprise - where she learned all about what goes into paving a road.

I was interested in the exhibit across the hall - Julia's kitchen.

The girls were intrigued walking through an area that brought to life what life was like for slaves, Meggie and Katie read every sign and spent a long time staring at the displays.

Another highlight was the area with all the First Lady dresses - so cool!!

We all gave Michelle Obama's dress a thumbs up and even took a picture in front of the first couple's photo.

Next stop - a brief run through the Air and Space Museum. I actually debated skipping this one since we went to NASA on this trip as well, but the girls loved it and they had an opportunity to again participate in some hands-on learning.

Lastly we went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was a very moving time - it's amazing how much they have there and how much you can learn just walking through and watching all the film clips and reading all the signs. The girls were a little overwhelmed because it was crowded and people moved very slowly through as they were trying to absorb everything. It didn't help that it was freezing in there. So, given all of that we watched a few short films and stopped to really study a few displays but otherwise went through more quickly than I would have if I was there by myself. However I think we all learned something and there is something so real about walking into a real cattle car, seeing the piles of the victims' discarded shoes, looking at a real torn-up prisoner's uniform and seeing the real faces of the victims that is life-changing.

All in all I think we made the most of our time there and I hope it made the girls a little more aware of the American portion of their cultural history and some of the things that make this country great.