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.

Washington D.C. - Day Two

Our second day in D.C. we focused on seeing a few of the monuments and amazing buildings in the city. We had a pass to "hop on, hop off" the city trolley that got us from here to there pretty efficiently, the only downside being the trolleys were not air-conditioned and this turned out to be the hottest of the days we were in the city.

First up - the Supreme Court! Beautiful building with tons of historical and current significance.

We got off the trolley and walked around the beautiful Jefferson Memorial. I didn't get a great picture of it from the outside nor did I get a great shot of Mr. Jefferson himself (too backlit) but I loved some of the inscriptions - you can click on the image if it's too small to read.

We also saw the FDR Memorial before stopping again at the Lincoln Memorial where we hopped on a bus over to Arlington National Cemetery. The property there is stunning and it brings out a great sense of gratitude when you see the lives lost in defense of our country as well as awe at how many famous Americans are buried there. Here is the eternal flame at the gravesite of John F. Kennedy. His wife Jackie is buried beside him along with two infant children.

There was a memorial in memory of the space shuttle Columbia crew, as well as one in memory of the Challenger crew. I took a picture because I was in high school when the Challenger exploded and I could actually see the smoke and flames from the parking lot of my school where we had all gathered to watch it take off. The Columbia exploded right above our house in East Texas when we lived there - we were in bed when we heard a sonic boom and the whole house shook. They found parts of the shuttle in a wide area that included near where we were. Very sad.

We watched the moving changing of the guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Then we rode the bus back to the Lincoln Memorial and walked around there for awhile.

The World War Two memorial was lovely too, we passed it on our way back to the hotel to get changed for our dinner out with my cousin Chris and his wife and daughter.

Little Hailey Meissner is 18-months-old and the girls were smitten, and I think she kind of liked them too! It was great to meet her and we had a lovely dinner with all of them.

Chris, Amanda and Hailey with me and Katie.

Chris and Amanda suggested we checkout Georgetown cupcakes for dessert since we weren't far from there so the girls and I headed on over. There was a line around the corner to get in but it moved quickly and once inside we could see why - dozens of beautiful cupcakes!

Seriously, look at this menu! It was hard to pick just one, the back of the menu had enticing descriptions of each flavor.

It was a perfect end to another lovely day.

Washington D.C. - Day One

Sorry it's been quiet around here for awhile - I went to North Carolina to get the girls from camp and we headed straight to Washington D.C. for a quick look at our nation's capitol. Meggie and Katie spent all of last year studying American history so I thought it would be a good time to take them and we had a ball. We got back last night and today was Meggie's birthday so it's been a busy time - more on Meggie's birthday later but she's had a wonderful day.


We began our trip bright and early for the first tour of the day at Ford's Theatre where Abraham Lincoln was shot. Given that we didn't even check into our hotel the night before until midnight I thought the girls did a great job of even being awake - especially since they don't drink coffee!

It was neat for the girls to get to see the suit President Lincoln had on that night, the pillow where he rested his head after he was shot and that still has blood stains on it, the room where he died in the Peterson House across the street and the presidential box at the theatre. They really enjoyed all of that - but they also got an in-depth time-line of both Lincoln's day and John Wilkes Booth's day, a reminder of the political tensions of the time, and a better idea of what life was like following the civil war. It was a good start to our visit.

After Ford's Theatre we consulted our map and found that there was a Macy's only a few blocks away and we headed straight over because despite weather reports of record highs in the city before we got there our first morning was a bit nippy outside - so I bought the girls each a hoodie and I got a cute little jacket too. We were so glad we did because although the temperature rose we were still freezing in the museums!

Upon leaving Macy's we went to the International Spy Museum. I wasn't allowed to take pictures there but we had a great time learning about all sorts of spy-related stuff. The museum covers three floors and is full of interactive displays for the kids. The girls especially enjoyed seeing some of the cool gadgets that spies often employ. All in all the museum got a thumbs up from all of us.

Next on the list was a relatively new museum called the Newseum. It's an interactive museum of news with behind-the-scenes views of how and why news is made. It had a TON of hands-on exhibits for the girls to not only see but also experience news gathering. On our way to get there we passed the National Archives and I thought the building was beautiful so I took a few pictures of it but we opted not to go in as we knew our time was limited.

Upon arriving at the Newseum we first saw the Berlin Wall exhibit - they have an actual section of the wall as well as an actual guard tower. The girls learned about the wall in our studies last year because in addition to our focus on American history we studied modern times and they read about communism, the wall going up and the wall coming down. It was very exciting to actually get to see and touch a part of history that they'd only just read about in the weeks before our trip.

The top floor of the museum offered beautiful views of the city so we stepped out for a picture in front of the capitol.





Also with the focus being news every day there are newspapers from around the world displayed outside - so we took a picture in front of that day's New Zealand Herald in honor of where we live now.





There was an entire room dedicated to a 9/11 exhibit. A piece of one of the towers was there surrounded by newspaper headlines from around the world all along the wall. We saw a reporter's camera that was pulled out of the rubble and saw the images he shot before he was killed and we saw an incredibly moving video with a series of interviews of different reporters that were on the scene at the time. It was a lot to take in but the girls were very mature and respectful.





Another fun thing was the girls got to try their hand at being reporters and photographers through some games they played on the museum's computers. I loved another room where you could read through history by looking at the newspaper headlines from as far back as the 1700s. Pretty amazing.






We didn't leave the Newseum until we were kicked out, in fact we went back the next day to film the following video!

I think it was one of the highlights of the trip for all of us. Since everything was closed for the day we just meandered back to the hotel taking some photos along the way. I had to take one of the FBI building since my dad was an agent when I was born - I even have a letter in my baby book from J. Edgar Hoover himself congratulating my parents on my birth.

Recognize this place? Funnily enough it was closed off and we couldn't even walk in front of it for about 45 minutes while the kids were playing outside. We couldn't see them but we could see the secret service guys with their automatic weapons who were keeping an eye on us!

Meggie's favorite monument of the trip - the Washington monument. She loved how you could see the difference in color on the monument because they stopped building due to lack of funds, then there was the Civil War, and then they completed it. She thought that was cool.