Day 21: Do you know how hard it was for me to conduct myself with dignity and respect?!

As if I didn't do enough exploring yesterday, I was back at it again today!  Even though I was pretty tired I got up and started my day off right!


The first thing I did was take the metro to Arlington Cemetery.  It took almost an hour to get there and when I got there it was already pretty hot.  At the visitor center I learned I could take a bus tour of the cemetery for $9....but I'm stubborn, and I thought 'nah, I don't need to spend $9, I'll just walk!'  Boy, was that stupid.  Not only would it have been worth the $9, but it probably would've been worth $12.  Have you ever been to Arlington?!  It's huge!!  I read somewhere that there are over 360,000 people buried there!  It was really hot and a lot of walking, but for the most part I survived, besides, I just tried to hit the highlights, I knew I didn't have to see everything.  


I started off by visiting the women's memorial, it was very nice and it was up fairly high so it gave a good view of the city.  After that I went to where the Kennedys are buried.  The eternal flame is there as well....and the other guests don't like it when you yell "OMG the grave is on FIRE!"  But other than that I "conducted myself with dignity and respect" like the sign said.  (I didn't really do that, p.s.)  After that I started wandering around and I decided to walk up to Robert E. Lee's house.....it was a long walk and a lot of stairs!!!  I bet the bus tour would've been very convenient at that point!!!  But once I got to the top it was worth it because it was a great view of D.C.  When I was done up there I walked down to the Tomb of the Unknowns.  I got there just in time to see the changing of the guard that they do every hour.  It was pretty neat.  But, there were so many questions I wanted to ask the new guard!!!  1. Don't you get hot?  2. What if you have to go to the bathroom?  3. Do you ever get to smile?  4. Will you take a picture with me?  5. Can we be Facebook friends?  6. How are you not sweating right now?!  7. Have you ever had to use your gun?  8. Do they bring you water?  9. Is your phone on silent? That would be embarrassing...  10. Do you have to do this at night? What if you are afraid of the dark?  


And believe me...I had many more questions....but I had to "conduct myself with dignity and respect."  After that I decided to leave...I felt like I saw all the important things...and it was hot.  But I couldn't read the stupid map and I was lost for a little bit...but I finally found a sign saying "Visitors Center".  WOO!  Here are some pictures from Arlington Cemetery.

Arlington Cemetery

Kennedys graves

View from Robert E. Lee's house

New guard!

Tomb of the Unknown Soliders

Bird!

When I was done at Arlington, Lee picked me up and we went to Dulles Airport where the Air and Space Udvar-Hazy Center is.  I have been to the Air and Space Museum in D.C., but this one has a lot more of the big planes......AND the Discovery Space Shuttle!!!  I saw a lot of planes and it was very interesting.  My favorite part was obviously seeing the Discovery Space Shuttle (again, something my Dad would love to see!!).  It was really neat because it is pretty beat up, so it  made it more real that this has actually been to space multiple times!  I also saw the Enola Gay...the first plane to drop a nuclear bomb!  Another cool part of this museum is that part of Transformers 2 was filmed there!  They actually had part of the movie playing to show how the museum and the planes were used!  It was very cool.  There was also an observation deck we went up to.  It looks out on the runway of the Dulles Airport, unfortunately no planes were taking off and all the planes landing were at the other end so we couldn't see any!  But when we were in the parking lot getting ready to leave we saw the Airbus A380 fly right over us!  It is a huge plane so it was very cool to see it!  Here are some pictures.

Discovery Space Shuttle

Back of the Discovery

Enola Gay

So. Many. Planes. !!!

A380

After that, Lee had to drop a soccer ball off with his friend who tore his achilles.  Ouch!  We talked to him and his wife for about an hour and they were very nice!! :)


On our way home we stopped at the Air Force Memorial and the Pentagon Memorial.  Both were very neat!  The Air Force Memorial was up on a hill so you could see most of D.C. from it.  The structure of the actual memorial was also very interesting.  The Pentagon Memorial may be one of the coolest I've seen.  I mean, it looks very simple, but it is so well thought out and it is just very impressive.  The structures look like benches almost and there are 184 of them, representing the number of people who died when the plane hit the Pentagon on 9/11.  They are laid out in order from the youngest person who died (3 years old) to the oldest (71 years old) and they are all arranged based on age.  Now, as you can see in my pictures below, the structure has an open end where the name of the person who died is and the underneath is filled with water.  (It's really hard to explain, but good thing I included pictures!! :) )  Now, if I were standing with my back to the Pentagon and I could read the name, it means that person was on the plane.  If I was looking at the Pentagon and I could read the name, that person was in the Pentagon.  Get it?  If not, refer to the pictures!  It is a very impressive memorial and the design is incredible.  So again, simple, but very complex.

Air Force Memorial

Pentagon.  If you look closely you can tell where the plane hit because
it is the lighter part of the building.

So, like I was describing, this person was in the Pentagon,
if it were facing the other way it would be a person who was
on the plane.

Interesting, huh???

Flowers in the water under one of the structures.

After that we headed home so I could catch up on my blogs!  It was a very eventful and productive weekend and even though I am very tired it was a lot of fun!  I hope to finish up my list of things I want to do before I leave a week from Wednesday and thanks to this weekend I should be able to!  I have a lot more pictures from this weekend on my Facebook for those who are interested!!  More tomorrow :)

Shelby*