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*

Day 20: So many things to do...so little time.

I had a very productive day!!  So you're in for a treat today!!!  I made a list yesterday of everything I want to do before I leave a week from Wednesday, and let me tell you, it's quite a list!  With only 2 weekends left, it's crunch time!!  And believe me, I was able to cross A LOT off my list today!!


This morning is when I had my scheduled tour of the Capitol Building.  My tour was at 10:50am, and they asked you to arrive 45 minutes early.  I got there around 10 and had to go through security.  Before I approached the line I almost yelled "WHAT?!  I can't bring my taser in?!"  But I didn't ;)  Oh, and I made it through security...no worries!!  Getting there 45 minutes early was a little extreme....it was a lot of waiting around, but oh well.


At the beginning of the tour there is a 13 minute video you watch.  It was pretty interesting and very well done (except there were too many dissolves, only some people will get that!!).  Then they take you to the Rotunda.  It is the heart of the capitol and its beautiful!  The architecture and the detail is outstanding.  The next place you go is the Statuary Hall.  Statuary Hall is also known as the Old Hall of the House.  It was the meeting place of the House of Representatives from 1807-1857.  This room was very interesting because our tour guide walked across the room, turned her back to us, talked in a normal voice, and we could hear her....and there were about 8 other groups in the room!  That's how good the acoustics are!  But this was a problem back in the day because then representatives could hear each other and it wasn't working out!  They tried a lot of different things to fix the problem, but nothing worked.  Once they started adding more states, and more representatives, they needed a bigger room so they made the gallery they meet in today.  The final stop on the tour was the Crypt.  George Washington was supposed to be buried in the middle of the room, but when he passed away the Capitol Building was not complete yet, so he was buried in Mt. Vernon.  When the building was complete they asked his family if they could move him to Washington, but his family said no, he wanted to be in Mt. Vernon.  In the middle of the room there is a white star on the ground.  This is literally the center of Washington D.C.!!!  This also marks the point in D.C. in which all the streets are laid out and numbered.  It was very interesting and I learned a lot!  I didn't get to see the galleries, where the senators and representatives meet.  1. They are closed on the weekend and 2. you have to get a separate pass from your representative....which I did not do, but that's ok!  Here are some pictures from my tour of my Capitol Building!!

The model for the Freedom Statue on top of the Capitol

The Rotunda

Statuary Hall

Statuary Hall

The Crypt

The center point of Washington D.C.!

After my Capitol tour I took the tunnel from the Capitol Building to the Library of Congress.  I didn't spend much time at the Library, but I did see the Gutenburg Bible!!  The main reading room was closed because there were people doing research, so that was a bummer, but I got to look in the room and it looked pretty cool!  The architecture in the Library (like in the Capitol) was amazing.  Here are some pictures I took of the Library of Congress.

After the Library of Congress I walked over to the Supreme Court.  I couldn't figure out how to get in, but I still got some nice pictures of the outside!!

It was pretty neat :)  

Earlier this week my aunt Lisa told me I should try to go to a restaurant called Good Stuff Eatery.  This restaurant was created by Chef Spike Mendelsohn and his mom and I'm pretty sure it has been featured on Food Network.  I looked it up and it was very close to Capitol Hill so I decided to go there for lunch.  They had (mostly) burgers, fries, and shakes.  It was so good and I'm really glad Lisa told me about it!  It was fairly busy because it was around lunch time, but there were plenty of places to sit and eat inside and outside.  There was even a picture of President Obama eating there!!  So thanks for an awesome lunch, Lisa!! :)

Now, Good Stuff Eatery is on Pennsylvania Ave. and when I was on my way there a bunch of cops shut down the street and were not allowing any traffic to come through.  People were lining the sidewalks and so I thought I should stay and see what was going on.  Then all these police officers riding bikes came by!  There were a lot of them!  I found out later that it was the Police Unity Tour and they have been riding their bikes from New York to D.C.!  How cool is that?!  Here are a few pictures I got.

After lunch I headed back to Union Station and I went to the National Postal Museum!  Woo!!!  It was pretty flipping sweet.  It was everything I had hoped for and then some.  My two uncles are mailmen, so I had to learn some fun facts for them!  I watched a video on how mail is sorted, and that was awesome.  I also learned about zipcodes, stamps, and Owney!  The U.S.P.S. mascot!!  Basically the Postal Museum is the best Smithsonian :)

Mail sorting technology

Mail boxes

Showing me what a bomb could look like

Fun stamps!

After the Postal Museum Lee picked me up and he took me to the National Cathedral.  It is so impressive.  It is big and absolutely beautiful.  It was also really interesting to see how much damage was done from the earthquake last year...and it was a lot of damage!  Oh...and good news.  I get to cross something off my bucketlist!  When we got to the Cathedral there was a wedding that was just starting!  I took pictures, don't worry.  Lee and I kept joking around about how we could crash the wedding.  "I object!!" or Lee could yell "She's pregnant with my child!!!"  Yeah...we're mature :)  But anyway, the Cathedral was awesome.  Then we went outside and walked around.  There are a lot of gardens around the area, so we went into the Bishop's Garden.  It was a big wide open lawn with different trees and flowers.  The wedding party was actually out there taking pictures!  Lee offered me $50 to photo bomb a picture....and I'm sorry to say this, but I legitimately thought about it.  But I decided against it hahaha.  We then decided that since we were in the church for the whole ceremony and we were there when they took pictures that we were basically family and we were going to follow them to the reception, but again, we didn't.  Here are some pictures of the Cathedral....and the wedding :)

Part of the top structures that fell because of the earthquake

Julia and Nathan :)

My day still isn't over!!  After the Cathedral we drove around Georgetown.  I got to see the steps where the Exorcist was filmed!! (But I haven't seen the movie, so it wasn't as exciting).  I also got to see Georgetown Cupcake (from DC Cupcakes on TLC)!!!!  I was VERY excited, but the line was too long, so I will go back during the week some time to get a delicious cupcake :)


After that we drove to the Iwo Jima Marines Memorial.  I didn't know it was so big!!  It's massive!!  It was very cool though, I really liked it.  Here are a few pictures!

The lighting was awesome so I got some pretty cool pictures!  After Iwo Jima we went to Gravelly Point, and let me tell you, it was SO much fun!  It is a park that is just north of the Reagan Airport.  It is just a few hundred feet away from the runway, so it is an awesome location for airplane spotting!  The airplanes were landing so they were flying right above us!  And we got to see a lot of planes land!!  I really enjoyed it and I just kept thinking about how much my Dad would've loved it!!  Here are a few of my favorite pictures!

Pretty neat huh?!  WOW.  So that was today!  It was such a long day and I'm really tired, but it was awesome because I did so much!  Hope you enjoyed reading all of my adventures!  More tomorrow :)


Shelby*