Visiting Our Nation's Capitol

aka The Washington Post
(pardon the length, I had a 5 hour plane ride)

It was a very nice side benefit to the wedding that I was able to do some site seeing at Washington, DC with my family. It was the first time in about four years that all four siblings have gotten together for fun. We ventured in and around the city several times; by train; by car; by taxi; and mostly by foot. Notwithstanding the broken train and the closure of the parking garage (with our car inside), the getting around went pretty smoothly. I forgave Mr. GPS for the few errors since there was so much construction underway.

We covered a lot of ground in 5 days. Here are just some of the highlights.

The Declaration of Independence original document. It is in surprisingly good shape compared to the Constitution and Bill of Rights documents. Of course, they were written before Papermate invented Lubriglide Ink. The other photo is the memorial to those brave patriots that signed the document. Each of the stones has one of the 56 signatures engraved.

We saw the Mall at night which was very cool. And the Washington Monument is fun to shoot.

The new WWII memorial:
at night. And during the day it was a great cool down for the feet

We also saw the Korean War Memorial: and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (currently 587 remain MIA).

It was pretty dark when we walked through the FDR Memorial. There were many quotes carved in the stone that Carol pointed out seem quite relevant today. I concur.
The darkness made for some nice shots of the Jefferson Memorial.
By this time everyone's feet hurt and the Metro station was still a mile away.
We all kept moving and made it back to our new hotel, Four Points.
I believe the four is out of a possible ten. We noted deductions for poor restaurant service, incomplete pool facility, dirty bathroom, food left in the fridge, no beer at the local 7-Eleven, and the behavior of local ladies of the evening. No photos here.

We made a unanimous decision to move back to the Homewood Suites. We knew their 7-Eleven had beer.

I had to see the Capitol Building. Ms. Feinstein was very funny on the phone, but she would not invite me in.

So I moved on to the Supreme Court, Scalia was out of town so I was turned down here too.

It didn't look like George was home either... But the locals all welcomed me at the pub... I talked to Smokey at the Forest Service Museum. He kept pointing and putting all this pressure on me to prevent fires. I thought lightning was largely to blame. Now, I know what you're thinking, but I can only produce a spark here and there, no lightning.
We stopped by Ford's Theatre to see the scene of the crime. It is in renovation, so no luck. I went around back to see where Booth had a stage hand hold his horse for escape, but it is all built up now with high-rise buildings. The Peterson House across the street is still there where Lincoln died the next morning.
We finished the trip with a visit to Mount Vernon, the home of our founding father, General Geo. Washington. The plantation on the hill has a great view of the Potomac River. It is incredible to look out over the river and see the same view that George and Martha did over 200 years ago. No development on many miles of shoreline.
There was a team of archaeologists working in the garden area. They were looking for artifacts to determine the exact type of plants grown by Washington in the 18th century.
This was a great trip and I saw much more than I expected. I must come back to see the Mint and the American History Museum after renovations are complete. And I will make advance plans to tour the White House and Capitol Building like Lynn did.

Ripley didn't get a chance to join in on this trip.
He has been at the Hernandez Hideaway. It is an all-inclusive resort.
We were welcomed by the old neighborhood to an evening of reminiscing for his drop off.

Next stop... Santa Monica!