D.C. - Day 7

Quote of the Day: "Airplanes. Spaceships. I know. It's cool. Wuh-hoo." - Lauren


Day 7 was our last day in D.C. Dave and I were really sad about that. I'm not sure how sad anyone else was though. I think everyone else was ready to go home. Anyway, we started the morning off by going to Ford's Theatre.  Luckily, we found parking right by the theatre and got there right in time to get tickets.  Before we actually went into the theatre, we went into a museum that had some really cool Abraham Lincoln artifacts.

Kind of morbid, but this is the gun that John Wilkes Booth had that killed Abraham Lincoln

After wandering through the museum, we got to go into the actual theatre. It was actually a little disappointing, because we found out that after Lincoln was shot Ford's theatre closed down, and the government gutted the theatre and turned it into an office building! Can you believe that?? An office building! I was so mad when I heard about it. Then, many years later, they finally decided that it needed to be turned into a historical site, and they tried to rebuild it as much as they could to look like the original. So, the only things that were original were a George Washington photo, a couch and a chair. But, it looked pretty authentic still, and it was still neat to see the building.

The Presidential Booth

The picture of George Washington. This was placed outside of Lincoln's booth, and when John Wilkes Booth jumped out of Lincon's booth, his spur of his boot caught on the flag and nicked this picture, causing him to land at a weird angle and break his leg.

This was the actual house where Lincoln died. He was in such critical condition that they knew a trip to the hospital would have killed him.  They just wanted to transport him to a nearby place where he could pass away comfortably.

An outside view of Ford's Theatre

After Ford's theatre, we walked about 2 blocks to the H&M. We shopped there for a while, stopped at a few souvenir stores, and then walked down to the Air & Space Museum.  On our way to the museum, we walked through the sculpture gardens on our way to the wishing tree. We couldn't help but imitate some of these funny sculptures.  

The wishing tree was SO cool! It was right outside the Hirschorn Museum of Art.  You are able to write down a wish on a piece of paper that is provided for you, and then you get to tie your wish onto the tree. Every evening the wishes are taken down and sent to the International Peace Center in Iceland.  For someone who loves Disney and wishes and all that jazz, this was the perfect thing for me! There is an address for the International Peace Center that you can send your wishes to via mail, and so I am definitely going to do this with my Kindergarten class this school year.

How cool huh!?

We all made a wish

Next, we headed over to the Air & Space museum.  Dave couldn't WAIT to go in and was so so so excited. He was trying to get his family as excited as he was about the trip, and this is where the quote of the day comes in.  He was trying to get Lauren to be as pepped up and excited as he was.  He was going through a list of all the things that were in the museum and mid-sentence Lauren stopped him and said, "Airplanes. Spaceships. I know. It's cool. Wuh-hoo.", in a clearly non-emotional and non-caring voice. It was so funny just because it was such a stark contrast to what Dave was feeling.  Anyway, we walked into the museum and Dave started going NUTS. The entry to the museum is called the Landmarks of Flight or something like that, so we saw the Spirit of St. Louis, Sputnik, the lunar landing module from Apollo 11, and all sorts of other things. Dave was like a little boy in a candy store - running from plane to plane with his eyes as big as baseballs!

The lunar landing module. Look at how excited he is!

Sputnik

A V-2 German missile

The Spirit of St. Louis

They had a section on flight attendants throughout the years, and back in the day these were the requirements for stewardesses. I don't think I could ever be a stewardess!

This was possibly Dave's favorite section. They had all of the airplanes used in WWII from Japanese Zeroes to German planes and American planes. Dave was giving this German one a thumbs down!

This is obviously an American plane, because Dave is giving it a thumbs up!

A better picture of the Spirit of St. Louis

The first airplane that ever flew! This was what the Wright Brothers flew

The Air & Space Museum was awesome, and there were SOO many cool things to see.  Again, I wish we had more time to spend there, but there were TONS of people there and the family was getting pretty museum-ed out. I think if we would have stayed much longer we would have had a mutiny on our hands. :) I think it was safe to say that the family was done with D.C., so we made a quick stop at the Kennedy Center and then we went back to the hotel.

Just take a look at what everybody else was feeling like!

Kennedy Center. It was a gorgeous building, and we wish we could have watched a concert there. If we ever go back to D.C. we want to make sure to schedule that in.

This was a pretty creepy statue right outside our hotel. It's called The Awakening, and it was just so STRANGE!

They actually had a Peeps store, you know, like the marshmallow peeps you get at Easter? They had an entire store filled with Peeps merchandise. We all got free hats and I got the CUTEST shirt ever.

It wasn't very late, and Dave and I really wanted to spend our last evening at the National Mall, watching the sun go down and exploring some of the monuments at night. No one else but RaNae wanted to come with us, so the three of us drove into D.C. and spent the evening there.  We got some really, really awesome pictures and this may have been my second favorite part of the trip. It was really peaceful and really reverent, walking around these places in the evening. It will be a memory of the trip that I will never, ever forget.  The weather was perfect, and the city was absolutely beautiful.

Jefferson Memorial as the sun was going down

Some trees over the Potomac

View from the Jefferson monument

How pretty is that sunset!?

Waterfalls at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial

No photo shop editing! These are raw pictures from my camera!

The Vietnam Wall at night

USA!

We were getting a little creative the later and later it got!

He didn't do this on purpose, but he kind of looks like King Kong scaling the Washington Monument!

Cars zooming past in front of the Washington Monument

The next morning, we went to see Harry Potter and made a quick stop at the George Washington Masonic Memorial temple.  Dave really wanted to see this because I guess it plays a big part in the new Dan Brown book, The Lost Symbol. 

Dave at the Masonic temple

We LOVED our trip to D.C. It was a really spiritual experience for me.  I already believed that our country was not founded on accident, and that God played an enormous role in how our country has grown and developed throughout our history. But, seeing all of these sites in person and being able to feel the sacred spirit that is all around the city is a really reverent, special experience. I don't know how you can come and explore this city without feeling an overwhelming feeling that God had a hand in all of it. I sure did, and am grateful for the things that I learned and felt while in D.C. We are for sure going back some day. I hope even more than once! I truly love my country and am so proud and blessed to live in it.   

God Bless America!