Washington D.C.

A few weeks ago I got to go to Washington D.C. for sight seeing and then on to West Virginia for the graduation of Doug's sister Natalie and her husband John-Mark from law school. The next few posts will feature photos and thoughts from the trip.

We flew out of Salt Lake International Airport on Wednesday, May 9 at 5pm. We flew into Washington Dulles airport and went to our hotel. In the morning we drove in to Washington D.C. After crossing the Potomac River one of the first things I saw was the Washington Monument. Then I saw the Lincoln Memorial.

Lincoln Memorial from the car while driving

We parked along the mall right across the street from the Federal Reserve. As an economics graduate it was an exciting moment for me to see the FED. We started walking around the west end of the mall.

Us in front of the Washington Monument

Our first official stop was the Lincoln Memorial. This building is HUGE! And it's always full of people. I don't know how they get photographs of it without anyone there. It must be the middle of the night.

The Lincoln Memorial with a bunch of people on the steps

Honest Abe, possible Vampire Hunter

We were really there!

The Capitol and Washington Monument

Walking east we stopped by the Vietnam War Memorial. It was so sad to see all the men and women who died. I personally feel like Vietnam was a pointless war and it made me angry that so many people had their lives cut short.

The Vietnam War Memorial

A veteran finding his fallen friends and etching their names

We walked to the Washington Monument. I wish we could have gone inside but there was an earthquake a few months ago and it made the monument structurally unsound.

The Washington Monument

North of the Monument is the White House. We didn't go very close but I got a decent picture. According to the kids TV show Arthur, when the flag is up the President is home. After further research, I have found that Arthur was lying. The flag atop the White House is flying 24 hours a day.

The White House

We finally got to a Smithsonian! It was the Smithsonian of American History. We took a short break inside reading about Thomas Jefferson's slaves and seeing some artifacts from their homes. I was tired of walking at this point so I got a little lazy about taking pictures.

The Smithsonian of American History

Just so you know, the Capital is the city and the Capitol is the building. Oh the silliness of the English language.

The Capitol building in the Capital of Washington DC

Our next stop was the Holocaust Memorial Museum. There were so many horrifically interesting things I learned there. The things that happened in the Holocaust are truly terrible. The amount of control that the Nazi's had was astounding. I kept wondering how such a thing could be allowed to happen. If anyone resisted they were killed. There was so much fear that prevented people from taking a stand.

They don't let you take pictures inside the Holocaust Museum

It had been such a long day already but there was one more museum to see. Our final stop was the Smithsonian of Natural History. Among other things, I saw the Hope Diamond (but didn't get a good picture of it), other gems, a lot of cool insects, mummies, and prehistoric human skulls. It was a really neat museum.

The inner coffin of Tentkhonsu

This is me as a prehistoric human!

Even with a giant brow bone Doug is a pretty handsome neanderthal.

After such a long day it was great to eat dinner, go back to the hotel, and go to sleep. Have you ever been to Washington D.C.? What was your favorite thing there?

Stay tuned for  Friday's adventures at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, and Harpers Ferry.