This weekend we discovered DC! I know, we've only been here four years and in the final four or so weeks, are on a frantic tour of all the things on our "101 things to do before you leave list", this list, I hasten to add is separate to the "redirect the mail, pack boxes etc" list!
So, here in pictures is our weekend:
First stop - Breakfast with Barack!
Washington Memorial taken from the Lincoln Memorial, across the reflecting pond. Don't be fooled, look closely at the pond and you'll see the real temperatures we were contending with!!! I always wanted to see this exact picture in the flesh. It's the scene in Forrest Gump where Jenny runs through the pond to meet him at the Vietnam vets service (I think!) anyhoo, I had images of this place being all green and grassy - forgetting that just last Tuesday there had been hundreds of thousands of people tromping the grass flat at the inauguration (and hundreds and hundreds of port-a-potties were still remaining in rememberence of this event!!)
Mr Lincoln
....and the very second inaugural address. I love this, it shows the vastness of this piece of stonemasonry.
We found Connecticut!!
The White House from the top of the Washington Memorial. Pres. Obama's landing pad for the 'copter!
Not photographed was the Holocaust Museum that we visited. They have a truly moving exhibition specifically for children so we decided to go and learn about that too. We didn't visit the rest of the museum as we felt the children may have been a little disturbed by it at the moment.
One very tired and extremely cold girl atop an open top bus (yes, I know, January, but there's no such thing as cold weather, just bad clothing!!!) at the end of day one!
Day Two - TeamBee ready for the off!
First stop - the National Air and Space Museum. We managed to lose 3 hours here easily. Our favourite parts being the cool computer imagery that we could play with that showed satellite images of the world and we could zoom in on specific places and see the landformation and then see a night image and areas of population etc. (that was very cool, and I am beginning to sound like my eldest son!!!!!!!!), the simulation ride of a fighter plane taking off from an aircraft carrier and the hands on exhibition for the kids about Flight and Air!
The Hubble Space telescope (well, a full sized model!)
Three hours later (and many, many more photos) and we're back on the bus again: This time, the Pentagon from the Arlington Memorial bridge.
A hopeless photograph of Arlington Cemetery Va. There are literally hundred upon hundreds of white tombstones in this cemetery many for war veterans and others for the likes of Glen Miller and Matthew Henson and of course, the eternal flame lit by Jackie Kennedy for her husband John. This is an appalling picture and in the spring the whole place is awash with cherry trees, a gift from the Japanese.
Aha! The Ford Theatre, whereupon John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln on April 14th 1865 during a performance of "Our American Cousins". Apparently he waited for the funniest moment hoping that the shot would not be heard.
He was then taken (Lincoln, that is,) to this house here opposite the theatre, whereupon he died later the next day. There are quite a few gruesome tales to Washington to appeal to the macabre of mind!
The National Archives, home to the Declaration of Independence, the 1297 Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
Okay, so the intermission here is where we went to the International Spy Museum (no photos allowed............well, we were all spies for the afternoon!) - what fun that was. We all had to assume the identity of a spy and go through a "mission". The kids got to crawl along air ducts and try out bugging equipment etc etc and learn about some of history's most well known (they obviously didn't quite get it?!) spies. There are more spies in DC than in any other city in the world! Whether they are all there at one time remains to be seen, and I bet none of them look like Daniel Craig *sigh*
The US. Capitol complete with scaffolding still in place after Tuesday!
The Freedom bell outside Union Station.
We rounded off the weekend by going to an Ethiopean restaurant last night. It was a great experience, loved in particular by Master Beehive the younger as we were not given silverware but instead instructed to eat the foods from the platter with flat rolled bread (injera), therefore, for the first time in his life, he was allowed to eat his dinner with his hands without my nagging him to use his knife and fork - bliss!!!
All in all, the weekend was, according to Master Beehive the elder, "frickin' awesome." !!
Our first homework alongside our scrapbooks will be learning new adjectives to describe weekends of fantastic experiences!!!!!!!!!
1 comment:
Wow looks amazing. I can't wait till we get there and get a chance to see some of it.
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