Willard Family Weblog

DC – Day 7

I really wanted to just stay in bed this morning, but it wasn't in the cards. We had reservations to pick up the rental car at 9:00. Of course, it was closer to 9:20 before we picked it up – but it was still there, thankfully! Marcus ran downstairs, caught a cab, and brought the car back while the girls and I finished the packing and rolled the suitcases downstairs just as he was pulling up. Then the fun began. Let me clarify something – driving in downtown Washington DC is NOT easy. Our little tour book that we had on DC has an entire section titled, "Driving in DC – a very BAD idea." Because of this we just hit the Metro and cabs all week and had few problems, if any. But today we wanted to head out to Mount Vernon and we had to get to Baltimore, so we needed a car today. We hadn't had breakfast just yet, so we scooted back up Connecticut Avenue a few blocks to a McDonalds we had seen the day before. Kacy and I ran inside, got the food, while Marcus and Abby circled the block waiting on us. We handed the girls their breakfast items and then Marcus drove while I tried to navigate with the iPhone. We managed to get out of the city with very little confusion and no missed turns! We saw the Jefferson Monument (we didn't stop) as we drove over the 14^th Street bridge. That's as close as we had been to it all week. I hate that we missed it but Mr. Jefferson is just out there by himself and any time that we were in the general area, we were still a long walk away and a long walk back… so we just didn't make it. Oh well, it will give us something to do if we come back again sometime!

NOTE: Day 7 photos start here.

We arrived at Mount Vernon a little after 10:00. The drive down was so pretty – right alongside the Potomac, through Alexandria, VA. We arrived, had no problems parking, and headed up to the estate. Unlike most everything in the DC area, Mount Vernon is not free. It cost us just over $40 to tour the estate, but it was worth it. We watched a short movie on Washington, and then headed out to the estate. I wish I could verbalize it, but I guess I am just "worded out" tonight. But it was amazing. George Washington gave so much for our freedom and our country. Everything that we have available in history tells us that he was an incredibly upstanding, honest, loyal, and just man. He was a great military man who made some risky and very rewarding moves while in command. I was honored to be able to visit the estate that he called home.

This is the house that he worked so hard to turn into the beautiful estate that it is... to think about him standing outside his house looking out across the river – wow. It was moving. The view across the river was amazing. Interestingly, all of the land on the other side of the river is protected to preserve the view from Mount Vernon. Here's one photo…

Inside we made our way through the mansion, both the first and second floors. Unfortunately, like the other presidential residence that we toured on our trip, we couldn't take pictures inside the house. But we were free to take pictures everywhere else. We made our way through the grounds to all of the additional buildings on the property. We made our way down to the tombs of George and Martha, then down to the wharf right on the Potomac. On our way back up the hill we stopped off at the site of the "Old Tomb," which is where George and Martha were originally laid to rest. In his final will, he stated that because the Old Tomb was "in disrepair" and required significant improvements, he requested that a new tomb be built in a specified location and that their bodies be moved at that time. This was done around the late 1830s. Another interesting item that we learned today – the last private owner of Mount Vernon was also a member of the Confederate Army and apparently died during the war, given the dates on his tomb. His epitaph also stated that he was a strong Republican – which was interesting given how much George Washington was against political parties. President Washington's comments about political parties were dead-on. How nice it would be to have leaders who were more interested in doing what was right for our country and not concerned or caught up in the political party nonsense. What kind of world would we live in?? Anyway – sorry about that tangent there – you know how I get on those from time to time… We wrapped up our tour with a trip through the museum, where we saw many items owned by the Washington family, and then a trip through the Learning Center, where we got to see the President's dentures. Oddly enough, they were set in lead! All in all, it was a great visit to our first President's home. The girls loved it. I would recommend it to anyone.

After we left Mount Vernon, it was back to navigating with the iPhone. We made our way up to Baltimore without any problems and no missed turns! We managed to drive right up to our hotel. We are at an Embassy Suites tonight, and we couldn't be happier. The girls have their room and their TV, we have our room and our TV. There is a pool at this hotel – since our hotel in DC was renovating the pool there, the girls couldn't swim. We had our girls in the pool shortly after we checked in this afternoon. We ran out to have some dinner where I had some yummy crab cakes. We made our regular evening stop for my Diet Dr. Pepper. I managed to clean out the Rite Aid by the hotel in DC. Our last night there I actually had to send a boy to the back of the store to find me a couple of 20 oz. bottles to purchase. Over my stay I had purchased their only 2 liter and all of their 20 oz. bottles. Then tonight, at the convenience store we stopped at, there was honestly a sign hanging on the shelf with the Diet Dr. Peppers that said, "New! Try me!" I had to Facebook about that one. How in the world can this be "new?" I even speculated that if Yankees drank more Dr. Pepper, that might take care of those horrid accents they have up here! Granted, the Baltimore accent is not ANYTHING like the New York or, God help us, Boston accents, but it is definitely pronounced. The girls and I got tickled at dinner tonight because our waiter has the same exact accent as our hair dresser in San Antonio, who happens to be from Baltimore.

So now we are in for the night. Our flight tomorrow does not leave until 3:00 tomorrow, so we are going to sleep in, enjoy our yummy Embassy Suites breakfast in the morning, let the girls swim again, then head to the airport. We have a direct flight to SAT, so we should be home around 6:00 PM CDT. It will be nice to be home, but we have enjoyed a wonderful family vacation. We have made some wonderful memories and we have been able to see some fascinating things. I have loved every minute of it. I hope you have enjoyed reading our updates.

Until next time – Hugs!

PS – did you know that Martha Washington was only 4'11"? We had no idea!

DC – Day 6

**NOTE: Day 6 photos start here in the photo album. Again, use the "Next" button to scroll through to the photos.**

This was my night to share a bed with Abby – that kid is something else. Maybe I will pack Benadryl the next time I have to share a bed with her. J She can crawl all over me. I found myself sore in a few spots today and I'm not sure if it is because I overdid something or if I just took an elbow or two during the night.

So after we got ready, we wandered out to the zoo. It was great. We had seen panda bears at the Memphis Zoo, but this exhibit was much better. We got some good photos of the bears and the display was very informative. The National Zoo has three pandas – two parents and a growing (almost grown) baby. I think that panda bears are just the cutest, most lovable looking creatures. The girls were just eating them up.

We saw all of the regular normal stuff that you see at the zoo – but everything here was just so nice and clean and well presented. The zoo has a baby girl gorilla who was still hanging on to her mom. I overheard a zoo volunteer informing someone that the mommy gorilla has just recently let the daddy gorilla even approach the baby. I was able to get a couple of snapshots of the baby – I will leave out how I had to lean down and stick my camera lens between two guys' legs. Hey – whatever it takes to get the shot! Unfortunately I was shooting through glass, which is always difficult.

The girls enjoyed the zoo a lot. I liked it, too… with one exception. I absolutely DETEST the stupid reptile house. Hate it. I would rather just sit outside than set foot in that nasty place. But my kids love it and so does my husband. I'm telling you, snakes just give me the willies – always have, always will. Those things are of the devil. But we have to go wandering through a building FILLED with the nasty things. UGH. I didn't take ONE picture of a snake. I was OK with turtles and some lizards. But no snakes. I wouldn't even get close to the glass on their exhibits. The girls and Marcus were just hanging all over the displays – oohing and ahhhing at all of the demon reptiles. I just let 'em. I hid behind poles and stayed far away. I couldn't wait to get out. Of course, afterwards when I asked the girls their favorite part of the zoo – both of them said the reptile house. What-evah. You can just keep on going in there with your daddy. Mama is D-O-N-E with that.

After the zoo, we headed back down Connecticut and ate at a little local restaurant. I love walking through this part of DC and seeing all of the older houses and apartment buildings. I love the architecture – even though I know nothing about architecture. I just know that these buildings are eye candy.

We turned in early for the evening. We are relaxing around the hotel room. I'll start packing shortly. We are renting a car tomorrow morning and heading out to Mount Vernon. If we have time we will stop at Arlington National Cemetery, too. From there it is off to Baltimore for the evening, then a direct flight home on Tuesday afternoon. We plan on just taking tomorrow night and Tuesday to relax, swim (since we having had a stupid swimming pool at this hotel), and enjoy our last hours of vacation. I am looking forward to Mt. Vernon tomorrow – I'm sure the girls will love it. It will be great.

I have lots of photo editing to get to. As of today, I have taken 539 photos. I promise not to make you look at every one of them… J

OK – more later! Hugs!

DC – Day 5

NOTE: Day 5 Photos start here (use the "Next" option on the left side of the screen to continue scrolling through the photos).

This was Saturday of our week here in DC… just one more full day in town before we head to Baltimore on Monday. We had to make the most of it! Our day was scheduled to start with a 10:00 AM tour of Ford's Theater.

I think Abby had been looking forward to this since we landed. She is just terribly fascinated with all things related to President Lincoln, so this was like the ultimate stop for her. We had our tickets to the 10:00 tour. We arrived a little early and went ahead and got in line. We weren't sure how this worked because when Marcus was here the one time he was able to visit DC he was able to walk right in to the theater, sit in the balcony to look across into the booth, then walked straight in to the Peterson house across the street where Lincoln died. But after the renovation of the property a few years back, they now have scheduled tour times. We went ahead and got in line, which worked out well… although it was a lengthy wait and they certainly didn't start loading the theater right at 10:00… they were a little late. Not to be nit-picky or anything… As we went in, they filled up the rows on the left side of the theater, then resumed with the center section. We ended up on the front row, center stage, which totally made Abby's day. We couldn't see inside the balcony very well, but we were just fine.

We were then able to listen to a US Park Ranger give a detailed recap of the events of the night of April 14, and morning of April 15, 1865. It was certainly informative and we all enjoyed it very much. Kacy has been rather captivated by the treasonous act that took President Lincoln's life, and this was very educational for her. After the talk from the Ranger we headed outside and stood in a nice long line for the Peterson House.

This house is located directly across from Ford's Theater and is where President Lincoln was taken after he was shot. We saw three rooms in the house, including the front room where Mary Lincoln spent the majority of her time there that evening, between visits back to see the dying President. We saw the dining area, where impromptu Cabinet meetings were held to prepare notification to VP Johnson and make other arrangements necessary given what was transpiring that night. And finally, we were taken to the back bedroom where President Lincoln spent his last hours. Abby was so quiet – and in awe. It was special for her.

From Ford's Theater we headed over to visit the last Smithsonian museum on our list – the National Museum of Natural History. We saw fish, fish fossils, dinosaur skeletons, the Hope Diamond, and artifacts from early Western cultures, including a real mummy. Here is the Hope Diamond.

It was all very fascinating. All in all, the Smithsonian Museums were fabulous. I think that we all agreed that the Museum of American History was probably our favorite of the ones we visited. We very much enjoyed all of the museums, but this one had so much information on items that we have always found interesting. It was definitely my favorite! J

We wrapped up our Smithsonian visit with a quick run through the Castle, where we were greeted with the "Pile of Loot" that was shown in the "Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian" movie. It was fun – we took lots of pictures.

After we finished up our visit to The Mall, we wandered by the National Archives. It just didn't seem right to me to spend an entire week in DC and not make it by to see the three most important documents in our Nation's history. So we stood in a long hot line to see the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. The line moved slowly, but it was worth it. The Declaration has faded so much that you can barely read the document. I did manage to get a few things photographed.

John Hancock's signature…

The Constitution was in much better shape than the Declaration. When I pointed this out to Marcus, he reminded me that the Constitution is 10 years younger… LOL. I don't think that 10 years makes THAT much difference in when a document is 220+ years versus 230+ years! I read somewhere earlier this week that once the Declaration was signed, it was not really revered for several years. I wonder if, during this time, it just wasn't really taken care of very well and that lead to the more advanced deterioration of the document. Regardless, it was amazing and I was just in awe of being able to view these items. It was totally worth every minute that we had to stand in line. And it was worth me getting in trouble because my autofocus light shined on the last page of the Constitution. Good thing I knew how to throw that camera into manual focus mode! J

After that, we caught what was probably our last Metro ride for our trip. The girls have really enjoyed riding the Metro – and it is very handy, I must admit. We headed back to Dupont Circle where we stopped for dinner… which was actually ice cream. Do you think the girls were pumped? LOL. We sometimes do that on vacation – our eating schedules get all out of whack due to eating late breakfasts, then a late lunch/early dinner. So we will just snack late in the evening. We stopped at a neighborhood ice cream joint and it was pretty good! After ice cream we were back at the hotel in no time and we were all B-E-A-T! We all showered and relaxed for the evening. "The Haunted Mansion" was on TV, so we all curled up to watch that. I don't think I made it through the first 15 minutes before I was sound asleep. I have a feeling that returning to work on Wednesday is going to be rougher than I thought! We probably should have taken off one extra day just for "recovery!"

So that was our Saturday! We decided that the National Zoo will be a good outing on Sunday. It has been nice not having a big schedule on vacation – and we have still managed to see quite a bit of stuff.

Until next time – Hugs!

DC – Day 4

We took our sweet time today getting around. Marcus and Kacy could honestly sleep until noon if the rest of us would just be quiet… but Abby and I refuse to do that. It was my night to sleep with Abby last night and, true to form, she was EVERYWHERE while she was sleeping. I kept having to push her back over or tell her to get back on her side. *sigh* I get to sleep with Kacy tonight, and I am really happy about that! Anyway – Abby and I finally started making noises, turned on the TV, and opened the drapes around 10:30. We were out the door by 11:15 and stopped for breakfast (which was really lunch food!) on our way to the museums. Once out of the restaurant, we hit the Metro. We are really getting good at navigating this thing now. I think we might even be ready to try a line transfer – we'll see! Abby even declared today, "I'm becoming a PRO at this!" We hopped off at the stop nearest the Smithsonian area and headed to the National Air and Space Museum. It was SOOOO much fun. Now, I have two girls and they both enjoyed it, but I would think that this would just be a little boy's dream museum! Lots of stuff to see, lots of things to learn, lots of hands on items. We really enjoyed it all. I took lots of pictures and they will be loaded in our DC Vacation album on the blog. I think one of my favorite items to see at the Air & Space Museum were the Apollo modules they had on display.

How amazing to think that our real American astronaut heroes returned to Earth in those small things. And you could see the burn marks all over the lead side of the craft. So cool. There were airplanes hung all over the facility, displays on all of the wars that involved air warfare, starting with World War I. We saw a replica of the Wright Brothers plane – which of course my girls only recognized because "Amelia Earhart" flew it in "Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian."

We saw the medals awarded to General Doolittle – and we recognized that name from the "Pearl Harbor" movie – he was played by Alec Baldwin. We saw John Glenn's space suit and our own images on a thermal heat camera. It was fun.

After about 4 hours at the Air & Space Museum, we headed directly across the mall to the National Museum of Art. While not at the TOP of my list of museums to see, I didn't mind going. I still have disturbing memories of the Art History class I took as a sophomore at the U of A. Horrid class – still not sure how I made an A. I slept through the majority of the classes. I took this particular class with Marcus's roommate, Shane. He is actually the guy who introduced us. Anyway – I was sitting beside Shane one day in the lecture hall in Old Main. I had managed to get comfortable in those wooden chairs and had just nodded off when he had this stupid thought that it would be funny to jab me in the rib cage with a pencil. I jumped straight up and let out a yelp that was heard for a good 8 rows around me. UGH. Shane just fell in the floor laughing – the punk. Anyway – to this day when I am surrounded by too many paintings, I tend to get a big drowsy and struggle to stay awake… But, since we arrived at the museum at 4:40 and it closed at 5:00, we only had 20 minutes to look around. I managed to stay awake the entire time! We did manage to see a nice collection of Monet paintings that were very pretty… just don't ask me to tell you which ones. There were a couple of rooms of Gilbert Stewart, who many early presidents and other prominent individuals. We saw several sculptures and an exhibit on the designing of the Lincoln Memorial. We did pretty well with only 20 minutes! We may go back – we'll just have to see.

After we were shoo'd out of the art museum, we found a nice little fountain to sit beside while we pondered our next move. We finally decided that we would go eat dinner. Although we had enjoyed an order of McDonald's fries at the Air & Space Museum, we found ourselves ready for a real meal. We played with the Urban Spoon app on our phones for a few minutes when it hit the ESPN Zone. We had remembered talking about going there a few days earlier, so we walked the seven or eight blocks over to the restaurant… only to find that the game "Zone" part of the restaurant was closed for the night! UGH! We decided to stay and eat anyway and the food was good. We took our time heading back to the Metro because the rate goes down at 7:00 PM… and that saves us $0.30 per person! J When we got off of the Metro at our stop at Dupont Circle, we took the wrong exit and ended up coming up right beside Krispy Kreme… where we decided that we really should just go ahead and get donuts to have for breakfast in the morning… such a hard decision to make. We walked the remaining four or five blocks back to the hotel toting a big Krispy Kreme bag.

Now – one thing that we have learned during our stay here is that we are staying at the very hotel where Ronald Reagan was shot… at the Washington Hilton. We had no idea until we saw a film in the American History museum a few days ago. But, true to the top of the line Hilton fashion, they nickel and dime you for EVERYTHING. UGH. Now don't get me wrong – we stay at Hilton hotels a lot when we go on the road – but we typically stay at their "lesser" brands. Homewood Suites is our favorite because it has a hide-a-bed for the girls, a separate room for Marcus and I, two TVs, and a small kitchen setup. It is perfect for us. But we got a really good deal on this hotel and it is just a mile from the White House. In case you weren't aware, hotels that are actually IN Washington DC are NOT cheap. We prepaid for our room here and got a very good price. Of course, we booked our stay back in February. I checked the website again in May to look over a few things only to find out that the pool is CLOSED for the entire summer for renovations! So we are now staying at a hotel on our vacation with NO pool. Of course, this hotel also charges for internet access, which is why our blog posts won't go up until we return home. And the thing that really just pushed me right on over the edge – I have to PAY to use the workout room! I have to pay $10 a day to use the workout room. SERIOUSLY? I just hate this stuff. So yesterday I started gearing up for our mid-week laundry that I have to do when we are on vacation. Last year it wasn't a problem because we had such an awesome room at Saratoga Springs Resort at WDW that included a washer & dryer (thanks again, Cousin Michael!). Well, I finally learned that there is no self-service laundry at the Washington Hilton. But they are happy to launder your items for you – it's just $6.50 a shirt. WHAT-EVER. So when we returned tonight, I stopped at the concierge desk to find out what my options were. She let me know that I could take our dirty clothes to the nearby Courtyard by Marriott and, subject to availability, I should be able to wash my clothes there. I just needed to let them know that I was staying at the Hilton across the street. So I loaded up a suitcase full of nasty clothes and toted it straight across Connecticut Avenue to the competitor hotel. And that, my friends, is where I am right now while I am typing up our daily trip report… in the hallway of the Courtyard outside the coin-operated laundry. I'm in the hallway because there are no electrical outlets in the laundry room. Oops – hang on… a dryer just kicked off… OK – just what I figured. It wasn't dry yet. The other one will kick off soon, so I might as well wrap this up.

Tomorrow morning we are scheduled to tour Ford's Theater at 10:00. I'm going to have to roll Kacy & Marcus out of bed early tomorrow! Until next time – Hugs!

DC – Day 3

**Before we get in to today's post, I need to mention that I am not sure what is happening when I upload my photos via the Microsoft Office blogging tool – but it totally messes them up. Please refer to the Washington DC 2009 photo album on the left side of the blog to see the crisp photos that I am always striving to produce!**

On our agenda today – our Capitol Tour! We arrived at Capitol Hill and made our way around to the Visitors Center, which only opened in 2008. I have to say that it is very impressive. Of course, the worst part was just getting there this morning… the humidity was BRUTAL this morning – and by the time we made it into the Visitors Center, I was honestly dripping in sweat. I had even sweat through the back of my shirt! I know – ewwww. But it didn't stop me from enjoying every minute! We started out by meeting Zach, a friendly young man that I had been working with from Congressman Ross's office. He had everything we needed for our tours and pointed us in the right direction. We had a little time to spare, so we wandered through the Exhibition Hall in the Visitors Center, which was very educational. It was full of great documents – including handwritten items from so many great Americans – Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln… so cool! When 11:00 AM rolled around we got in line for our tour. It started with a short film on the dual house system that our government uses and the history behind the Congress. Then it was time for the tour. We were first led to the Rotunda, which was phenomenal.

We learned that off of her base and pedestal, the Statue of Liberty can fit in the Rotunda and still have over 25 feet of room above her. We saw many famous paintings and some of the statues that are housed in the Capitol. Here is the great Ronald Reagan…

Each state is allowed to have two statues representing two famous individuals from the individual states. Of course, we weren't familiar with either of the Arkansas statues… but we knew the Texas guys – Stephen Austin and Sam Houston. Easy enough. From the Rotunda we headed into the original House Chamber. The House worked in this room until it moved into its current room (I can't remember when!). But several representatives that worked in this very room went on to become President. For each of those individuals, the location of their desk was forever recognized with a gold plate on the floor. I'll have a few of those pictures in the photo album on the left side of the blog. We also participated in a very cool "Whisper Test" near the location of John Quincy Adams' desk. Interestingly enough – JQA was the only president who later returned to Capitol Hill as a representative. Anyway – our tour group stood where Adams' desk was located while our tour guide went across the room, covered her mouth and whispered – and we heard her! Amazing – and it has to do with the shape of the ceiling in the room. Our last stop was a room located directly below the Rotunda called "The Crypt." This room houses several other statues as well as many columns that help support the weight of the Rotunda floor and the dome above the Rotunda. The room was originally designed to be the final resting place for George Washington. His remains were to be housed below this room in a marble room in the basement. However, both his family and his final will requested that he be left at Mount Vernon, so he was never moved to the Capitol. I have to say – I think I like the idea of him resting in peace out at Mount Vernon instead of trying to rest in peace underneath a structure that can be the location of many ugly political party fights – something he was adamantly against. I think it all worked out like it should…

After our tour we decided that we would use the fabulous pass that Congressman Ross's office arranged for us that allowed us to go into observation area in the House Chamber. We started that way, but we were told that the line was VERY long, so we went to eat instead. Now – let's chat about this for a minute… we are in an economic recession and the government can't get money in the door fast enough to spend it… we just spend it without thought or care where it is going to come from… well, I have the solution. The stupid cafeteria in the Capitol should be able to fund the National Debt! Because, my dear friends (a little John McCain there), this is what $40.70 will get you in the Capitol cafeteria…

Pardon the quality of the photo as I was really just trying to document this amazing phenomenon. Let me give you a rundown of the items on our trays here… that's two hot dogs, two bags of chips, one garden burger, one container of yogurt, one order of chicken tenders with fries, three sodas, and one orange juice. Amazingly, the ketchup was free. And that represents $40.70 worth of Capitol food. Don't believe me – here's the stinkin' receipt…

After our overpriced lunch, we headed back up and got in line for the House chambers – again. The line moved slowly, but it was so neat when we finally made it up there! The House was debating a bill on funding to Pakistan. It was very interesting to watch the formality of the debate and the members go back and forth. I won't get into all of the politics, but I will say that I honestly almost fell out of my chair and rolled on the floor when one of the democrats said something to the effect of "The American Public has the right to expect that we are spending their tax money in their best interest!" Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Isn't that a convenient argument NOW? Maybe we can go back and talk about all of this stinkin' stimulus money that we just blew out the window recently! Well – I was going to TRY and not bring up the politics… but I wasn't exactly successful… oh well! I thoroughly enjoyed watching this and could have sat there for hours taking in the proceedings, but the rest of the family wasn't quite as impressed – mainly the girls – so we headed out after about 30 minutes or so. We finished up making our way through the Exhibit Hall and then it was time to go. We hated to leave because we had so much fun and learned so much, but we had been there for FIVE hours!

We made our way out around the Capitol and took a few pictures…

then went over to the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress buildings. Amazing stuff to see – including Jefferson's collection that he sold to the Library of Congress after the fire of 1814. Of course, you can't touch the books –but they do have them out on display… where you can't take photographs… which I understand, but don't like! We made our way through several exhibits, then headed out. We walked down in front of the Supreme Court building, took a few pictures…

then made our way to Union Station for dinner. We picked up couple of souvenirs for the girls, including a hat for Abby that says, "Future President." At that point we headed back to the hotel for the evening. It was a fun day and very educational. LOVED it all!

More museums scheduled for tomorrow – looks like it could be a rainy day…

DC - Day 2, Part 2

After lunch we headed back to the mall and made our way to the Washington Monument. We were unable to secure tickets to go up in the Monument because I didn't want to schedule anything that could potentially interfere with our tour of the White House – which was not able to be scheduled until the week before our trip. But we still enjoyed walking around and looking at it. The views from the Monument to the Capitol and then over to the Lincoln Memorial were fabulous. I had fun taking pictures (imagine that!). I'll post those in the photo album, also. Here is my favorite… (I totally admit to photoshopping the sky to make it blue… it was really gray out that day, and I had fun playing with this)

As we made our way from the Washington Monument to the World War II Memorial, I started receiving text messages, emails, and Facebook messages asking if we were OK. I couldn't figure out why everyone was asking so I flipped over to FoxNews and learned that there had been a shooting at the Holocaust Museum just a little while earlier and a security guard had been shot. We saw the time of the shooting and remembered seeing a lot of police cars in the area around us, but figured that was just how things are in DC. We were actually in the American History Museum when the shooting occurred, so we probably missed the big rush of police in the area. The Holocaust Museum is on the other side of the mall from the American History Museum, and then down a ways… so we weren't even really that close. It was terribly sad to hear that this happened, but we were happy to be very safe and away from all of that.

After we stopped at the World War II Memorial, which was very pretty and peaceful with the fountains, we made our way down beside the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial. Abby kept joking around saying that she wanted to see the Giant Squid (it was really an octopus) that was shown being dumped into the reflecting pool by Ben Stiller in the second "Night at the Museum" movie. We decided to walk right beside the reflecting pool instead of on the paved pathways that lead up to the memorial. Well, actually I decided – ya' know – so I could take picture along the way. What we ended up doing was dodging goose poop. There are a TON of geese that swim around in the pool and apparently they are all very well fed and very regular. There was poop from one end of that pool to the other. And for the record, goose poop isn't like bird poop or pigeon poop… nope. It's like small dog poop. And GREEN. YUK. It was EVERYWHERE. We had to keep hollering at Abby to watch where she stepped. So note to any readers who might be thinking about a DC trip. Stay on the pavement when close to the reflecting pool. You have been warned.

Of course, once we made it to the Lincoln Memorial, Abby was just beside herself. This was, if you remember, where she wanted to be when she was in tears over our surprise Disney trip in 2008. We were very happy to finally get her here. We took pictures, walked around, sat on the stairs and enjoyed the view for a while. It was great and I was very proud to be an American citizen. Let me clarify this – I am ALWAYS proud, but it was a nice moment to reflect on it. Here is a cute one from the Lincoln Memorial…

From the Lincoln Memorial, we made our way over to the Vietnam Memorial, which is very nearby. This… well, I'm struggling for words right now. I was just born when this war was wrapping up. I'm going on sketchy history recall here, but I believe that Saigon fell before I was one year old. I did not live through this war. I didn't have friends who were sent over to fight in this war. I didn't have to try and make sense of this war. It was history by the time I was aware of it. But I have lived in the world that exists after this war. And not getting into the politics of conflicts we have engaged in since then, I have lived through a war, and am living in the middle of two wars right now. I have had friends go over to fight in these wars and other "conflicts." I've even had friends not come home. I have friends who have had husbands sent over to fight. I have celebrated the return of these brave individuals. And while it breaks my heart each and every time a deployment touches someone that I know, I am thankful to the Lord every day that there are men and women who will stand up and defend our country. Defend our freedoms. Die for our freedoms. I'm thankful that we live in a country where this is a choice that individuals are allowed to make. And I thank each and every one of those individuals for making the decision to lay it all on the line for this country. So, as I'm walking up to this memorial – a memorial that I have seen pictures of so many times – I start to see the names. I explained to the girls that the names spanned the entire length of this wall and that these names represented men and women who had died in this war. What I wasn't prepared for was the odd thought that struck me as soon as I could read the names… the font was so small. I thought, "Oh Lord – how many people are here on this wall?" It caught me off guard – totally. It was a random thought – but it struck me hard. We continued down the wall and Marcus and the girls eventually drifted ahead of me. I wanted to try and get some pictures – maybe a picture that would make this all seem OK. Some picture that would capture this for me. As I closed in on some items that had been left at the base of the wall, I saw an American flag badge. That is what I wanted to take a picture of. I jockeyed into position – starting to kneel down to get just the right angle. Suddenly there were several people around me, moving in front of me. I thought, "HELLO – can't you see me trying to get this shot?" I stood up and started to move around – and thankfully I didn't give my typical frustrated HUFF. Because it was then that I noticed that the woman was holding a notebook in her hand with numbers on it… numbers that represented a particular place on this sacred wall. I moved back and out of the way as quickly as I could. She was with two other men and two children. I tried not to watch because I knew what would happen if I did… but I couldn't help it. I watched her locate the section they were looking for, then, as she referred back to her notebook for the next coordinate, she counted the rows from the top, touching each row along the way. When she found the specific row, she started to count in from the left side… until she found the name they were looking for. She pointed the name out to the older man in the group. He stepped forward to the wall and reached up, tentatively, and softly brushed his hand across the name. As the tears came to his eyes, they also came to mine. This name represented someone to him. I will never know if it was a friend, a brother, an uncle – but it was someone important to HIM. Every name on that wall was important to someone. It was someone's child, parent, sibling, loved one. Some of them made the choice to go. Some of them had no choice but to go. And this entire wall represented each child, parent, sibling, and loved one that did not come home. This was not my moment at all… but I will never forget it. I will remember that man's hand stroking that treasured name for as long as I live. I am thankful that God let me see this.

As I walked away to catch up with my family, I tried to wipe away the tears. Thankfully I didn't hit the "ugly cry" stage while I was there – although I have managed to hit it while I sit here typing up this entry! Abby – always so delicate with her words, saw me wiping my tears away and hollers, "Mom, are you crying?" Ahh – Abby. Marcus referred to her mindset today as "AFAL" – Anything For A Laugh. I was thankful that she did make me laugh. I was thankful that I have the freedom to laugh! It was a nice adjustment back to the world around me. At this point we were just dog-tired and forever away from a red line Metro station, so we caught a cab and headed back to the hotel. It was a glorious day!

 

DC - Day 2, Part I

Today started out early – again! Actually, for me, yesterday blended right in to today… Our hotel room has two double beds, so we decided to sleep one parent with one child, and I got Abby. That kid was all over the bed all night long. She was sound asleep and was still wiggling all over the place! At one point I sat up and hollered, "Sweet Jesus! Be STILL!" And it worked… for about 30 minutes. I was able to string together sleep in 45 minute segments throughout the night and that was about it. So when 5:45 rolled around this morning, I decided to not wait on the alarm clock and just go ahead and get up. No one could kick me in the shower. I rolled everyone else up around 6:30 and we were out the door at 7:00, headed to the White House. We arrived with PLENTY of time to spare and found our spot to meet Congressman Mike Ross. We ended up standing next to a family from Bentonville who was waiting to meet Congressman John Boozman, which we found to be pretty neat. After a short wait we saw both Congressmen arrive at the same time. We debated about calling the Hogs so that the gentlemen would know where they needed to go, but decided to show a little restraint. We all visited for a few minutes and then got checked in for our self-guided tour through the White House. It was nice to get to meet two Congressmen from the great state of Arkansas and we are so thankful to Congressman Ross for taking time to meet us up there. Congressman Ross also had one other visitor that he checked in for the White House tour. It was a mom whose son is paging up here for three weeks – such an honor! After we visited for a little while, we learned that her son is a worship leader for the senior youth group at FSBC! That's our old church! She also knows some of the staff that I worked with before moving who came from Camden. It is such a small world!

The tour was so much fun. It just killed me that we weren't allowed to take pictures! L We saw so many neat photographs of many administrations. We saw official portraits of presidents and first ladies. We saw china from multiple administrations. We were able to peek into the Vermeil Room and the Library on the bottom floor. We made our way up to the second floor and into the East Room, which is the room used for most of the prime time press conferences held at the White House. We also saw the long red carpeted hallway where the president walks on his way to said press conferences. Pretty cool stuff! The East Room was still set up from a function there yesterday afternoon and was scheduled to be used again this afternoon, following the tours. And the chandeliers in this room – GORGEOUS. The East Room is home to the famous Washington portrait that was bravely rescued by Dolly Madison when the British burned the White House in 1814. The East Room is also where two presidents laid in state – Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. The next stop was the green room, which was used as a dining room by Thomas Jefferson. We saw a coffee urn that belonged to John Adams. Next we made our way into the Blue Room, which held a very helpful and informative tour guide. Here we learned that Grover Cleveland was the only president to be married in the White House and the ceremony was performed in the Blue Room. Additionally, the original furniture for the Blue Room was sold off by a president (UGH – I can't remember which one!) at an estate sale in Georgetown. Later, Jacqueline Kennedy took the necessary measures to make sure that this never happened again and also put forth an effort to locate the sold furniture. Of the original 53 pieces, 8 have been returned to the White House. The tour guide suggested we keep an eye out at garage sales for the others… We made our way into the Red Room today, which is still used regularly for entertaining. Finally we made our way into the State Dining Room. Beautiful. The ceilings throughout the White House were amazing. The carvings in the moldings were meticulous. I can see it all in my head – but I can't post a picture! As we made our way out of the White House, we saw a portrait of Bill Clinton and one of George H.W. Bush. Of course, I was kind of wondering where W was, but before I could ask, an apparent fellow conservative behind us piped up and asked the security guard where the portrait was of George W. It was here that we learned that his portrait will go up in the entry way one year after he has been out of office. It will be hung where Bill Clinton's portrait is now and Bill Clinton will move across the foyer to the current location of George H.W. Bush, who will be permanently located somewhere else in the White House. The tradition is for the previous two presidents to hang in the foyer and rotate out… we thought that was pretty neat. There were also four years cast in marble on the floor of the entry way. If I remember correctly, it was 1792 – the year the White House construction began, 1817 – when it was rebuilt following the British attack, 1902 (I could be wrong on this one) – when the West Wing was added, and then 1952 – when the facade was added. We ended our tour under the large overhang shown in my picture taken yesterday. See below. We learned this morning that the storm that blew through yesterday actually knocked over a tree on this side of the house. The article that our neighbor sent us via email indicated that they would remove the tree on Wednesday (today) and turn it into mulch. Well, they were doing just that when we left! Now, if you have a tree fall in your yard one afternoon, are you always able to get someone out the very next day to take care of it? Nope.

After our tour, we found some breakfast and then made our way back to the hotel. This time we decided that we would figure out the Metro system. We were thankful to find a very helpful Metro attendant who taught us how to use the machines to purchase our fare cards. We guessed on the station closest to the hotel and overshot it by quite a bit! Thankfully the iPhones have a pretty good GPS on them and we were able to walk back to the hotel. It was a very nice stroll that actually took us by a few embassies, including the Russian Embassy. Once back at the hotel we CRASHED for about 2 hours. Two early mornings (and very little sleep) had finally just caught up with us.

When we finally got around we headed back out to the museums. We rode the Metro down to the Metro Station (original, huh?) and made our way over to the mall. We also had a little help here from another helpful Washington DC SAM person (I can't remember exactly what that stands for – but it is something like Safety and M??? – I hate not having internet where I can just Google stuff as I type!). She was laughing at us walking out of the Metro Station looking at the GPS on our iPhones. We were happy to provide her with some free entertainment for the afternoon. Once we arrived at the Smithsonian, we went into the National Museum of American History. Totally fascinating! We told the girls that we would not be able to see everything in every museum – but we did head straight upstairs to the display on Abraham Lincoln. Abby was in HEAVEN. It was very informative and we all enjoyed it. I took a TON of pictures, but will not post them all here. Instead, please check the Washington DC 2009 photo album here on the blog where you can flip through the pictures at your leisure. We then wandered over to exhibits on the American Presidency, American Wars, the First Ladies, and a few other miscellaneous things. We thoroughly enjoyed it – but we had to leave to find food. Here are a couple of my favorite things that we saw in the museum…

The ruby red slippers from "The Wizard of Oz"… these went down the original yellow brick road!

Loved this change of address notice – it appears to be an ash tray. Neat announcing that your address has changed to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave… in case someone missed that you had just been elected president!

This is a little souvenir from the Watergate Building break-ins… They SERIOUSLY wanted in this cabinet! And this cabinet contributed to bringing down a presidency.

These are pieces of steel from one of the Twin Towers.

And I LOVED the First Lady exhibit. This gown belonged to Martha Washington. Did you know she was only 4'11"? George was 6'2"! Quite a size difference!

The remainder of June 10 will be posted tomorrow!! I typed it all up in one sitting, but it was starting to blow up my little blog poster here in Microsoft Word, so I had to break it up in to two entries! Sorry!! Until next time – Hugs!

DC – Day 1

Our day started out VERY early today… I rolled out of bed at 4:45 to get me ready and everyone else up. Abby was NO problem this morning… I tiptoed into her bedroom and said softly, "Abby, it's time to go to Washington D.C." She tore out of that bed like I had told her the house was on fire! Blankets went flying across the bed and into the floor, stuffed animals bounced off the walls… it was hilarious! She has been so excited about this trip, so when the time finally arrived, she was more than ready. Kacy, my preteen, even made it out of bed without too much trouble. I was thankful for that one. J

We caught the 7:05 flight out of SAT to Midway in Chicago. We had a short layover there before our flight into Dulles. While we waited a shot a few snapshots of the girlies. First, the poser…

And next our little cell phone monster… She just HAD to call Darby when we landed in Chicago! It couldn't wait!

Our flight to DC was nice, even with a little of the tummy-tickling turbulence we hit. Once we landed and claimed our luggage, we headed out and found a taxi. We weren't terribly aware of how far out Dulles was from the downtown DC area, but we enjoyed the ride. It was quiet and we were all tired. I think we could have fallen asleep if we weren't so interested in our surroundings. Once we crossed the Potomac and hit a curve, we were able to catch a glimpse of the Washington Monument. I was afraid that Abby might just wet herself right there in the back seat of the cab! Heavens! By the way, this was the girls' first ever taxi ride. At least it was a nice taxi. Marcus asked Kacy afterwards if the cab ride was everything she thought it would be. Her response? "No. It was clean!" Here is a pic of the girls in the "clean" taxi…

    

Don't you just love Kacy's sunglasses? I think she looks fabulous in them. Marcus makes fun and says they are too big for her head. LOL! I'm glad she is a good natured kid! I'm sure this will all land her in therapy one day, though!

After we arrived at our hotel and were able to get unpacked, we headed out for a quick run to the White House. We have a tour scheduled for Wednesday morning and wanted to have an idea of where it is we need to be. So off we went on foot, straight down Connecticut just over a mile. We stopped briefly in Dupont Circle and took a picture or two…

Then we hoofed it on down Connecticut to the White House. We thought this sign was pretty cool… "White House Appointments"

And finally, Abby's future residence… according to her…

Marcus and I watched the HBO Miniseries "John Adams." It was very good and we enjoyed all of it. I remember when we watched it they had a scene that showed what the White House looked like while being built. It sat out in the middle of a field of dirt with workers coming and going on foot, by horse, or by wagon. There was NOTHING else in sight. It was pretty cool. I couldn't help but remember that scene when we were standing here today in our Capitol – surrounded by all of this hustle and bustle and power. It was one tiny glimpse into what our country might have been like over 200 years ago. And this is what we have today… Without getting into all of the political stuff (which we all KNOW I can get wound up about!), it is pretty amazing. I was very proud to be standing there and sharing this with my girls.

Here's one to prove that the girls truly were there…

Then the Treasury Department right next door…

We turned the corner down 15^th street and continued on to find our entrance for Wednesday morning. Once we located it, we continued on, heading towards the Washington Monument. We stopped at one stop light and this was our view…

Again – pretty powerful! Don't you also love the beautiful orange barrels there in the bottom of the photo? I thought it really added that urban feel! Haha! Next, we wandered past the Commerce Department. I loved this over the entrances…

And it was about this time that we turned around and looked back down 15^th street to find these beauties floating in VERY quickly…

These clouds came out of NOWHERE! At first these clouds reminded me of clouds that we used to stop and watch when I lived in Oklahoma and Arkansas… but then we thought that it might just blow over… but it DIDN'T. Nope. The thunder and lightning moved in next, and we knew that the rain was right behind it. So we started looking, and I mean SERIOUSLY looking for a taxi. Thankfully we found one that was dropping off a mother and daughter and we were able to hop right in just as the rain started. By the time we were halfway back to the hotel, the bottom had fallen out. It even hailed just a tiny bit on the taxi. I was soooo glad we weren't trying to walk the mile-plus back to the hotel. That would NOT have been good. It really would have reminded me of being stuck in the stinkin' tropical storm last year at Disney! UGH! We have decided that tomorrow we HAVE to figure out the Metro system!

After we made it back to the hotel, we just relaxed for a while, hoping that the rain would end so we could venture out for dinner. But it didn't. So we had a crazy overpriced, but good dinner downstairs in the hotel restaurant. We are now back upstairs, the girls are showered and in bed and I'm heading that way shortly. We had a great first afternoon here, even if it did end up being rather wet. We are VERY excited about our White House tour tomorrow morning. Unfortunately we are not allowed to take photos inside the White House. You actually can't even TAKE a camera into the White House. So there won't be any photos of the China Room, Red Room, Green Room, or State Dining Room. *sigh* Total bummer for a photo-nut like me!! But that's OK – we'll still love it and are thankful to have the opportunity to go!

Until next time – HUGS!

Trip Reports Forthcoming

Our DC Trip reports will begin posting very soon.  I am SLOWLY making my way through our photos from the trip... just around 600 or so.  And for some reason, I shot them all in RAW, which means I get to edit each one before I can post it in jpeg format to the blog or Facebook! :)  Fun stuff!  I'll have to remember to switch to straight jpeg on our next vacation!  Of course, I really like how the edited photos look, so... In the meantime, I have started loading some of the pictures in an album here on the blog.  I have the first couple of days loaded out there.  I'll continue to add to this album as I get more photos edited.  So watch for trip reports soon!  Hugs!

On our way!

The Willard Family Vacation 2009 is officially underway! As I type this, we are somewhere over Arkansas! So "Hello!" to all of our family and friends below! Of course, by the time I am able to publish this we will be in Chicago. We have a short layover at Midway, then on to Dulles. We started out early this morning, and with any luck we will have an early evening. Once we arrive at our hotel we plan on making a run to the White House so that we know exactly how to get there on Wednesday morning. We have to be there EARLY in order to make our tour time. The girls are excited, especially Abby. When I went in to wake her up this morning she absolutely tore out of bed, ready to get to DC. She has been dying to take this trip ever since