Arlington & Air and Space Museum

June 8th
Vacation Post #5

Back on the metro!

Silly boys waiting for our blue line train at King Street Station

Sunday was the day for Arlington National Cemetery and meeting up with my cousins at the Air & Space Museum! There were actually a lot of moving parts today--one cousin riding the bus from Philadelphia, another traveling by car from Cambridge, while we rode the metro for part of the day and drove our car for the other part. It exhausts me all over again just thinking about it. :) But it was a happy kind of mental exhaustion.

We took the metro to Arlington where we bought passes for the tram to take us all around the cemetery. I am glad we did, since it is a huge place and it was a hot day. This is where we saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, one of Kaleb's must-see places on our vacation. Other sites included the Kennedy family grave site and General Lee's house--before the Union took possession of it and turned the grounds into a national cemetery.

Riding the tram

With all of the people here in Washington, we saw our tour guide from the Capitol while we were at Arlington! He wasn't working--he was just there to see it. Braylen recognized him and it was just one of those funny things you don't expect to happen.

JFK and his family's burial plot with an eternal flame

A memorial marker for the Challenger Space Shuttle that exploded in 1986.
Derek and I remember that happening when we were in 4th grade.

A great view of Washington, DC in this peaceful place

Watching the changing of the guards was pretty ceremonial. The audience was asked to remove their hats and remain standing. They change every 30 minutes, 24 hours/day, in all kinds of weather. They tap their shoes together in unison, inspect their weapons and march 21 steps, saluting and doing all kinds of other synchronized hand signals. I think our boys were impressed. I know I was!

Getting ready to watch the guards change

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

There is a large outdoor amphitheater near the Tomb.

Braylen took this photo but I wish he was in it!

We met my cousin from Philly at a metro stop and loaded up in our vehicle to drive to the Air & Space museum. This museum is not on the Mall, but near the Dulles airport some 30 miles away. We picked this one because it has the Space Shuttle Discovery at it. It was a fabulous place for our boys and for Derek, while it was perfect for me to roam around catching up with my cousins!

Nicholas grew up in CA, Katherine and I grew up in IL, yet we all met here!

Viewing the shuttle from above

It is so massive you just can't fit it all in one picture.

Braylen takes a picture of it with his iPod.

I saw lots of smiles at this museum!

Katherine and I with Kaleb and Aaron
She is great with kids and my kids loved her!

They saw lots of other aircraft too. Aaron kept wanting to visit the souvenir shop!

Ideally, it would have been lots of fun to all have dinner together at a nice restaurant...but we just couldn't take the time for that. McDonald's at the museum it is! Katherine pointed out that our grandma always took us to McDonald's when we were kids, since she didn't cook. So it really was a great place for us to eat together.

My cousin Brendan joined us at this point, when he was able to get away from his job.
He had the shortest drive out of the 4 of us, coming from Manassas, VA. :)

Nick doesn't eat at McDonald's, but he DID manage to eat some of our fries. ;)

We are the only girls born into this family and our moms are sisters.
Cousin love

Our parents have this tradition to line up in birth order when they are together.
We stood in their places as Wally, Nancy, Rick, and Susan.

It meant so much to me to spend this afternoon with my extended family. Thank you all for making the effort to come and see us! Also, thank you to my amazing husband for happily putting up with all of my scheduling needs on this day. :) He braved DC traffic and drove Katherine back to her bus station that evening, with me trying my best to navigate our way. We got a little twisted around leaving Union Station, but no harm was done. :) When lost in DC you just keep driving!

One little funny to end this post. Until we arrived at the Air & Space museum, Aaron thought we were vising the "Aaron Space Museum." No wonder he looked bewildered when I told him what we were doing today!!!

Museums & Memorials

June 7th
Vacation Post #4

Holocaust Museum

We began our Saturday with a visit to the Holocaust Museum. It was not an easy museum to visit, and I wondered if it would be too much for Aaron, emotionally. The museum did not gloss over the atrocities of this time in history. However, the stories and descriptions were presented with great respect and honor. Aaron and the rest of us handled it just fine. We waited a few minutes in the security line and then received immediate entry passes, thanks to Derek's job as an active duty policeman. (Way to spot that on a sign, Braylen!)

We were not allowed to take any pictures inside the museum, but we did manage to take a picture of the building as we left. I am glad we took the time to visit this museum. I think I will always remember the tall glass walls filled with pictures of the victims and the room with their shoes piled together.

For lunch we went to the cafe at the Holocaust Museum. It was a separate building with yet another airport-like security line. At a cafe? Anyway, all of the items on the menu were Kosher. We had quite the fun time trying to find something to eat. :) In fact, that is one area I did NOT plan well for our trip--food. Restaurants around the National Mall are nonexistent. At least, we didn't find any. So when one of our attractions included a cafe, we ate lunch there!

After lunch we walked to the National Mall to visit the rest of the memorials we didn't get a chance to see on our first evening in DC.

We did a LOT of walking!

Braylen took this photo of the White House on our way to our first memorial of the day.

With this being a Saturday, it was much more crowded at the memorials than it was Wednesday evening. My favorite group of people to watch were veterans. We watched one group of veterans from New Jersey and one group from Florida visit the various memorials. At the WWII Memorial the buses lined up to unload the veterans from Florida. They passed through a flag-lined path set up by Patriot Riders. People applauded them as they made their way into the memorial. It was an emotional scene.

Imagine if your job description said, "Save the World."
(That is what we saw on the back of their t-shirts.)

Next we visited the Korean War Memorial.

A cool fountain!
The people in red t-shirts are veterans from New Jersey. The people in blue t-shirts are their sponsors.

Derek didn't like the larger-than-life statues at this memorial, but I think they're neat. Each one is different. We filed through the memorial and I liked watching the veterans pose for pictures. Then we made our way to one of the most popular sites in Washington, DC--the Lincoln Memorial.

Our three cuties :)

Kaleb said this was his dream come true. Yay! :)

Braylen took this great picture. You can't even see the crowds.

Braylen taking a picture of the reflecting pool.
(Not of the girl!)

I think it turned out pretty great!

By now we were all feeling pretty hot and tired. My fever was back, so I took more Advil. We bought 5 popsicles from a vendor and found a bench in the shade. It felt good to rest for a bit. :)

Next we visited the Vietnam Wall. We all thought it would be bigger and taller than it is. We saw some people make rubbings of names while others left small mementos.

Approaching the Vietnam Wall

There are other memorials we did not get to see, but you just can't see them all in one day. We were happy we visited the ones we most wanted to see! So, we geared up for one more long walk that day and headed for the American History Museum. Aaron was very tired, and told us several times that if we walk one mile he must walk 2 or 3, since he takes so many more steps than we do. Derek had a great idea at one of the water fountains and splashed some water in Aaron's hair. He felt better, which means we all felt better!

We made it!

Derek and the boys really liked this museum. I did too, of course. :) It is really hard to describe it, since it has a little bit of everything inside: cars, trains, trucks, ships, antiques, crops, city life, America's growth and expansion, etc. I have to confess that I spent a lot of time on the bench while everyone else learned all about engines and generators. I was happy for them and happy for me. :) The best part of this museum is seeing the Star Spangled Banner. It is in a very dark room and of course pictures are forbidden. (ERIC!) Seeing this flag brought back a lot of memories for Derek, since he saw it with his family when he was growing up. I sure am glad we took the time to find it on display.

Standing by a 1965 Ford Mustang which was on display at the World's Fair

When we saw everything we wanted to see, we found the nearest metro station and went back to our hotel. We were becoming pretty good at navigating the metro system. I kept a metro map in my purse, and Aaron really liked looking at it while we rode the train. The biggest station we transferred trains in was at L'Enfant Square. Derek took a panoramic picture of it and I think it turned out pretty neat.

Kaleb and Aaron often discussed which train was their favorite. Was it Blue Largo, Yellow Huntington, Yellow Ft. Trotten, or Blue Franconia-Springfield? :)

We found an Applebee's not far from our hotel for our supper. I think Aaron ordered mini-cheeseburgers at just about every restaurant on our vacation. :) Our poor waitress was tired and she spilled all of our drinks on the table, on herself, and on Braylen's leg. We were tired too and all felt sorry for her. It provided a memory for us, I guess!

Back at the hotel Derek took the boys down to the pool for a night swim. I had the room to myself and sipped some hot tea and watched TV. It felt great! I was really weary of the fever and hoped that it would be gone for good the next morning. It was, and it never returned. Must have been the tea and my alone time! :) My cough grew worse, but never serious enough for me to feel the need to find a doctor. Well, Saturday sure took a lot of time to type out. I guess that means we did a lot and made a lot of memories!

The White House on D-Day

June 6th
Vacation Post #3

I applied for a tour of the White House through our congressman, expecting to be turned down. I sure was excited to find out about a week before our trip that we were approved for a tour! We were given a tour time of 7:30 AM on June 6th. First tour of the day--okay!

Remember how exhausted we were at the end of our day at the Capitol? Well, the very next morning we woke up at 5 AM to be ready in time to board the shuttle to the metro at 6:10. The kids and I woke up tired but quickly rebounded and were ready to go. Poor Derek never really recovered from how he felt the day before, and he had a very rough morning. He could keep nothing in his system, yet pressed on and came with us anyway.

Everything worked like we needed it to work. We were on time with our shuttle. The metro was on time. We arrived at the correct White House gate by 7:10, and we needed to be there by 7:15. Whew! It felt SO good to make it there in spite of my poor husband being sick the entire morning. Yes, he was sick at the metro station, on the metro, and again at the other metro station. Poor, poor Derek!

It was another beautiful day. While we waited in line at the gate, a park ranger passed out some White House brochures to the adults and activity books to the kids. We also watched K-9 German Shepherds and their handlers roam around the grounds. Then we were told to line up for our security check. Derek and I handed over our drivers' licenses and the boys were asked what their names were. When the Secret Service agent came to Aaron he said, "This must be A-A-RON!" I thought to myself, "How does he know Aaron's nickname? They sure did extensive background checks on us, ha!" (His brothers call him A-A-RON all the time.) Seeing the puzzled look on our faces he said, "My name is Aaron and people called me that all the time while I was growing up." I thought that was pretty neat!

Aaron went through security first. One at a time, we went around the corner and stood on a mat with our feet shoulder-width apart. While we did this a K-9 German Shepherd stood on the other side of a partition and was trained to alert at the scent of explosives, I think. Of course we all made it through to the next security point, but it was a little bit unnerving for me to send my kids around the corner while I had no idea what was around that corner. It's a mom thing, since I'm pretty sure everyone else thinks that's ridiculous. :) I mean, we were at the White House!

The tour was self-led, but very specific on where we could go and what was off-limits. Each room had at least one Secret Service agent. Of course we were not allowed to take pictures. I couldn't even carry a purse. I had to leave that at our hotel. We walked through the ground floor entrance and saw the library, Vermeil Room, and China Room. Then we walked through hallways up to the first floor. There we saw the East Room, Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room, State Dining Room, Cross Hall, and Entrance Hall. I loved it. I tried to find as many eagles as I could, since I read in the kids' activity guide that there are quite a few. I thought it was pretty neat to be in this historic place.

Once we stepped outside we were allowed to take pictures. We were still within the gates and it was cool to look out at the people on the other side looking in. :)

Staring in to the very bright sun

Since Derek had some recovering to do and the rest of us still needed to eat breakfast, we took the metro back to the hotel. By 9 AM the boys and I were sitting down at breakfast and it was surreal to think we had been to the White House and back already. It was an awesome experience, but once again, we were tired. With the way Derek was feeling we decided we needed a day of rest. So on the 70th anniversary of D-Day we relaxed and napped in our room, watched the coverage of the celebration on TV, and enjoyed some much-needed down time. Oh yeah, and we had the pool all to ourselves!

For supper we ventured out and found a Famous Dave's, which was our favorite restaurant experience during these 6 days in DC. The food was great, we all laughed a lot, and it just felt so good to be rested and well. My fever was still there, but Advil kept me feeling fine. After a restful day we went to bed and woke up to a very full Saturday. More on that next time!

Day 2 in DC

June 5th
Vacation Post #2

Derek and I had a general idea of what we were going to be doing each day of our vacation, but our kids didn't! Every night they asked what we would be doing the next day, and every night we had an answer for them. :)

Our second day was all about 3 things: the National Archives, US Capitol, and Library of Congress. We made our way there on the metro and were excited to see what the day held. 

We quickly discovered that early June in DC is filled with groups of 8th grade students. Everywhere we went, we ran into group after group of 8th graders. There were not many vacationing families, just 8th graders. TONS of them. By the end of our time in DC we had discovered some ways to avoid them. And Derek and I both agreed we would rather do just about anything than chaperon a group of 8th grade students in Washington, DC.

Anyway, we arrived at the National Archives first. The line moved faster than I thought it would. Reviews on Trip Advisor made it sound like we would be there for hours. While we waited, Kaleb and Aaron played with the leaves from the magnolia trees. It was the prettiest sunny day--not too hot, not too cold. We really did have great weather on our vacation.

Kaleb and Aaron with their leaves

Outside of the National Archives

Our boys look so small on these steps!

We were not allowed to take any pictures inside. We saw the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the United States Constitution. The room with these documents was dim, ornately decorated, and closely watched by guards. One of the guards told Derek that these documents are protected better than the president himself. I'm not sure I believe that, but that is what he said. So much fading has occurred, that they were very hard to read. Still, it is neat to say we have looked upon them with our own eyes. There is a very large museum inside, and we could have spent hours in there. We saw what we could, and then found the cafeteria for lunch. By now I was starting to feel feverish, and I had no idea that would continue for 3 days and turn into pneumonia. It felt good to sit down with a bowl of soup while my boys all had hot dogs and brats.

Next stop was the US Capitol. For this I had arranged a tour through our congressman's office. We were a bit early, and there was some confusion with our tickets, but we ended up with a pretty good tour. Our favorite parts include standing on the Speaker's Balcony and sitting in the upper deck of the Senate Chamber during live Senate proceedings. It's probably not called the upper deck, but you get the idea. :) The House was not in session, which is why we were allowed to stand on the Speaker's balcony. It gave us the best view of DC! The Rotunda was undergoing some renovation, so there were large drapes hanging high up in there that looked like a big donut shaped diaper. It was crowded, oh so crowded, in the Capitol Building.

Family photo in front of the Capitol!

The back of the building, with an entourage of black Suburbans. Hmmm

This is one of the fountains with a skylight in the middle.
The Visitor's Center is below the skylight. See the large group of people behind it?
Probably a group of 8th graders!

Standing by Lady Freedom.
This is the plaster cast used to make the statue that sits on top of the Capitol.

We saw some STRANGE people inside...the boys stared and I tried not to.
Aaron is standing in the very center of the dome.

The Rotunda from the inside looking up, diaper and all. :)

Just a glimpse of how crowded it was!

Standing by Ronald Reagan for some reason.

Awesome view from the Speaker's Balcony!

We took lots of time in the Capitol. I had no idea we would spend that much time in there, but I guess that's what the day was for, right? Next we walked through the underground tunnel to the Library of Congress and barely made it inside before they closed that entrance for the day. By now we were wiped out. Our feet hurt, we were tired, I felt crummy, and Derek felt hungry and shaky. We breezed through the Library and saw 2 very large old Bibles, looked around at the beautiful architecture, and decided to call it a day.

Library of Congress

On our way back to the metro station we walked by the Supreme Court. If I could do this trip again, I would have planned a Supreme Court tour for the next day. Oh well, at least we walked by and saw it. I guess this will have to be on our list for next time, ha! :)

US Supreme Court

By the time we made it back to our hotel we were exhausted. We ordered pizza and had it delivered to our room. We didn't have plates or napkins--just a roll of paper towels from our vehicle. But nobody cared. It was just a relief to not get back out again. The boys looked at their souvenirs and we were very happy to call it a day!