Washington DC, March '09

DC!!!!

Greg and I love to travel and see the world. This last trip was a little different then the rest of our other ones, we actually slept on a bed and not in a tent and we went to the city and not high mountains or deep canyons of the west. Our travels took us, first, to see and visit Greg's sister, Shannon, and her cute family and second, to visit the capitol of America. We had a great time while we were there. We did everything from playing cards, to watching a skit, helping with scouts, walking miles around DC, and finding the Appalachian hiking trail. It was a fantastic experience that I hope some of these pictures will help show how much fun we had!

So being my first time in DC I wanted to see everything and Greg, being the greatest husband ever, humoured me. He's been out there a couple times and had seen most of the museums, monuments, buildings, etc. Therefore he became my personal tour guide :-)
We had tons of fun walking and walking and walking and walking. It still amazes me how much walking just wears ya out! We started out at the museums, American History and Natural History, then made our way up to the Capitol Building. We saw the White House, Lincoln, Jefferson, Arlington, the Vietnam, Korean, and WWII memorials, the Achieves Building with the original documents of the Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution in it, the Holocaust museum, National Museum of Art, Aerospace Museum, National Library, and so much more. The sad thing is that we saw a ton, but I still feel that I could go and spend so much more time in each of the places we went and explore other buildings! There is so much of our nations history in that small little area, it's truly amazing. I've always loved history and learning about the making of our great nation. So going to DC was very exciting. Every room was a different experience, with so much to see and learn. It was great. Luckily Greg and I are both pretty slow going through museums so it worked out!

The war memorials were a solemn experience. There has been so much heartache and loss of life in our country's short life, but it has been for us, for our lives, and our freedom. Seeing all the names of people who served and have given their lives for us made me so grateful for them and for the fact that I can say that I'm an American. This trip made me realize how great our nation is and how grateful I am to live in it.

Here is a taste of what there is to see when you go... because I soooo recommend this trip to everyone I know.

The Judicial Building where all the major- law changing court cases go on.

The WWII memorial was beautiful and fairly new, it's only been up for 5 years.

The famous Vietnam War Memorial. I couldn't believe how many names were on this wall. It was hard to believe that that many lives could be taken in less then a decade.

Thomas Jefferson. One of the most important people we had in the making of our country. Some of his major accomplishments were: Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, the exploring of the west with Lewis and Clark, and Louisiana Purchase.

The Korean War Memorial wasn't what I was expecting, but very cool and well done. It was almost ghost like the way the put it together. You can just see and almost feel the hardships those soldiers went through by looking at the faces on the statues.

The Lincoln Monument was probably the most impressive to me. I've always admired him for all he did and all he was. I had an overwhelming feeling of pride for our country while Greg and I were in there, especially when I read a couple of his talks that they have chiseled into the walls on either side of him. He was a great man and a great President that did so much for our nation.

The Plotomic River and looking back at the Washington Monument

Arlington

The White House, very cool, but I would never want to live there, to big and all the crowds of hundreds of people every day... blah!

Shannon and the Kids met us downtown one day which made that day totally fun! We went to the National Geographic Building which had a display on Lions at the time with pictures and documentaries.
Also, just wanted to thank Shannon and the family for being so awesome and for their great hospitality to Greg and I. Thanks A MILLION!!!

Rocks, Minerals, Diamonds, etc. The Natural History Museum has it all.

Help! It's gonna eat me!!!! The dinosaur bones were amazing, so huge and monsterous! And don't forget the teeth, well lets just say if this thing was alive, there's no way my head would be that close to it's mouth!

The Aerospace Museum... Greg is standing in front of a replica of a USA nuclear warhead that holds one bomb. It was gigantic, but to the left of him is a replica of a Russian nuc. warhead that held up to 3 bombs!!! and that was about 4 stories high. Incredible

Infront of the Capitol Building. I love the way they have arranged everything and the statues they have used.

Greg next to the statue of Brigham Young in the Capitol Building. We took the tour and it was awesome. It was fun to hear the history of the building and also see the beautiful art work they have put up.

Just about every night we'd go back to Shannons house and play Uno with the kids! They were so good! It was fun to get to spend time with them and Matt and Shannon. The adults got into some pretty intense games of scramble, well actually Greg, Matt, and Shannon did, I just tried to catch up the whole time ;-)

One day we took off and headed out to the Appalachians for the afternoon. It was one of the most beautiful drives I've taken. The farms, little shops, and rock walls lining the road all added to the small, quaint little town feeling. We were looking for the Appalachian trail that runs from the top of Georgia to the middle of Maine. It was a really cool trial and the area we were in was nice. We went on a rainy, misty day so when we hiked up to it we were in the clouds and had little visibility. It was pretty creepy I'll admit, I kept on having flash backs of the cartoon of the headless horseman coming out of the fog, but luckily nobody came running out swinging a sword and we had a nice peaceful walk ;-)