Day 4:
We began our day by going to church at the National Cathedral. The service was very nice (it was non-denominational) and the music was fantastic. Because the ceilings were so high, the sound would echo for about 4-5 seconds after the choir or organ would stop playing!
The building itself was absolutely breathtaking and we enjoyed looking around after the service was over. There were a ton of stained glass windows and one even contained a piece of moon rock from the Apollo 11 moon landing! (Sorry there are no pictures from the inside here! When my dad eventually posts a photo album, I'll have him post some pictures that my sister took of the interior.)
After church, we headed to Arlington National Cemetery. We saw John F. Kennedy's grave, Robert E. Lee's mansion, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The Changing of the Guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was especially touching. It's crazy to think that there is a Marine guarding the tomb 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in any kind of weather! (It was about 90 degrees or more when we visited so it was pretty impressive to see their dedication!)
We then travelled to the National Mall to visit the Air and Space Museum.
Although it doesn't compare to it's sister museum in size (see the previous post), this one still had some pretty neat stuff on display, such as the Wright Brothers' flyer and the Spirit of St. Louis!
Later, we stopped at the Museum of American History.
There was a ton of really cool stuff to see and we saw less than half of it! Among the things we saw were: the ruby slippers from "The Wizard of Oz," Julia Child's kitchen (both pictured above), Abraham Lincoln's hat, C-3PO from "Star Wars," and the Star Spangled Banner!
That night, we walked around and saw some memorials. There was a thunderstorm on the horizon, but that didn't stop us!
Our first stop was the Vietnam War Memorial. Even though we don't personally know any one who perished in the Vietnam War, this is a really powerful tribute to anyone who lost a loved one during that time.
Next, we visited the Lincoln Memorial. It was incredible to see the statue of Lincoln in real life, especially at night!
The last place we visited was the Jefferson Memorial. I had never really seen any pictures of the inside and it was neat to see it for the first time. I also found it interesting that the statue of Lincoln was made of marble, while the statue of Jefferson was made of bronze.
The view from the Jefferson Memorial was extremely beautiful. Here's a picture of the Washington Monument reflecting on the Tidal Basin. (I officially decided that nighttime in D.C. is my favorite!)
Day 5: 4th of July!
That morning, we had pancakes with George Washington at our hotel. What a great way to start any day! :)
We then spent about an hour at the National Gallery of Art. Here are some of the paintings we saw there...
Afterwards, we found a good spot by the Washington Monument to watch the firework show. There were tens of thousands of people around us!
I'm glad we weren't sitting over at the Lincoln Memorial!
The fireworks were incredible and the grand finale was bone-rattling! It was definitely a Fourth of July we will never forget!
Day 6:
We woke up early the next morning to go inside the Washington Monument.
The view from the top was amazing and you could see almost all of D.C.'s famous sights! On the way down, our tour guide showed us some of the monument's commemorative stones, which are only visible from the inside.
We then walked around the World War II Memorial for a bit. I loved the use of water throughout the area!
Each one of these stars represents 100 American soldiers who died during the war!
We found the California pillar!
After that, we packed up and headed out of the city. We had a great few days in our nation's Capitol and I hope we are able to visit again soon (hopefully when the weather is a bit cooler!)
In the next day or so, I will post about our visits to Monticello and Fallingwater.
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Location:Washington D.C.
Keep the posts coming, Kevin--it's so great to hear about your amazing trip!
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