Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Spring Break Vacation 2008 Day 3

From Jeanne's journal:

March 15, 2008

Today we drove into Washington DC. Thank God we had the Tom-Tom. The way we were planning to go was at a dead stand still - so we drove on and Tom-Tom planned a new route - which was cool because we just stumbled upon the Capitol after wandering through the Capitol Hill area of the city.

We were able to find parking by the Washington Monument. We wandered up to the Monument, but were unable to get tickets to go into the building (tickets were gone by 8:30 am and we got there about 11:00)


The day started off windy but became a wonderful spring day.

After the Washington Monument, we wandered past the World War II monument, down past the reflecting pond to the Lincoln Memorial.





When we were finished, we shared a snack and wandered over to the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. We were lucky enough to listen to a volunteer explain the monument. Apparantly, there was much controversy over the monument 25 years ago when it was planned. The winning design was from a Yale student Maya Ying Linis who actually decided to use it as a class project and an entry to the contest (she got a B+). The monument was really a great tribute.

We wandered past the signers of the Declaration of Independence Memorial - many people enjoying Brian and Jason's antics of playing football down the paths.



We visited the Boy Scouts of America monument, with TJ and I wondering about the naked man, while Brian and Jason played in the fountain (there was no water).



We wandered over to the White House Visitors Center - but were unable to get tickets into the White House - we need to go through our Congressman one month in advance.


We walked past the White House and waited for Bob to pick us up at the corner. Brian and Jason entertained the passersby with their imaginary baseball game.

We are staying at the Hampton Inn in Springfield, VA and ate at the Houlihan's across the street.

Oh, I forgot - after getting picked up at the White House, we drove over to the Jefferson Memorial. TJ, Dad and Brian went over to see it while Mom stayed in the car with Jason who wanted a nap.



TJ's favorite was seeing the second face on the Lincoln Memorial.

Dad enjoyed the whole meandering around the monuments.

Mom enjoyed the talk at the Vietnam Veteran's monument.

Jason liked playing baseball in front of the White House.

Brian liked playing baseball too!

Lunch was hotdogs, pretzels and an egg roll from a street vendor.

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