To Sum Up

10 Things to Remember when Visiting Washington, DC:

1. Walking a mile uphill always seems longer than going down.

2. Avoid pulling your metro ticket out of the machine when it jams, otherwise you will rip it in half! However, this results in many interesting conversations with the metro guards!

3. When wanting to go to a lower level, don't attempt to go down an up escalator.

4. Always read the side of your shuttle bus before boarding to avoid going to the wrong place.

5. If you've been proven to be bad at directions, don't assume you're right when traveling from point A to point B.

6. Giving a twenty cent tip to a cab driver is not acceptable.

7. Never carry two cups of coffee while walking down the street on a windy day. Unless you have a plastic bib on to absorb the splatter!

8. Don't bother taking your leftovers from a restaurant back to your hotel with you when you have no fridge and are leaving on a plane the next day.

9. When the sign says "no flash photography" it's best to not then take a picture directly in front of the security guard.

10. Always check the time before getting up to take a shower, lest you find yourself showering at 1 AM!

Our last full day...

This morning we left our hotel bright and early in order to get in line for tickets to tour the Capitol....and nearly blew away frozen solid! Though the temps were in the upper 40s to 50s, we had 20mph winds that were COLD. And we didn't bring our jackets. Silly us. But we survived, and while we waited in line, we made friends with the lady in front of us, named Anita. She was super nice and visiting from Texas with some friends, though she was the only one planning on touring the Capitol. We chatted about all of the DC attractions that were our favorites, our jobs, where we're from, and the cool museums and tourist attractions that were in her area. We ended up getting the same tour time, and so we were able to talk more then, and she even gave us her address and phone number in case we ever need a place to stay in Texas! Good ole southern friendliness to the tee. :) Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of her, so if we ever do visit her in Texas, which is pretty unlikely, I wouldn't remember what she looked like anyway. But it makes a good story!

As I said, we visited the Capitol today, and it was awesome! Once the sun came out, it helped warm us up and it made for a kodak moment. Check out this picture I took -- it looks like a postcard!

After the Capitol, we went to the Holocaust museum (which is incredible, but also quite depressing) and then swung back around to the National Archives for a second look. Tomorrow it's back home we go -- assuming we don't get stuck in a snow storm!


Below are a few more sights from our day:

Hmm...does this statue have a thinking twin, or is it just me? :)

Thanks to Anita, we got a picture of us together in front of the Capitol! yay!

For those of you who don't know, this is a glimpse of the
Capitol's rotunda...beautiful....

Another note to Lucas: this fountain was running....
...but no coins were in the bottom. Sorry!
The brownish colors are dead leaves....too bad for you! :)

Do you see a resemblance? This is one of my great ancestors,
Samuel Adams!

Moo-lah & Megan

As you can see here, today we visited Joe's long anticipated place: the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, or in other words, the place where the money is made!! We had to get in line first thing this morning, and due to God's providence, we received the last two guaranteed tour tickets. God is awesome, isn't He? Anywho, we had a great time, received one of the brand new five dollar bills as change (as shown below) and even found out that Joe is worth $1,700,900.00!!















After marveling over the money (marvel is Joe's word for the week here... :), we headed out to Washington's National Cathedral, the place where President Woodrow Wilson is buried, as well as the site for performances of choirs and organ recitals. It was amazingly awesome...we even got to hear the beginning notes of an organ demonstration, but couldn't stay for all of it, unfortunately. Let me share a few of our favorite views:







<--The Majestic Washington National Cathedral Amazing.



<----Beautiful archway







<----Check out the gorgeous stained glass rose window! After marveling :) at the Cathedral, we headed over to Arlington Cemetary, where my cousin Megan works as a chaplain's assistant. It was great to see her in uniform and we even got a chance to observe her working at a funeral! (she's the one on the left) She arranged for her supervisor, Sgt. Shayne Hyde, to give us a personalized tour of Arlington. It worked out great since it had started raining in the afternoon and the ground was very soggy. This way we were able to stay warm and dry in a nice van. Thanks Megan!!


Doesn't she look sharp?

This is Megan and her supervisor, Sgt. Hyde....
he was funny :)

As for today, we allowed ourselves to sleep in just a tad, to make up for our extra long day yesterday. Our activities included a visit to the Supreme Court, Library of Congress, Union Station, and the National Archives. Quite packed, really! We had a fabulous time today, and enjoyed slightly milder weather, though our legs still ached...but we didn't slow down because of it! Here's a few snaps for those who are interested...and because I don't have time to blog more, so pictures will have to suffice! Enjoy!

It's supposed to look like he's holding the Supreme Court in the palm of his hand...
but it didn't turn out quite right. *shrugs*

This is the bottom third of the spiral staircase in the Supreme Court.
Way cool....though we avoided walking up or down it. *grins*

That's right -- we saw the Magna Carta at the National Archives today!
Sweet!! No flash photography was allowed, so this is all I have to show of it.
We also saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.
Amazing.

This is a section of the mosaic floor at the Library of Congress.
The whole building was beautiful...

Unfortunately, I couldn't capture the majestic Grand Hall of the Library
of Congres completely...but this gives you an idea of what it was like...
Stunning...

yesterday...

Due to an extremely long and quite exhausting day yesterday, I missed a post. Sorry to disappoint y'all. I'll try to make up for it today with an 2 posts. :-D

We are learning of all sorts of new muscles and tender spots on the lower half of our bodies, due to excessive walking and standing. Whooooeeee! It's not slowing us down, though...we refuse to be held back by a few sore muscles!!

Anywho, to catch you up on what we've been doing, yesterday we got up the earliest of our stay so far, and were out the latest, so that was stretching. It was worth it though, as we had a chance to go up in the Washington Monument, visit the museum of Natural History, and take a 3 hour twilight tour of the monuments. It was a day well spent.

As always, here are a few visuals:

Don't I look fierce? *evil laughter*

This is the loooong line I stood in to get our tickets to go up
in the Washington Memorial. I guess they made a mistake in the
lining up process, and so they had to back up the line. But it didn't
take long to go through. And I made friends with an Asian lady and her son
who were there from Pennsylvania, so it was all good!

Look! It's Joe! Doesn't he look good in front of the white house?

In contrast to Joe's casual looks-like-it's-a-warm-spring-day apparel,
it was actually FREEZING yesterday. Well...compared to the 50-60 degree
weather we had before. After shivering for 2 hours and drinking some
hot coffee, I finally warmed up and our walking kept me warm the rest of the day!

We knew before we came to DC that the National Museum of American History
would be closed, but in the name of tradition we snapped another "sad Joe" pic.
However, I think he looks more angry....or drugged. Not sure which...