Day 1, Continued

After the White House and some breakfast, we headed toward the Washington Monument. Ben really wanted to see the National Mall. We ended up spending the rest of the day seeing all the monuments. We walked A LOT. Finally we used a taxi to get to the Jefferson Memorial as it was a bit of a walk.

While at the WH, we heard one of the Secret Service guys say that the President was leaving at 9:30. As we ate our breakfast, we saw the police escort drive by, so that was pretty cool to see. Well, we thought so- nobody else in the restaurant seemed to care. My sister lives in DC, and she says it is actually annoying whenever the President leaves the WH because they need to shut down streets and stuff and it really messes things up. But we still thought it was cool.

Claire was much more interested in looking at holes in trees and guessing which animal did what than the monuments:

The WWII Memorial:

And, the BIG one:

The Gettysburg Address is written in the stone on one side of the memorial, Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address on the other side. I made Audra stand under the Gettysburg Address since she gets to memorize it next year.

I LOVE this picture of Camille looking up at Lincoln:

Ben got this really great picture to show just how gigantic this monument is- can you see Claire and Camille on the other side?

The Korean Memorial:

Claire LOVED the Jefferson Memorial. It really was a beautiful memorial.

I loved that we were on the Potomac- such an important river in our country's history!

I really love the FDR Memorial. I had everyone pick out their favorite quote to get a picture by, but before we did that the girls had to get pictures of Eleanor and the dog:

"Take a picture of me, mommy!"

Here's my quote: "This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."

Claire's favorite quote: "I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded....I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed...I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I HATE WAR."

Audra chose a classic: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

The MLK Memorial:

The girls were really excited to stretch across the middle:

 "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."



Vietnam Memorial:

By this point, we were EXHAUSTED. It was hot, and we had walked a TON.

We made a brief stop at the American History Smithsonian because I wanted to see the Stars and Stripes. Wow, am I glad we did! We aren't allowed to take pictures of it, but it was beautiful- and HUGE. I had no idea it is as big as a house! I loved seeing it.

Ben and the girls loved seeing the Batmobile.

They also had all the dresses worn by first wives at the Inaugural Ball for their husbands. That was really cool! You could tell who was a little chubby, or really short, by their dress.

Anybody recognize this dress?

Anyway, it was a great day, but we were all ready for a good night's sleep after it was over!