Of all the cities we were seeing on this great trip I was most excited to show my boys around Washington, DC. I wanted them to see the monuments, memorials and buildings that run our government. We had a wonderful time in DC (Some of which can be attributed to our wonderful location and rental house...we were just a few blocks away from the Supreme Court and Capitol buildings!)
After a long day of driving from Boston we took a short walk when we arrived at our house to see the Supreme Court building lit up at night. It was wonderful! There were no other people around and we had the place to ourselves to walk around and explore.
Our first stop the next day was a visit to the Holocaust museum. This was a wonderfully done museum that really outlined the horrors of the holocaust. It was interesting and informative to walk through but also very hard to take in at the same time.
The boys reading about the prisoners
A very touching display at the Holocaust museum
The FDR memorial on the Washington Mall
Thomas Jefferson memorial
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
Washington Monument
World War II Memorial. They let you dip your feet in the fountain and it was so nice to cool off. We also saw the Vietnam Memorial and the Korean War Memorial (which was under renovation) I'm so glad my boys got to see these great structures and learn some history.
The next day we started with a trip to the Washington National Cathedral. What an amazing church!
Stunning interior of the cathedral
One of the many stained glass windows. This one has an actual rock from the moon incorporated into the red circle of stained glass...so cool!
I loved how the colors from the stained glass windows were coming through on this statue of George Washington
I loved the colors and details on this window. Each window was so unique, it was fun to walk around and see them all.
Exploring the beautiful Cathedral garden
We drove 2 hours outside DC to Monticello, the historic home of Thomas Jefferson. I had never been to Monticello before but Hyrum remembers visiting when he was a kid and his family took a trip back east. It was a great place to visit. Lots of history and I especially liked how they highlighted the lives of the slaves that worked on this plantation. I thought it was a well balanced depiction of history.
Mirror and piano that were here when Thomas Jefferson lived here.
You could really tell how much Thomas Jefferson loved natural history by the articles he displayed at his home. He had such an assorted collection of different things and was fascinated by the West and what explorers brought back.
Jefferson family cemetery
Instead of taking the tour bus back down to the parking lot from Monticello we decided to hike back down through the forest. It was a lovely walk.
Posing with our friend Thomas Jefferson
Since we were so close we decided to explore a bit of the University of Virginia...founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819
Another beautiful University campus. I would love my kids to go to one of these great colleges, there is so much history just walking around the campus!
We spent a lovely morning (although very hot and humid) walking around Arlington National Cemetery
The home of General Robert E. Lee. He was asked to lead the Union Army but turned that down in order to lead the Confederate Army. He said he wasn't able to fight agains his home State of Virginia so sided with the Confederates in the Civil War.
We watched the changing of the guard in front of the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. I didn't realize it but there are remains from unknowns soldiers in this tomb from every American War from the Revolutionary War all the way to Operation Freedom in Iraq.
I hope my boys got a sense of the reverence we show to our soldiers. These men and women choose to stand up and protect us and our freedoms and I will be forever grateful to them and their sacrifices.
We weren't allowed to take photos inside the National Archives museum so we took a photo on the steps outside. It was really neat seeing the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution papers.
We walked over to the White House to see where our President lives. So glad Biden is in there now and not Trump!!
We met up with my brother and his family for dinner. They live in Virginia so it was really fun to get a chance to meet up.
It was our final night in DC and Hyrum and I thought it would be fun to walk around at night and see some of the monuments lit up. We went all the way to the White House to see it at night but it was 10:30 PM when we got there and they had already turned off the lights. We were bummed by this but still had a fun time walking around. While on the Capitol building grounds we came across this guy walking a dog. It turns out this is President Biden dog "major" They let us pet the dog and it was super cool to pet the dog the President of the US pets...what a neat experience!
The beautiful Capitol building at night.
So sad to think just a few months ago an angry mob of Trump supporters stormed this building in an attempt to stop the government from naming Joe Biden as our new President. It makes me angry to know there are people in our country that don't support the voice of the people in choosing their President.
Our flight out of DC wasn't until the evening so we decided to go visit the Air and Space Museum outside DC. This was such a great museum!
Neil Armstrongs space suit!
It was so cool to see an actual space shuttle. The space shuttle Discovery has been to space 29 times! It was super interesting to learn all about this space shuttle and it's many different missions.
The airplane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima Japan during WWII. I had mixed feelings about seeing this airplane. It was an important airplane in that it was instrumental in ending WWII but it seemed wrong somehow to memorialize such a horrific incident, dropping an atomic bomb on civilian Japanese.
One of Julian's favorite movies is "Full Metal Jacket" which is about Marines that train and fight in the Vietnam War. I wanted to make sure he got the chance to see the Marine Memorial:)
We didi a very quick run through the Museum of American History. It has changed so much since I last visited. I remember it being a lot more interesting with artifacts from across American history and culture. Maybe things were different due to Covid but it really wasn't that well laid out.
You weren't allowed to take pictures of the original Star Spangled Banner so I grabbed this photo off the internet. This was my favorite exhibit at the Museum of American History. It was this flag, flying during the War of 1812, that inspired Francis Scott Key to write a poem that turned into the Star Spangled Banner, our nations National Anthem.
And just like that our East Coast adventure was over. Three weeks traveling, sight seeing, exploring, learning, playing...what a great adventure. I hope my kids have great memories of our time spent on the East Coast!
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