Recovering From Vacation…

I can’t believe it’s been 10 days since I last posted.  I don’t know how those of you who post daily do it.  For the past month and a half I’ve been training 3-4 nights a week, in addition to my “real job”.  (This week, I’m training 5 nights.)  And, I’ve been playing catch-up at work since I was on vacation last week.  I’m finding it hard to find time to post, but I did get caught up with my blog reading.

Our vacation was SO fun.  We flew out on Saturday MORNING at 6:15, so we had to be at the airport by 5:00 or so.  We left Kale’s apartment at 4:20 AM… the only thing I know about what that time of day looks like is the view I have from my bed to the bathroom.

We got to DC and dropped our luggage at the hotel (we couldn’t check in til later in the day), so we headed out to explore the historic town we stayed in … Alexandria.  My favorite thing about Alexandria was the historic Christ Church.  Courtney took this picture of the inside of the church:

On our first full day we went to the Holocaust Museum.  When you get on the elevator to go up to take the tour they show you a short (30 second or so) video.  I started crying there… and when we got off the elevator you step into a room and right in front of you is a big wall of video that just hits you in the face.  I pretty much lost it there.  The thing I’ll remember the most from this museum was the “room of shoes” and the “walls of photos”:

 

The above two photos are from the web.

(I was so sad to hear about the shooting that took place at the Holocaust Museum today.  I was so impressed with the security every where we went.  It saddens me to think anyone could or would do such a thing.)

Afterward, we were going to hit the other museums, but then we saw the Washington Monument and just started walking, and walking, and walking.

We saw the WWII Memorial and the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial. Strolled by the White House.  Every where you look, it is simply amazing!

 

The next day, we started out at Arlington National Cemetery.  Our feet and legs were SO sore from the day before, but we did a lot more walking at the cemetery.  We were able to see a short, wreath ceremony where “taps” was played just before watching the changing of the guard at The Tomb of the Unknowns.  Another highlight for all of us!!

Afterwards, we headed to the Smithsonian Castle, Air and Space Museum, Art Museum, and briefly into the Museum of Natural History (which was WAY too crowded, so Tyler walked around for a while as we sat outside… we went back on Friday).  In the art museum, I was thrilled to be able to see some original art work by an artist that I’ve been very interested in for a few years, Abbott Handerson Thayer. 

Lots more walking… and lots of hurting feet and legs.

Tuesday, we headed to the National Archives (which houses the original Magna Carta, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States) and the Museum of American History… where we enjoyed seeing Seinfeld’s “Puffy Shirt”, Dorothy’s “ruby slippers” and lots of great historic US President exhibits.Wednesday morning we left early for Mount Vernon (home of George Washington).  I can’t say enough about how much I loved Mount Vernon.

It makes me want to go back in time and see the estate as a working farm.

Wednesday night we took a “Monuments by Moonlight” bus tour – our favorite thing from the whole week… except for the fact we got stormed on seriously.  If we had it to do over again, we would’ve taken this tour at the very beginning of the week.  DC after dark is gorgeous!!

Pretty much from Wednesday night on it poured. And poured.  So we did a lot of this…

 

… and eating!! We ate five large bags of Peanut M&Ms during the week.

We tried to go out on Thursday, but the rain kept us from doing much, so we headed back to Alexandria where Kale and Kayla went back to the room and Tyler, Courtney and I shopped King Street.

We went out again on Friday afternoon to revisit the Museum of Natural History and the Vietnam Memorial (we had only seen it at night), but after we got done there, it started raining again.  The subway was 7/10s of a mile away, so we got soaked going back… but it was worth it.

Since I’ve been home I’ve found out that we didn’t see near all there is to see in DC.  We definitely want to go back again some day.

Being there really made me more interested in our American History.  I am so grateful for the history of this great nation and pray that someday we will return to the foundation it was built on.

I, also, am so happy to have gone with these people… who were SO much fun!!

(Kale took this photo of Tyler and Courtney right after Tyler did a Michael Jackson moon walk on the slick sidewalk.  We got so tickled!)

Oh, and I forgot to mention who I ran into on Pennsylvania Avenue…