The Last of the Vacation

Ken got up early Thursday morning and went to the grocery store so we could have a "real" breakfast. He surprised us with fresh strawberries, yogurt and instant oatmeal. We used the coffee makers to heat up some water for the oatmeal (the kids thought that was great) and really enjoyed the warm breakfast. I think Ken was a little surprised at how long it took to get going. But with the two hour time change and sort of late nights all the rest of us were plastered.

We finally got out of the hotel about 10:30 and then had the walk down to the National Mall ("Mall" you say, I know it's so confusing...but just keep reading) only interrupted by Ken returning to the hotel for a couple coats. Our first stop on the agenda was the Washington Monument. The tickets to the top are free you just have to pick them up. They didn't have any immediate times left so we got tickets for 1:00 and headed back to the the Natural History Museum because Jessie wanted to see the gems.

Before we got to the gems we stopped in at the dinosaur exhibit. Mark was being really silly at this point. I did enjoy the display of how the bones look as they are unearthed -- just a big jumbled mess. I'm amazed anyone could put them together.

Heading upstairs to the gems we only got side tracked by one other exhibit on outer space before we finally got to the gems. We saw the biggest blue diamond in the world called the "Hope Diamond." Maybe they call it that because all the rest of us hoped it would have been us to find it, who knows. (Ken told me they named it after one of the owners of the diamond whose last name was Hope. I like my explanation a lot better!)

Here is Jessie in front of some huge Amethyst crystals. Amethyst is a purple variety of quartz (crystals that have six sides that come to a point). This one is part of a 70,000 lb geode from Brazil! We also learned that 2000 years ago the Greeks looked at quartz and wondered what on earth it was. They concluded that this clear, hard substance was water frozen so hard it couldn't melt and so they named it their word for "ice," crystallos. How's that for a history lesson?

Another cool rock. Man you could probably spend months going through this one exhibit and come out with a PhD in rock science.

1:00 came and we were right on time to the Washington Monument. This is us at the top.

Now this is SO COOL! Looking out the windows of the Washington Monument, due north, south, east and west, you can see 4 buildings of importance. Looking straight east is "The National Mall," that strip of brown dead grass, or in other words the strip of property that most of the Smithsonian's and National Monuments sit on with the Capital Building at the end. Straight south is the Jefferson Memorial (you can tell because the top is domed), straight west is the Lincoln Memorial and straight north is the White House. Now isn't that cool?
The Washington Monument is 500 feet tall! And one level down from the viewing area are a few pictures and facts about George Washington. After reading about what a totally amazing person he was (along with all the other totally amazing people I'd read about the last few days here) I was beginning to feel a little like a nobody and trying to figure out how I could really make a difference in the world. I mean like how does one get into a position to do something great? I don't know; it's kind of hard to explain, but it was a little depressing. Trying to convey these feelings to Ken, he reminded me that even Washington had a mother and a wife. How does he always know what to say to make me feel better?

Our almost last stop of the day was Arlington National Cemetery. And when I get permission from a friend I will share a little story about this grave marked for Francis R Peyerl, Theodore J Pinkos, and Frederick W Link.

I was trying to capture the number of men who have given their lives and are buried here in the name of freedom. A sad but inspiring place to visit.

We were able to watch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. It was quite impressive, but I think I would have appreciated all their efforts of respect a little more if they had been able to explain more of their ceremony.

Our first metro ride was from Arlington back to "the Mall." It was fun to have another "first" with the kids.

Since breakfast was late, lunch was late too. We headed back to the Garden Cafe for some soup, Potato Corn this time. Tasty!

And then bought a Smithsonian shirt for each of the kids and went for a walk to the White House. The closest you could get was about a football field away and there was a police man out patrolling this section of the fence. Not much of a view, but hey, now we can say we've been there.

After that we just wandered the streets until we were freezing cold looking for a restaurant that no longer exists. We ended up at Subway instead. Tasty and WARM, a little too warm even. Of course we had to finish off the evening with another round of hot fudge sundaes and one more show on cable. This on was on steel -- how it's made, recycled and mixed with other things to be just about the strongest most flexible and durable material ever made. It was so amazing.

That finishes up the trip. Besides getting up at 4:00 Utah time to fly back home, Friday was uneventful, YEAH!!!! After we picked up Spencer and Abbie at Grandma's I came home and just had a bowl of delicious cold cereal. Call me silly, but I couldn't believe how much I missed such a simple thing.