Day 2 Part 2

Continuing with my wrap up of my Maryland Trip. This is heading in to Arlington Cemetery (again through a rainy window). Interestingly enough originally the land was owned by George Washington's adopted grandson. He intended to build a memorial to George Washington. Eventually the land was lost because of not paying taxes and was turned over to the federal government that turned it into a war memorial cemetery.

My sister's kids did another great job of walking up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is quite a walk.

At first I teased my sister for putting a leash on her daughter, but after I witnessed my niece nearly run into traffic I realized she needed it.

Many people don't realize that some children and wives are also buried at Arlington. We even saw a tombstone of an infant.

The tomb of the Unknown Soldier was very impressive and I was even glad that we were able to see it in the rain because it was impressive to see the soldiers do their tribute in the rain. My niece and nephew were also impressed and at times tried to copy the soldiers walk.

Next to the Tomb is an amphitheater that is entirely constructed out of marble.

My sister suggested I take the above picture. We tried to be discrete about it, but it brought a sense of reality to what the memorial is all about.

We were able to see the changing of the guard.

We were also able to witness a wreath changing ceremony.

Day 2

The second day of my trip to Maryland was such a big day I am going to have to do it in two posts. We decided to start the morning by visiting the National Cathedral. My brother-in-law had suggested visiting it the night before and to be honest I wasn't really sure that a church would be that impressive. We chose to have my sister drive on this day. She drove me to the sites while I got to tour around and then jump back in the car. This way we didn't have to look for parking or haul around the kiddos.

The other great thing about our plan was that I got to see a lot of things but didn't get stuck having to take lengthy tours.

After the Cathedral we took a tour of Embassy Row. It was interesting to see all of the different buildings for each country.

Next stop was Lincoln Memorial. This was the only day that was raining. This picture was taken through the car window.

I love the Lincoln Memorial. On my next visit I would love to see it at night.

I had a nice Asian couple take my picture. The husband kept speaking to me in Chinese and I couldn't understand a word he was saying.

Then I ran over the Vietnam Memorial.

I really enjoyed seeing the Memorial. The only thing that was frustrating was that there were a lot of school groups touring. The teenagers just didn't appreciate what the Memorial was about. They were laughing and talking loudly and chasing each other. I saw the same thing happen at other sites as well and I just have to question the worth of taking school groups to this site if they can't truly appreciate and respect what they are seeing. The afternoon was spent at Arlington Cemetery. I will post more about this later.

Our big trip

This past week Baby boy and I traveled to Maryland to visit my sister and her two kiddos. We had so much fun. It was the first time that I have been there and we did a lot. Frankly I am still trying to catch up on my sleep.

The first day I was there we rode the metro into Washington D.C. It was my first time.

This is the very first building I saw when I came up from the underground metro. I was amazed at the architecture. My sister had to keep reminding me to watch where I was going because I kept walking looking up.

The first stop was the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

We thought this was funny because it was called the Logan Sapphire so we had to lift up my nephew to get a picture next to his stone.

It was fun to see everything, but I found myself continuously thinking of the kids and how much they would love to see what I was viewing. The below picture was the winner in the National Geographic contest. I had to take a picture of it because Midge loves panda bears.

I would have loved to show Leo the dinosaur exhibit.

After the museums we went to see the Washington Monument.

The Capitol.

The White House.

It is funny to me that baby boy got to see all of this and yet he won't remember a thing. When we went to see the White House they had a lot of it blocked off and they wouldn't let us get close. Then about an hour later 3 presidential helicopters flew in and landed on the grounds.

I loved the building of the American Craft Smithsonian. Inside the below piece was my favorite piece.

My sister's kids were amazing. Her son Logan walked the entire day, at least 2 miles. By the end of the day I was exhausted and he still had energy to run.

When we got home I surprised the kids with their own sock monkeys.

I have a lot more pictures but I think I am going to have to post them day by day.