Washington D.C.

Okay, so last week my Dad let us all know that he had to go to Washington D.C. for a week. He has to do that every now and again, so it wasn't a huge shock or anything. But for years I've wanted to go to D.C. to photograph it, and see all the awesome monuments and such. The thought of going with my Dad did cross my mind once or twice, and then on Saturday my Mom and Dad said they had been talking about Anth and I going with him, and thought it might work!

Well, I was uber excited. I'd always wanted to go, and I was finally able to!

We decided to leave a day early, so we could get all the transportation issues figured out with Dad as far as the shuttle, bus, and Metro...

The first day (Monday) was a blast! We walked around D.C. with Dad, and really had an awesome time! We saw most of the main stuff, like the Washington Monument, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum (which we left - it was absolutely riddled with evolution...), the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the World War II Memorial. Those were all really incredible to see.

Tuesday my Dad had to work, so Anth and I went out alone. We went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (which was a total blast...until we got charged an arm and a leg to ride a lame simulator. Oh well.), the Museum of the American Indian (which was a little strange...we ended up leaving there, too, because of the Native American religious stuff and that sort of thing), we tried to get into the Library of Congress but they wouldn't let me in because of a tiny pocket knife I had on my key chain, then we walked an uber long way to see the National Archives (which were incredible. We saw the Charters of Freedom, and it was amazing.), then it was getting late, so we got back on the Metro and headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday we stayed at the hotel and did school.

Thursday we tried to hit all the places we hadn't seen yet. We tried to get a tour of the Washington Monument, but all the scheduled times that we could have gone were out of tickets...So, on to the White House! That was neat to see. We tried to go around the back, but there was construction going on, so we couldn't. Then we went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. I was really interested in this place, but we didn't have time to see the main exhibit...oh well. So, we went into the exhibit about Nazi Propaganda. It was very interesting. Then Anth and I decided we had had enough of that, so we looked for an exit. There were a bunch of exit signs pointing in the same direction, so that's the way we went - right out the emergency exit. I looked before and after I opened that door, and nowhere did it say that it was an emergency exit. I'm positive. So, yeah, the door started beeping and we were then told we couldn't go out that way and to just leave the way we had come in. So, we did. On to the Jefferson Memorial! It was cool, and we got some neat photos of it. Then we walked many miles to the Library of Congress. What a neat building. I was a little disappointed that we couldn't get in the actually library part of it, but it was still neat to see. After that, we studied the map and made sure there was nowhere else we wanted to go, then made our way back to the Metro station, then to the bus, to the shuttle, and finally back to the hotel.

What an incredible trip! I'm very thankful that I was able to go. It's been what I'd call a dream of mine for a long time, so it was absolutely awesome to make it real! And I really want to go back some time...anybody else wanna come???

Here's the link to some of the photos I took while I was there: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=4783&id=1774080747&l=7a9332c400


Toodles for now!

-Dominic