Washington DC

WARNING! THERE ARE A LOT-and I mean A LOT of pictures in this post. Feel free to skim. If you can believe it, I actually tried to limit the pictures considerably.

On August 1st, we went to Washington DC with some of Josh's family. We have wanted to go to DC since we've been married (Josh has already been, but I hadn't.) Josh's sister has a house just outside the city, and her renters just moved out, so we figured this was the perfect opportunity. I have to tell you, that I LOVE cities and again, I was not super happy about coming home. I'm still working on convincing Josh to find a job back east. 

We flew in late on the 1st, and started our vacation on Thursday morning with a tour of the Capitol. I promised myself that I would remember all the interesting facts that the tour guide told, but even a week later, they're already gone. So we'll just mostly skim through pictures instead.

 The people at the time really wanted George Washington to be buried in the Capitol, but he said that he wanted it to be "the people's capitol," and even wrote in his Will exactly where he wanted to be buried. This spot is supposed to bring you good luck if you step on it. (Although our tour guide said he broke his leg, the day he did.) So far, Meili's limbs are all still in tact!

 There are statues throughout the Capitol-2 from each state. So here is Brigham Young.

This is our whole group. Josh's sister Liz, Kami (Josh's brother Jake's fiancee), Jake, Amy (sister-in-law), Jared, Me, Josh, and Meili.

 We took a quick stop at the Library of Congress. It was not even like National Treasure. They did not show us the President's book of Secrets!

Everyone else went in the Supreme Court while I waited outside with Meili so she could have a quick nap in her stroller. 

 The Holocaust Museum was amazing, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside. So this was the best I got. We spent a few hours inside, and it was so well done.

 We went to the Washington monument to let traffic subside a little, and to get a little snack for all of us.

 Then we raced off to the Arlington cemetery to see the last changing on the guard of the night.

That was an experience. We got to the gate at 6:45 and asked someone where the changing of the guard was. He told us the last one would be at 7:00, so we ran (with Meili's stroller, and a 23 week pregnant Amy) uphill, in the humidity, after walking all day to make sure we made it...

 ...which we did, with minutes to spare!

 This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where they honor all those who have died in war but their remains are unidentified. The tomb has been constantly guarded since 1937.

Our day still wasn't done, as we walked the streets outside DC trying to find a restaurant called The Shake Shack that Amy had heard about. I don't know if it was all the hype from walking all around the city, but it definitely didn't live up to our expectations. 

And all that was just DAY 1! Can I say we spent the week exhausted?

 On Friday, we stopped by the Masonic temple which is near Liz's house. But they wanted us to pay for a tour, so we decided against it.

 Then we took a tour of Mount Vernon, where George Washington lived.

Even with all that Washington did, he considered himself a farmer first. And his residence showed it!

Check out the view!

This is where Washington was eventually buried. He was first buried in a much smaller site, as per his will. But I guess it wasn't fitting for such a great leader.

Then we stopped by the DC temple. Talk about a great location! It is like a beacon on the freeway.

The Iwo Jima monument

Jefferson memorial

On Saturday morning, we stopped by the Pentagon to see Josh's brother in-law's bench at the memorial.

I thought it was beautifully done.

Then we went to Ford's Theater to see where Lincoln was assassinated.

This is the house across the street where Lincoln actually passed away.

We took a tour of the White House. If I'm being frank, it's only about the third most disappointing landmark I've seen in my life, preceded only by Idaho Falls and Crazy Horse. 

It may sound bad, but let me tell you what I mean. First off, my birthday was listed wrong on the records so I spent most of the tour in a holding area outside with 20 others miserable vacationers, and one little girl who desperately needed to got to the bathroom, and wasn't afraid to tell everyone. Then, Josh and I sped through about 4 rooms in the White House, on a self-guided tour (which only means "Kaleena doesn't know what to look at or what questions to ask.") 

I wasn't expecting to see everything, and I had already been warned about the tour, but still. I thought at least we could walk around on the grounds a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I totally get why high security is necessary. I was just expecting a little more. 

Then we just had to find another food place that Jake had seen on the food network of something. We got lost walking around the streets of the city again, only to find this very po-dunk looking one-room, hole-in-the-wall. But it was voted "Best in DC." Jake wasn't lying.

But it was totally worth it, just to see how excited Jake was. Like a kid on Christmas.

And the pizza wasn't half bad! Look at the size of that slice!

Then we did the speed tour of the zoo, all for Meili's benefit.

And the reason for which this vacation was planned... Baseball games. First off, the Washington Nationals.

On Sunday, we hit as many Smithsonians as all of us could handle, starting off with the Air and Space Museum. 

This is Charles Lindbergh's "The Spirt of St. Louis."

Meili's highlights of the trip were...

-The plane ride to and from DC

-The Metro where she constantly said "choo choo"

-The planes at the Museum where she constantly shouted, "plane! plane!" 

-And, last but not least, the new toys I got her to keep her occupied in the plane and car

Since she loved the planes so much, we got her her very own plane.

Then, we went to the Natural History Museum.

I thought Meili would really like the animals, but she of course fell asleep the second we walked in the door, and woke up the second we left. Oh well! A nap's a nap!

At the American History Museum, we saw the Sunstone from the Nauvoo Temple.

But Meili's favorite part was drawing on the wall!

Then we toured a few more monuments in the rain...

...Starting off with the World War II memorial.

Then the Lincoln monument. We were sure the rain would just blow over...which it did...right after it soaked all of us.

They were doing work on the reflection pool, so there was no water it in, which was disappointing.

 The Memorial for the Korean War

 Martin Luther King Jr. I took a picture of the quote so I could remember why the monument was created the way it was.

 Vietnam War Memorial

On Monday, we drove up to Philadelphia for the day. Funny story... 

Josh and I had our Garmin set to guide us to Philly using the shortest distance, rather than the least amount of time. So we took the LONG way to Philadelphia and had the pleasure of driving right through the ghetto. But it was a straight shot to steps in the movie Rocky.

Doesn't this look just like Sly running up the steps?

Of course we had to eat a Philly Cheese Steak, and this place was highly recommended by Google. It was actually quite the phenomenon. Kind of like the soup nazi on Seinfeld, you have to order exactly right. There were even word for word instructions right next to the window, and at the bottom it said, "If you don't get it right the first time, don't panic. Just go to the back of the line and try again." I ordered my sandwich, paid nine dollars, and had a sandwich in my hands in five seconds flat. They were pumping people through the line like nothing I have ever seen. We guessed they made between $500 and $1,000 just in the 15 minutes we were there. But, now I can say, I've had a true Philly Cheese Steak.

 Then we took a tour of Independence Hall

A courtroom inside

The room where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written and adopted. The chair in the back of the room, is the actual chair that George Washington sat in.

The Liberty Bell

That night we went to a Phillies game.

Thank goodness for the little parks at stadiums

Meili was so hungry, she ate all the food that we put in front of her. That has NEVER happened!

On Tuesday we drove through and saw some of the sites at Gettysburg.

 We hiked up Big Round Top, and there were little walls of rocks that they would hide behind all along the trail.

 This is looking across the water from Fort McHenry where the Star Spangled Banner was written.

 And the last game we went to was a Baltimore Orioles game on Tuesday night. The game actually went into 13 innings, and Josh and I ended up having to leave early so Meili could go to bed. At least the Orioles won in the end.

On Wednesday, we had a pretty relaxing day, since we were all so beat from our busy week. But we wanted to see what the monument was that we could see from the freeway. It ended up being an air force memorial.

And we went to Arlington cemetery one more time, since we had gone through so fast the first time.

 The eternal flame at JFK's gravesite

Robert E. Lee's house

I took so many pictures trying to capture Arlington cemetery, but there is nothing that can do it justice. The rows of head stones go on and on and on.

Sadly, this was the best picture I got on the flight. But I had to document one of Meili's favorite parts of the trip.

We had so much fun, and, as you can see, saw so many sites. Josh was ready to come home, even if I wasn't. And I just have to say that Meili was such a trooper. We drug her all around the city, and she went to bed later, and got up earlier than she ever does at home, but I think she enjoyed doing some new things and getting attention from lots of adults 24/7.