Day 1-2 The day we didn't sleep at all.
Drove to Portland, OR, to catch the plane east. Stopped in The Dalles, OR, to get some food, stayed at hotel near airport. Got up at 5:30 to get ready to catch plane. Then we flew from Portland to Kansas City, MO. Got delayed a long time in KC due to "tornadic conditions" in the east. Major weather happening there, so instead of leaving at 4 pm like we were supposed to, we left at 6. As we were approaching Baltimore, MD there was an obscene amount of turbulence. Worse than any I'd ever experienced. It would make my tummy get butterflies like when you are on a rollercoaster. Kind of fun, but not really something you want to experience on an airplane. The pilot decided that it wouldn't be safe to land, so we got diverted to Dulles airport in VA. We landed and sat on the tarmac for a long time because there wasn't a gate for us to pull in to. Finally we got a gate, but we couldn't deboard the plane. Then they had to switch pilots because ours was going to go over his hours. The plane had to end up in Baltimore. So we took off again because the weather finally died down in MD. But as we approached the airport we had to wait our turn just to land. The pilot said we were "vectoring" (making patterns in the air) till we could land. Again we had to wait for a gate. We were 8th out of 12 to get to a gate. People were getting really tired and cranky. It was 3:30 am by the time we finally got off the plane. Then the problem was would the car rental place be open...blessedly, it was and the nice man gave us a car. Then we had to drive another hour and a half to a hotel in York, PA. I did not get to sleep until 5:30 am. 24 hours traveling. Not cool. Not the airlines fault because of the tornadoes, but not something I want to do ever again. It kind of messed up vacation because we were thrown off from the very first day! We slept until 11:30 then went to church at 1 because we needed at least some kind of sleep. Oy vey.
Day 2 part 2
After church at a very nice ward in PA we traveled out to Gettysburg. There were some very nice small towns and lots of green fields. I am not used to green. At the visitors center in Gettysburg we saw some exhibits about the battle. It was one of the wost battles of the war where a lot of people died. The visitor center had a cool thing called a cyclorama. A big mural on a sheet that is hung in a round room depicts a 360 degree view of the battle. It was cool artistically because it was really well done, very detailed in it's depiction of the battle and standing in the middle having it all around me was a powerful experience. There were also a lot of artifacts from the Civil War. They also talked about the Gettysburg address that happened a few years after the battle. Then we bought a cd to play in the car as we drove around, listening to different stories and descriptions of the battle. I wasn't expecting for it to be as big as it was, a few miles of fields and hills and things. The landscape was dotted all over with plaques, monuments and statues dedicated to different regiments and commanders that were involved in the battle. I wasn't expecting there to be so many, but there were a lot. I've read the book Killer Angels before, and it was a very good book even though it was all about war and battle and maneuvering, so it was cool to see where that happened. The thing that struck me was how the whole war came down to the possession of a small hillside. One small hill. The story of Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine was focused on in the Killer Angels, and it is a great one. I did get a little bored after awhile and the driving in the car put me to sleep. But I did enjoy what I saw! We ended the day with dinner at Friendly's, which is an East Coast thing that we used to go to all the time when we lived there, love the ice cream. Then we drove to another town in PA, past where all the Amish live, but it was too late at night, so we didn't visit.
Since we were only like 6 miles away we went to Valley Forge. No battles happened here, but the army spent a very bad winter here during the Revolutionary War. George Washinton was a very great leader because on one side he had to deal with the congress and have to keep asking them for support and supplies for his troops. On the other side he had to keep his men from deserting or leaving the army after their enlistment was over. He was a very great leader to keep all that under control. We saw the huts they stayed in, and the house GW stayed in. Martha even came to visit during the winter there.
Then we went to Philadelphia. I had a long to-do list for this city and got to it all. We went to the big market that had a ton of food. I had some good ice cream there. Then we went to Independence Hall and got to see where they signed the Declaration of Independence and wrote the Constitution. Also where part of National Treasure went down. I also saw the Liberty Bell.
Then we went and saw the Rocky statue and the steps to the Art Museum that Rocky ran up. Plus the famous LOVE statue. We traversed the city and found Genos in the south part of Philly. It was where we got Cheese Steaks. Delicioso! From there we drove through Delaware to Maryland and stayed the night in DC.
Day 4
First day in DC. We got up and rode the Metro to near the Capitol. I was really impressed by the Metro, very efficient and clean. They don't even let you eat on the Metro. We got off and headed to the Library of Congress. I saw a Gutenberg Bible, Thomas Jefferson's personal library, and the Reading Room-"Do you know what the Preservation Room is for? Delicious jams and jellies?" (National Treasure). Then we went in the underground tunnel to the Capitol. They have a huge cafeteria there, we tried to get food but there were too many people, too many 8th graders on their field trip and people on spring break. Then we went on our tour through the Capitol Building. I saw statues and went to the rotunda. All the streets in DC are based off the center of the building. We also went to the room where the Senate first met in the Capitol building. There is a spot where you can stand and hear a whisper across the room. It was rumored that one senator would pretend to be asleep but really eavesdrop on other people. I loved looking at the architecture and the paintings in the building. Each state can have up to two statues of people that represent their state. The state can decide who they want there. There were a lot of awesome statues.
After the Capitol building we rode the Metro down to the Washington Monument. We rode the elevator up to the top. It was so cool to see the city from up so high. Then we went walking. A lot of walking. We stopped at the boy scout statue for my dad and walked by the Treasury Department. Then we walked to the National Portrait Gallery. They had live jazz in the courtyard thing and we sat and listened for a bit. After that we saw the portraits of the presidents. I liked it a lot, and got to see what some of the more obscure ones looked like. We also saw other portraits and other art. I saw a lot of famous stuff that I learned about in school. There were portraits of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Go Mormons! Then we walked around more to find somewhere to eat but couldn't find anything good. So we rode the Metro again and ate dinner at the hotel. It was a hard day because it was a lot of walking and we didn't eat anything until dinner. I recommend not doing this.
Day 5
I really wanted to go to the National Zoo because they have two Giant Pandas there. We drove up there and walked into the zoo because all the Smithsonian things are free! I headed straight to the pandas. They were so cute. I had my huge lens and got some good pictures of the animals. They hope the female panda is pregnant with another cub. Then I went to the zoo store entirely dedicated to the panda and got my stash of panda supplies. Pretty much the only souveniers I got on vacation were from here. I also saw elephants, tigers, lions and orangutans. The orangutans were cool because they let them climb these telephone pole-like things and they can climb over your head. There were two old ones and a baby one. The neighborhood around the zoo was pretty. Lots of cool old houses.
After the zoo we went to one of the National Air and Space Museums out by the Dulles airport in VA. It is pretty much a ginormous hanger that has a lot of planes. Planes from the beginning through the different wars up to the Concord jumbo jet. My favorite was the Space Shuttle Enterprise, it was huge! I also got to see other stuff related to space including astronaut underwear and space food. The sattelities were pretty cool too. It's awesome that they have all these aircraft in the same place. After the air and space museum we headed off down to Williamsburg, VA. Stopped again at Friendly's on the way for some food and ice cream.
Day 6
Williamsburg is a rebuilt replica of the colonial town. It used to be the capitol of Virginia. It was pretty cool. They rent clothes out to little kids so they can wander around looking like colonials, a lot like the American Girl doll Felicity. I wanted to sport one of the dresses. We saw the Governor's Mansion, the Magazine, the Courthouse, some famous guy's house, some gardens and other stuff. There were a lot of people dressed up in colonial outfits that were there to talk about life in that time period and actually acted like real people who lived there. It was interesting.
Day 7
Last day in DC. We got up early so we could have enough time to do things in DC. It threatened rain, but we had so much to do! Sadly, we had to skip going to Arlington National Cemetary, I'll get there next time. We were able to find free parking though near the Jefferson Memorial which we visited first. The building was pretty cool and had a statue of Thomas Jefferson. One can look across the tidal basin and see the Washington Monment and the Lincoln Memorial. Then we walked to the Museum of American History where I saw the flag that the Star Spangled Banner was based on, the original Kermit the Frog, Dorothy's Ruby slippers, Nastia Liukin's leotard and Apollo Ohno's speed skates. I also saw an exhibit about the gowns the first ladies wore. There were some very pretty ones, and some boring ones. There was a Teddy Bear, Lincoln's top hat and Julia Child's kitchen. One of my personal faves was the exhibit on technology and they had a replica of the B-reactor from Hanford. They included a t-shirt from Richland High School that had the R and the mushroom cloud on it. Love it! Richland Bombers in the Smithsonian, woot!
I met up with my friends Jenn and Aaron who drove down for the day. It was so fun to see them after almost two years of being apart. I made them walk all over town and they were good sports. We tried to go to Ford's Theater but it was being used for a play. We walked by the FBI building, holler. Then we walked up to the back side of the Capitol building. It's an impressive building, also you can see from the building down the National Mall to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. Then we walked by the Supreme Court Building, the Library of Congress, and the front of the Capitol Building. Then down to the Air and Space Museum. We saw cool stuff there too: the Spirit of St. Louis, the Wright Brother's airplane, the Apollo 11 command module and the Lunar Module. Our feet got really tired and we were really cold from the rain and getting soggy wet. We met up with my mom, dad and Gretchen and had milkshakes at the giant McDonalds inside the Air and Space Museum to rest for a bit. Then we headed outside again for more rain and walking. We walked all the way down past the Washington Monument to the WWII memorial. It's one of the newest things down there. They have things to represent each state and both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters where the war was fought. The reflecting pool was under construction so there was no water in it. Then we went to the Lincoln Memorial. It was my favorite. The statue of Lincoln is huge! His eyes follow you wherever you go. They have his second inaugural address written on one of the walls. It was cool because it started to get dark while we were there, all of the monuments looked really cool in the dark. I said good-bye to Jenn and Aaron, they had to leave to drive to PA. Gretchen and I walked over to the Vietnam War Memorial and saw that. After that we walked back past the Lincoln Memorial in the dark. Abe is lit up and peeks through the columns looking back up at the Capitol Building. Anyway, it is very impressive to see in person, especially when you learn more about what Lincoln did for America.
Different introspections from vacation
-I cannot sleep through snoring, I wish I could but I can't. I had earplugs, it helped. But I didn't do a whole lot of sleeping this vacation.
-It was so good to get out of town. Nice to leave everything behind awhile.
-I enjoyed all the sassy black people I ran into. There aren't a whole lot of black people in the TC.
-I witnessed a lot of kids having meltdowns. Vacation is hard. For that matter I witnessed a lot of adults having meltdowns too.
-Washington DC is very nice. Lots of history, cool buildings and very clean. City is set up well and streets are easy to navigate.
-There is too much to see in DC. You could spend two weeks there and not see everything. I tried to make a short list of things I really wanted to do and almost did it all. The plus side is that most of the stuff is free because it belongs to America.
-I started skipping reading all the plaques and stuff in the musems. You learn to just look at and read selectively.
-Walking takes a lot of time and energy.
-I was kind of bummed the weather was overcast most of my trip, but it only rained on us one day. So we were lucky.
-Overcast weather meant my pictures did not turn out quite like I wanted, but I'll live.
-Started in Washington, went to Oregon, Missouri, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, saw New Jersey, touched down in Tennessee, switched planes in Colorado. I was all over the map!
-All these places are hundreds of years older than Richland. Have cool history. Also they have a buttload of monuments, plaques and statues.
-It was tons of fun seeing Jenn and Aaron, they are awesome to come visit me, and troopers for walking all over Capitol Hill with me.
-I learned lots about America's history and am kind of jealous that kids back east get to go on trips for school to see this stuff.
Anyway, it was a great trip. I'm glad I was able to go to these places because it's been a goal of mine for a long time. I learned a lot of history but also experienced a lot of different things that I don't get being from the West Coast, even the highway being lined with trees is new to me. It was great!
PS. Blogger and Facebook don't do justice to my pictures. They really look a lot better than it seems.
