After waking up incredibly stiff, we begun our day @ the Capitol Bldg with a tour. We watched a movie about Washington and the Captiol, took a guided tour, with headphones no less. I enjoyed seeing the inside of the building. It was cool to look at the statues that are in the building. Every state was invited to create 2 statues of people they felt that the worls should know about. There were a few requirements...1: the person had to be dead and 2, the statue had to be made of marble or bronze. Utah chose Brigham Young as one of their people. Brigham's statue was pretty cool. There are lions carved into the handles of the arm in his chair and beehives in the chair. I thought it was a cool carving. I had no idea who the people were for NC...sad I know.
After the Capitol bldg. we attempted to get into the archive to see the Declaration of Independance, but the line was wraped around the block. So we were able to go into "daniel's story" in the holocaust museum. I wish we would have been able to tour the museum because it is pretty remarkable. I remember going one year for youth conference and can totally remember the sick feeling that I left with.
Then we were off to see the Archives. We were to wait in line as long as it took to get into see the documents. We had several families wanting to skip line. I was kind for the first 2-3, but after that I told them to hit the pavement. A few of the people wanted to sneak in, and I couldn't have it, so I told them where the line ended. They were less than pleased with me, but I just felt had I let everyone in front of us, who didn't want to wait behind our group, then we'd never get in. I had to draw the line somewhere. Secretly, I found it quite pleasing to tell people where to go. :) While in line it rained and hailed on us. We waited for about an hour and 20 minutes to get in. I loved seeing the Declaration of Independance. It was quite majestic.
The next stop was lunch at the Air and Space Museum. This museum was my least favorite, mainly because my boys weren't there to see things with us. I spent the majority of my time in line to pee. I saw all I cared to see. Clyde did buy me a Rosie the Riveter t-shirt. I am in awe of all the "Rosie's" in the world.
Then we were off to see the Natural History Museum. I loved all the yellow sweatshirts in the museums. It made it so easy to spot all of our students.
Our final museum for the day, was the American History Museum. Exhibits had been moved around from where they were when we saw them this past summer. I loved seeing all the bits of our history like, C3PO and Kermit the Frog, to Fonzie's jacket etc. I really loved seeing the inaugural ball dresses of the first ladies. My favorite this trip was Eisenhower's ball gown. It was pink and sparkily. I found it interesting to see how tiny these women are, at least until Michelle Obama. She's at least as tall if not taller than me.
We finished the day with pizza and karoke.
Day 3 was split between a visit @ Mt. Vernon and a bus ride home. At first i thought that spending 3 hours @ Mt. Vernon was way too long, when really 3 hours wasn't long enough to tour the grounds. I thought it was cool to see where Washington lived. We couldn't take pictures of the inside of the house because everything is copywritten. I didn't want to risk being sued over a snap shot, so the camera stayed in my pocket. I will say thought that Washington loved Tiffany box blue too! :)
