Washington DC
July
7, 2006
White House Tour,
Ford Theater, Air & Space, Indian Museums, Botanical Gardens, Iwo Jima
Statue, Marine Corps Band, Drum & Bugle & Silent Drill Team Sunset Parade
We started the day with a White House
tour. They neglected to tell us no cameras were allowed in the House, so Naomi
had to stay outside with our camera. The House was interesting, but it was a
self-guided tour, so we really didn't get any information other than what we
could see. Mr. Bush doesn't keep good beer in the refrigerator. We wondered
around for awhile, the kids only remember that the rooms were named after colors
and the dining room could hold 140 people.
We then walked to Ford's Theater where
Lincoln was shot. You couldn't get within 50 feet of the booth but the rest was
nice and informative. Donald noticed the statue of Lincoln had both ears. On our
Capital Tour the statue only had one ear and Donald answered the question
correctly about what was different about it. The guide said it represented his
work wasn't done. We then walked across the street to the house he died in.
We walked to Air & Space, where the kids
played in the interactive area for about an hour and then we headed to the
American Indian Museum. We started with a "Habitat Tour" outside the Museum.
They told us about the Grandfather rocks (40 of them) around the building, the 4
rocks for N-S-E-W, the water, plants, architecture of the building and symbols
depicting planets and moons on the doors and sidewalks. Naomi enjoyed the
planting technique that they planted corn, beans and squash together. We then
took a self-guided tour of the inside of the museum. It is a beautiful museum
with some great exhibits.
After the American Indian Museum, wee
walked to the Botanical Gardens. The gardens were very pretty and peaceful. They
had a kids play area in the middle, but our kids didn't need to play in the mud,
so Donald pumped on hand-pump that made water come out of a fish fountain and we
skipped the dirt.
We then took the subway to Arlington
Cemetery and walked to the Iwo Jima Statue. I thought the statue overlooked the
river, so we headed toward the mall from the subway station and then to the
left. We ran out of sidewalks and eventually found it, but definitely not the
way to go. Our trip back took us through the cemetery.
Back to the subway, we headed for the
Marine Corps Barracks. On the way we had dinner at a nice Mexican place on 8th
Street just outside the Barracks.
The Parade started at 8:45 pm with the
Marine Corps Band. After a few songs, they were joined by the Drum & Bugle Corps
and finally by the 6 platoons of Marines with M14 rifles and fixed bayonets and
the mascot, a Bulldog named "Chesty". The Silent Drill team did their thing,
great performance as expected and the Drum and Bugle Corps finished the night
with some great music. Donald sang along when they played "Proud to be an
American" and later told us it was one of Kristin's favorite songs.
After the performance, we waited around
for pictures with the dog and then back to the subway and hotel.
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