FAMILY FUNNNN - Day 4

Today was yet another PACKED-FULL day of activity! We slept until a half-way decent hour then got up and our first stop was Starbucks…we knew we were gonna need some caffeine in the system! We then walked down the street to the White House, which we just saw through the front gate.

It was seriously so beautiful…everything that I had pictured it to be. We then walked over to the Washington Monument, and of course took full advantage of every possible “not normal” picture. 

We picked up tickets to ride to the top of the monument at night, because it just sounded like a cool thing to do. We then headed over to the National Archives Building, which first of all, was beautiful from the outside!

Then inside we got to see all kinds of super famous documents, including…

The Declaration of Independence….

The Bill of Rights…

and The Constitution. So awesome! We also got to see the Magna Carta, Treaty of Paris, and others…it was like being in the middle of a gigantic historical scrapbook. We then grabbed a quick lunch and headed over to The Holocaust Museum.

I was wanting to go there almost more than anywhere in D.C. because I’d heard it was quite amazing. And it was. I don’t really know what to say about it. I guess I’m still kind of processing all of it. It doesn’t matter how many times I hear about it or read about it or watch it, it’s one of the most amazing things in all of history to me – how a group of people could possess such hatred for another group of people simply because of their origin. That hate could be so strong that killing massive numbers of people would be the only answer. That one evil man could gain such power and that propaganda could be so persuasive. And what’s even harder…is to think that genocide like this is happening even today. After visiting the museum, I had a renewed desire to educate myself more on what is happening in Darfur and commit to helping raise more awareness to the evil that is happening there. It’s just pure hatred. Innocent lives being taken day after day. It’s almost unbearable to think about. It was weird because we all kinda left the Holocaust Museum in silence…a lot to think about. It wasn’t until later that night that we really even talked about it.

After the museum, we headed back to the Washington Monument for our ride to the top. While waiting in line, we saw 3 helicopters fly right by the monument toward the direction of the White House. People started running and taking pictures, so I assumed they were something important so I started snapping pictures too. 

I then found out that the last one was Marine One – yeah, the president’s helicopter. Even cooler was that by the time we got to the top of the monument and had a straight shot to the White House, we got to see the helicopter take off with – maybe the President? – inside.

We had some awesome views of D.C. from the top of the monument. 

We then headed down in what we affectionately called the “smellevator”. I tell ya, by about 6:00 in the evening, after a day full of sun and sweat, the B.O. is really coming on strong for many.

From there we walked over to the World War II Memorial and this super sweet wading pool and fountains…

Every one of those stars represents 100 men who died in World War II. 

We then walked down the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial…so awesome.

This was probably my favorite part of the trip – hanging out on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, perfect weather, perfect scenery. Loved it.

Then it was well past dinnertime, so we headed to a DELISH Mexican spot near Haley’s apartment called Tortilla Coast (? I think that was the name...). We got there about 30 minutes before closing time so we pretty much had the joint to ourselves…which is always fun.

Then it was time to take Haley home and CRASH! Awesome day…