Washington D.C.

Here's a quick tour of our two days in Washington D.C. First the Capitol. Even though I'd been there before, I'd forgotten how big it (and all the other buildings and monuments) are.

Our tour of the Capitol was fun; especially the inside of the Dome. The original idea was to have sculptures all around the inside of the dome. When that proved to be too expensive, artwork that looked like sculpture was used instead. I was fooled when I first walked in, until our guide explained what we were seeing. If you are good friends with a Congressman or Senator they can actually take you up on the walkways in the very top of the dome. Apparently they take their staff and interns. Talk about vertigo!

This is the very center of Washington D.C. All points in the city are measured from this point in the Capitol. The center is indented from all the people standing on it over the years.

Thanks to Jim Matheson's office, we had a more personalized tour of the Capitol given by one of his interns. He showed us a place on the floor where a cat had stepped in the wet cement. Apparently, cats used to be regular inhabitants to keep down the mice. There are no more cats, but the story is that just before national disasters people will see a ghost cat in the Capitol. Just one of the interesting tidbits we learned.

We walked all the way around the tidal basin to visit Jefferson....

...and Roosevelt. This monument was newer. It consisted of several different "rooms" to commemorate each of the four times he was elected President. Each had a water feature that isn't shown in the pictures.

The kids listen to a fireside chat...

...and stand in an unemployment line.

We loved seeing Lincoln.

The Vietnam Memorial is another one that I hadn't seen. It wasn't there on my previous trip as a ninth grader. It was touching to see the many flowers and memorials at the monument.

And it was interesting to see our ghost like shadows reflected in the names of those who gave their lives for our country.

The World War II Memorial was peaceful and the cool water was nice to sit beside.

The Washington Monument was closed for a short time just before our tour to the top. Apparently a tourist had left a backpack down below (with the permission of the security guard who wasn't supposed to let that happen). When someone questioned the presence of the backpack, the security guard didn't want to fess-up, so the place was evacuated. They were just letting people back in when we walked up, and we heard the story from another tourist. There was also a helicopter circling the area. A short while later we noticed that the streets were blocked off and a motorcade was coming through town. Was it the President? It looked like his limo and that even more than the evacuation of the monument would explain the presence of the helicopter.

We found a turtle on the grass laying eggs.

We learned the Washington Monument is stone on stone with no other supporting structure. Really? Isn't that why we had to have a multi-million dollar renovation of the Utah State Capitol? I guess they aren't too worried about earthquakes in that part of the nation.

We also loved visiting the Smithsonian museums.

We saw Wilbur and Orville's original plane with new canvas and probably more than a few replaced wood struts, but otherwise as original as you can get.

The Hope Diamond was in a temporary new setting to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its being displayed by the Smithsonian. After this year it will be returned to its traditional setting.

We finally made it to the White House.

Note the sniper, security guards on the roof. No wonder tours are so hard to get!

We also visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial. Here Camille and Rachel stand outside.
I didn't take any pictures of the inside. I don't even remember if you could; I just remember that I didn't. I don't remember anyone asking us to be quiet, but it was rather silent inspite of the large crowds. The museum is very moving, powerful and truthful. I had to hustle Rachel past a few displays, though I recognized that some elements of the history could have been told much more graphically.

We saw many other cool things that you can't take pictures of: the flag that stood over Fort McHenry and inspired "The Star Spangled Banner," the very faded writing of the original Declaration of Independence in the National Archives, along with the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and the room in the Capitol where Congress meets just to name a few.

We ended our tour of D.C. with a trip to the beautiful temple. Next stop-Philadelphia!

Mount Vernon and Arlington

Our first stop on our trip was Mount Vernon. This house and surrounding museums could take all day to visit and ended up being one of the kids' favorite places. I loved seeing Washington's home; he considered himself a farmer first and foremost and used many innovative farming practices for his time. It was also interesting to see how revered he was among his contemporaries. His accomplishments were recognized even in his day. No pictures were allowed inside the home, but green was Washington's favorite color and the family dining room had bright green walls. Green was also an expensive color and indicated the wealth of the homeowner. Other walls were painted blue, another expensive color.

Appropriately, we were there visiting the home of the father of our country on Father's Day. An actor portrayed Washington and did a great job of telling his story.
I was in the gift shop looking at this year's Christmas ornament for Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon creates a new ornament every year, and since our family adds one new ornament to celebrate each year this seemed serendipitous. I noticed that this year's Mount Vernon ornament had the Arnold Friberg painting, "Prayer at Valley Forge" on the back. The little explanation with the ornament said that the original is at Mount Vernon. We had passed a painting that we all thought was a copy. It was under glass, but other than that there was no indication that the painting was special.We ran back into the museum to get a picture.

The curator said "We get a lot of Salt Lake Mormons that go crazy over the painting." I told him I would be one of those. For a painting that's supposedly worth millions you'd think they'd make a bigger deal out of it.

Because we spent so much time at Mount Vernon we were left with little time to see Arlington National Cemetery. We had enough time for a quick bus tour and to see the changing of the guard which was very precise and impressive. We are so grateful for our armed forces.

Vacation 2011-East Coast and Church History

We just got back from a wonderful vacation. However, to make it great required more planning than had ever before gone into one of our vacations. It required an entire notebook to hold our reservations and advance tickets. We figured we spent as much time planning this trip over the last few months as it took to actually go on the trip! I used to think that being a travel agent would be fun--now not so much.

Look how impressed our children were with all of our efforts.

Seven people, eleven days, and we packed it all into this small pile of luggage. Just like backpacking, everyone had to carry their own stuff.

This was Erin and Camille's first plane ride that they remember and Rachel's very first plane ride ever. Or in her words, referring to how many times we changed planes, "Four more chances to die." I think she is channeling Grandma Adams!

Luckily for Rachel, other than our first landing in windy Denver it was smooth flying.

Stay tuned for the rest of our adventure.