Little Eagars

We jumped at the invitation to visit Lincoln and Anna in Washington D.C. over Memorial Day weekend. We found a sitter to stay at our house with Ellie and Carson and were able to take just Emma and Brady. Overall it was a really neat place to celebrate Memorial Day.

We decided to skip parking charges and all the hassle and take the Metro into the city. I knew my kids would like they experience, but they LOVED it. You can see how happy Brady is in spite of a high fever and a ruptured ear drum.

Our first stop was Ford's Theatre to watch a presentation on how President Lincoln was assasinated. He was killed in the booth behind us during a line in the play in which everyone in the theatre laughed covering up the sound of the gunshot.

He was taken across the street to the Peterson Boarding House (shown above) where he lived a painful 9 hours after being shot in the head and then died.

The wagon train led his body through 11 cities on it's way back to his home state of Illinois...one being Cleveland as you see here.

Here you see a gigantic tower of books that spans four levels. These are all book written about President Lincoln. What a man. It was very impressive.

Emma pretending to take a book out and knock down the tower.

I actually tried laying on the floor to get a shot of the whole tower looking up, but to no avail...it was just too big.

She's always wanted a souvenir penny and well no she has one.

This isn't a very good picture (I took it while walking across a 6 lane street), but it's the Old Post Office Pavillion and we took the elevator up to the highest towers for an aerial view of D.C. It was a fun thing to do, especially because the Washington Monument is under construction and we were unable to see that view.

A long line waiting to get through Security to get inside.

No introduction necessary

We walked around the entire White House getting shots from all sides.

I actually thought the Washington Monument looked impressive with all the scaffolding. Back in August 2011, there was an earthquake of 5+ on the richter scale centered in Virginia, but the quake was even felt here in Ohio. I actually remember standing in my driveway when it happened. Anyway, it cracked part of the Monument so it's getting fixed.

Emma and I had a fun time taking lots of pictures together. By this time on Saturday Brady was spent so Matt took him back to the hotel...well he tried to take him back to the hotel...funny story because they got on the wrong Metro, figured that out, and then when they got back to the car he discovered he'd left the car keys and his wallet with me. So for 5 hours they waited (in a park, in a mall, and finally resorted to flipping coins for entertainment). Brady actually told Matt it was the best afternoon of his life though so we consider it a win. :)

When we were visiting the Vietnam Wall, a worker showed us this fun reflection way of taking a picture there.

Here we are halfway up the steps of the Lincoln Monument where Martin Luther King gave his famous I Have A Dream speech.

She felt pretty proud to be standing in that exact spot!

Four score and seven years ago it was just as amazing as today. The actual size and magnitude of the Lincoln Monument is hard to describe. It's pretty amazing.

This picture illustrates how windy it was that day (20-30mph). We walked about 3 miles that afternoon and ended up with wind burns.

This is a new memorial from the last time I was there and is Martin Luther King cut out of stone. It made me excited for Mt. Rushmore in a couple weeks.

We walked ALL THE WAY around the Tidal Basin to get to the Jefferson Memorial. The plan was to paddle boat, but it was too windy!!!

So this actually ended up being the only picture of the outside of the Jefferson Memorial we got so squint your eyes and look closely.

Here we are inside so happy we made it...it was a LONG walk. This girl never complained once.

I gave Emma a map of the city, a map of the Metro stations and had her guide us to the closest one. I love maps and want my kids to appreciate them as well as know how to use them. She did a great job.

Once in the Metro station she even found us the right train headed in the right direction.

We made it...it felt FABULOUS to sit down!

On Sunday we were all together again and visited Mt. Vernon (estate of President/General George Washington) at Emma's request. She's our little history buff. I'd been there a couple times before and knew it was well worth the drive, time, and money to go there. It's gorgeous and sits on the banks of the Potomac river.

Emma's holding up the map to demonstrate how large the estate is...and we visited every last square inch from the slave quarters to the gardens to Washington's tomb. She recently read some books about Mt. Vernon and there was no way she was going to miss a square inch of the place. We were there for 4.5 hours. Since the last time I was there, they've added a fabulous museum and we learned a lot of history. If only we still had Presidents today like we did back then....

From Mt. Vernon we drove into the city and visited the Pentagon Memorial at the Pentagon. This was very special to us as Brady is named after my High School friend and college roomates husband who was killed here on 9-11.

It was purely by chance that Brady had on his Brady jersey, but I felt it fitting.

We were able to get a map and have somebody explain to us the design of the Memorial. It's too complex to explain by typing, but I'd be happy to explain it to you.

September 11th, 2001 at 9:37AM, American Airlines Flight #77 struck the Pentagon in the West Wing (the newly finished wing) where Brady Kay Howell was starting the 2nd day of this Naval Internship.

This is Brady's bench. If you look carefully you can see his name inscribed into the bench. It points away from the Pentagon because he was a victim inside the Pentagon. There are lights inside the water under the benches which reflects onto the gravel at night. There are 184 benches...one for each victim of the tragedy.

Brady's bench just happens to be located under the shade of a sugar maple tree.

Since Brady born in 1975 this was how we located his bench. The youngest victim was 3 years of age and the oldest was 71.

I'm not sure you can tell or not, but the section of the Pentagon the plane crashed into is a lighter color stone than the rest.

After the Pentagon, we got some dinner at Cafe Rio (soooo yummy...worth driving out of the way), we headed to the Temple and got this beautiful picture at dusk. By this point I had come down with a fever and sinus infection and was feeling pretty crummy, but I'm so glad we didn't skip out and return to the hotel because it was a great experience with our kids.

I needed a picture with Brady after all my shots with Emma. So here you have the 2 sickies, but how could you not smile with that gorgeous Temple in the background.

After we came out of the Visitor's Center, we got this shot.

Sick and tired, but happy.

Our last Metro ride with Uncle Lincoln and Aunt Anna on Memorial Day. We parted ways and unfortunately skipped Arlington National Cemetery on a very special day, but I was sick and the kids were more interested in the Smithsonian's so that's where we went. Our time was limited with a 6 hour drive home and another essential Cafe Rio stop on the way home.

When I took this picture it was to capture her reading my favorite book series ever when I was a kid, but now it serves as a reminder to her as her first "motion sickness" experience.

These 2 needed some fair representation as well.

This boy sure appreciated his screen during the travel times.

It was a great experience visiting the Smithsonian's on Memorial Day and walking down the National Mall amidst the Armed Forces vehicles, parades, and High School Marching bands all rehearsing for the parade. Brady also enjoyed the frisbee football game.