Where to start!

Since last I posted an actual post about the sights we are seeing, we have gone through Philadelphia, Amish Country, and have spent two days touring Washington, D.C. This will be an abbreviated review of what I thought of each stop. Hold on to your hats!

  Tuesday afternoon we arrived in Philadelphia, PA. It was really neat to see some of the stuff there, and though Liberty Hall was booked, we did get to see the Liberty Bell, Christ Church, and Benjamin Franklin's grave. We also got to get some Philly steak sandwiches, and they were VERY good. :0) In case you haven't yet, go to this post by my mom to see pictures of our Philly stop:  http://onlyonedayliketoday.blogspot.com/2013/05/day-thirteen-philidelphia.html.

The next day, Wednesday, we toured Amish Country a bit before heading to our campground outside of D.C. I enjoyed the beautiful scenery, and it was interesting to see how simple these people live. It was a nice reprieve from the big cities we had toured in the past few days.

Thursday and Friday we toured Washington, D.C.! This was actually a change of plans. We were going to hang out at our campsite all of Thursday to rest up, but after learning that a vast "herd" of hogs and their respective bikers were heading into the city this weekend for Memorial Day, we thought it best to see as much of the sights as possible before the big crowds arrived.

We saw the Supreme Court, the Capitol, the Library of Congress, the Washington Monument, and the White house on Thursday. My favorite stop was no doubt the Capitol. The Rotunda and Statuary Hall were awesome! The tour of the Library of Congress was a bit boring as the lady guiding it focused mostly on the art of the building, but I survived. The Washington Monument and the Supreme Court were covered in scaffolding, but both places were still neat. we got a little bit turned around in our quest to find the White House, but once we finally found it at about 9:30, it was pretty neat, especially at night.

Supreme Court

 



 The Capitol



Library of Congress

 White House

Yesterday, Friday, was wet, cold, and windy, so we got to see several of the Smithsonian museums!
We went to the Air and Space Museum first, followed by the Museum of Natural (Evolution) History, and the Museum of American history. My favorite museum was probably the one on American history, but both the other museums had some interesting stuff as well. The Air and Space museum was pretty cool, but we had seen a lot of the same kind of stuff in our own Museum of Flight back in Seattle. The Museum of Natural History was OK. The word "evolution" could definitely fit in the title, though there was a gemstone collection there that was awesome (thanks for the tip, Kari). The collection of gems and rocks reminded me of a show we went to back in Arizona with you, Grandpa.

We also saw the Jefferson memorial

 

 

 

There is so much to see in Washington, D.C.! I have no doubt that we could spend weeks here and still have not seen everything. We still need to see the Lincoln memorial and Arlington Cemetery for sure, and maybe several other memorials. Today we will be taking it easy at the campground. Timmy, Caroline, Daddy, and maybe Joe now have had a stomach virus that is making the rounds in our family, and the rest of us are pretty tired; a day of rest will be refreshing for us all.