Washington DC: Side Trip (PIC HEAVY)

We drove into Shady Grove to hop onto the Metro, the station is at the end of the line.

After playing Fallout 3, I now have a new respect for the game. I've spent quite a few hours playing Fallout 3,  then having the chance to actually go to Washington DC and seeing the sites, it  brought back some fun memories. I tried to image when the bad guys were, and how they had modified the terrain. Just a few random thoughts that I had during our trip.

 

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History was our first stop of the day. "The Night at the Museum" was commonly quoted.

 

The dinosaur has been replace by the elephant, and the Easter Island "Dum Dum want Gum Gum" is just outside the doors to the left of the elephant.

 

The natural environment photograph winners was awesome. 

 

My favorite of the exhibited photos. This is an actual photograph, which blows my mind.

 

A girl's best friend very best friend - The Hope Diamond.

 

 We exited the museum, onto the National Mall, and headed towards the Washington Monument. It is still closed to the public and being restored after the earthquake.

 

The WWII Memorial was next. My Grandfather served in the European Theater and was stationed in Occupied Japan. He signed up for the Army and showed up and the Drill Sargent was going down the line saying, "Army, Navy, Army, Navy....". He got to my Granddad and he was designated as Navy, and my Grandfather began to tell the Sargent that the recruiter told him he would be Army. Well, after a few minutes of back and forth, Granddad headed off to the Army.

I got to tell a few more stories for the boys about our family.

 

They have these small bronze sculptures along the wall, and we had to take a picture of the D-Day landing. Sweetheart's Grandfather died around this time. The mission  and location of his death are still secret.

 

 The Vietnam Memorial was our next sight to visit. This is one of the sights that I really wanted to visit, since a majority of my patients at the VA are veterans of this war. There is a solemn silence along the wall. It was hard not to get choked up, explaining to the boys that each name was a father, son, or husband that died during this war.

Row was excited about the Lincoln Memorial because he had just studied Old Abe in school recently. He is 19 feet tall. There was a small gift shop, where I was able to purchase 2 copies of the Constitution.

The Jefferson Memorial across the tidal basin. The peak of the cherry blossoms was pushed back two weeks the day before our trip to Washington DC. By this point, we had walked about 5-6 miles and the boys were starting to drag just a bit.

We did find a few, and I mean a few, cherry trees that had some blossoms on them around the Washington Monument. Quest completed.

Today's adventure, we will head out on a small day hike along the Appalachian Trail. The Harper's Ferry point is considered the halfway point of the AT. We will visit the AT center and put our feet on the trail and have lunch at the local Dairy Queen. Row and Red Ant thinks that DQ is the best place ever.

Keep Right On Prepping - K