Deb N. & Family - June 2007

Our trip to Washington, DC
June 9-June 11

Friday, June 15

We are up early and our host drives us to Arlington National Cemetery. He drops us off and we head to JFK’s Eternal flame it is quite a walk. There are so many buried here is an awesome site. To the left of JFK is his brother Bobby, he has a very simple cross on his grave and he is right below Arlington House.

Now I never knew the history behind this place. Arlington House was the home of Robert E Lee. His wife was a direct descendent of Martha Washington: George Washington had no children of his own. So when the Union Army took over Arlington House they made it a Cemetery for soldiers. Long after the war the Lee family got the home back but could not live there with all the graves. The US Government bought it from them for $150,000.

The home did not open for tours until 9:30 so if I were to do this again I would go to the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier first, it gets very crowded with busses later and then go up to JFK’s and Arlington House. We were some of the first to tour the house that day. It has some awesome views. We actually saw a caisson preparing for a funeral. Out of respect we could not take a photo of it but it was beautiful. My children were the most bored at the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier. When we first got there it was packed, watch out for the bus groups. So we could not see at all. When the groups left we walked down to the rope and had a front row view. We saw 2 wreath laying ceremonies and one more changing of the guard. The girls did not understand the whole significance of this and they are kind of young to “get” this.

While we were walking we saw Glen Miller’s gravesite. It is an awesome experience but one to be treated with great respect. The guards tell you to be silent and remain standing and they mean it!

Our friend picked us up and we were beat from all that walking. He drove us to the Pentagon where he used to work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After going through the security drill again, we had a photo ID made and went around the Pentagon where 15,000 people work almost everyday! Can you even imagine the traffic! It has it’s own metro station of course. There is a bank, a pharmacy, a hair salon; everything their employees would need to do before they go home is located on the premises. We enjoyed it very much. It is a very intimidating place.

I bought my Dad an Army Veteran hat here in the gift shop. After the Pentagon We were dropped off at the Lincoln Memorial. Most days for lunch we ate hot dogs from vendors. It was quick and cheap but you have to watch if they do not have their prices posted, ask before you buy. We paid $3 for hotdogs from one vendor and learned our lesson.

In front of Lincoln there was a group of kids singing “America the Beautiful”. With all those monuments around us to hear that song, well it was very cool.

From Lincoln we went to “The Wall”. I love the Vietnam Nurses Memorial for obvious reasons, so we saw that. One of my new favorites is the WW2 Memorial. It is a beautiful tribute to all that fought in that conflict. There was band playing patriotic tunes. It was awesome.

The Washington Monument is so awesome. To go up in it you must line up in the morning to get your free ticket. It gives you a time to come back. Since I am claustrophobic and afraid of heights we chose to look at it from the bottom up!

From here we decided to walk to the Whitehouse. On the way we found the National Aquarium. This was our biggest disappointment. There was a charge to get in and it was very small and not worth the time or money.

After that we walked around the Whitehouse and took some photos. Then we were off to find a Metro Station to get back to our friends house. We walked a few blocks and found the Metro. The have automated ticket machines where you buy Metro cards and you can put as much money as you need on them. We got 4 metro cards with enough to get us to Roslyn, where we need to catch the bus to Arlington. So here we are Ohio hillbillies going to ride the metro and a city bus and for my kids it was the first time for both. We met a nice lady who helped us get to the right train. She helped us get seats and let us know when our stop was called. These trains are so fast! What we didn’t know was we could have bought a bus transfer ticket when we got our metro tickets and it only costs .35 to transfer. We had a nice bus driver who could tell we were tourists and she only charged us .35 to ride to our stop.

We walked about 3 blocks to our friend’s house and sat on his deck and relaxed. When he got home we went in search of pizza. The Uno’s in Arlington closed; so we went to the mall and had Sbarro’s. It was OK and we were so tired and hungry we didn’t care. We ate and then the mall closed. We saw the Home Depot where a woman was shot by the DC sniper and went home to crash.

Tomorrow we go to see my nephew in Maryland.

Saturday, June 16

We did not set the alarm. We needed sleep! We got together and drove over to Maryland. It is difficult to go from the Virginia side of DC to the Maryland side. You have to get off the freeway and go through town and turn around a few times. We had our GPS and still it was challenging.

My nephew is the brother of the kid who graduated High school. Out of over 8,000 students at NC State his rank at graduation was 1! He got a job with Northrop Grummond and is writing programs for radar! Very COOL! We saw his apartment and he said he was about 10 minutes from Annapolis so off we went for a nice walk around a cute little town. We had an expensive lunch and dropped him home.

We headed back to Arlington and had to get on and off the freeway again but we did better this time. We cooked burgers on the grill and hung out on the deck. It was a perfect evening. Let me add the weather was perfect for us. It was cool, in the 70’s. But the heat was coming tomorrow. I packed some of our stuff. Did some laundry and we are ready to head for home tomorrow.

Sunday, June 17 Father’s Day

Our host did some much needed sleeping in. We packed our car, stripped the beds and cleaned up any mess we made. We headed to the Jefferson Memorial. I would love to see this when the cherry trees are in blossom. It was very nice. My Nephew gave us a tip about the waterfront near by where you can buy fresh seafood. After touring around there we set off to find the waterfront.

We found a great little waterfront seafood market and bought a ½ bushel of blue crabs to bring home! The van smelled like steamed crabs all the way home! We brought a big enough cooler to fit all the crabs in and they cooked them for us for $40. We LOVE blue crabs!

We headed over toward the Whitehouse. Our host arranged for an employee of the Whitehouse to give us a tour. We found a free parking spot 3 blocks away and walked over. We were early. I took some great Father’s Day photos of hubby and the girls. Jonathan arrived and we went through the security drill. We were given special passes and off into the West Wing we went. We saw the Oval Office and the cabinet meeting room. The Rose Garden was so beautiful and fragrant. The girls were disappointed: no Barney (we love dogs too)! The guard at the Oval Office told us that the President has a bobble head collection of himself in his private office! This was very impressive and intimidating. We had to dress in business casual clothes and security was very tight. We enjoyed it very much.

When we got out of the Whitehouse it was 101 degrees! I am so glad it was not that hot all week. We drove to the outlets in Hagerstown, Md. They have an L L Bean outlet. This is the second year in row I got a bathing suit for under $15. It was marked down and then an extra 30% off! WHOOHOO! We were home by 9 pm.

It was a good trip. We did a lot of walking. Food is very expensive. Planning is very important. If you have never been on a subway, have a local help you out. The Metro was clean and safe as was the bus. Parking is free on the weekends but during the week it can be very costly so we avoided it. There are a lot of foreign workers and tourists in DC, more that WDW. It is a great trip for school aged kids but I would not take kids younger than 7 or 8. They have to be able to be still and quiet or the guards will escort you out of most places. We will definitely go back soon!

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