D.C. Diary

SUNDAY APRIL 12, 2009

Happy Easter Family! Today I celebrated Jesus being my savior! As I am in our Nation's capital I am in awe of how God works his plan through the talented architects and leaders. Today we visited the Daughters of the American Revolution building- This is an organization that you can belong to if your family is entirely originated from the U.S. and you are related to the founding father's in someway. Secondly, we walked about 10 miles (Sis I kept thinking about how much you love to walk:) around the Washington Mall which includes the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, and Korean Memorial. I am sure I forgot a memorial. The emotions that these memorials evoke is breathtaking. I can only imagine what those who have lost loved ones go through when seeing the names, soldiers, nurses, and president's who dared to defy history.

Today at the Lincoln memorial I was about two feet away from Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State. He was speaking at the anniversary of Marian Anderson- An African American women that was denied the honor of singing at the National theatre. Eleanor Roosevelt had her sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in protest to this discrimination. The musicians were singing in her honor today and this added to the electricity at the Mall.(No Janelle, not a shopping center:)

Alice, Monica's Grandma treated us to the Broadway Musical, Chicago and it was FABULOUS! The music, dancing, and the half-naked women kept us on the edge of our seats. I haven't been to a play since 8th grade Phantom of the Opera and Mom look out because I am hooked. It's 11:35 p.m here and we have another busy day ahead of us. Monica and I are catching the metro in the morning and heading to the Holocaust museum, the Engraving...where they print money, Georgetown, Arlington Cemetery, and whatever else we can squeeze in.

Oh yeah I forgot, I saw the White House today-they had the Easter Egg hunt on the back lawn, and I managed to finish a book:)

In one day I have managed to eat Thai food, delicious and Dim Su(I think that's spelled right) it is a form of Chinese food, but it's nothing we have in Humboldt. Both were very good.

Love you all,
Danielle

MONDAY APRIL 13, 2009

Today was another busy eventful day in D.C. Monica and I rose quite early and headed to downtown D.C. on the Metro aka Subway. It was fun, fast, and no mom there wasn't any creepos:) We began at the Holocaust Museum and we were there for three hours. I knew a lot of the history but seeing the real things from the concentration camps, always serves as an emotional reminder. After the museum we grabbed lunch at Union Station and then headed to the American History Museum. Needless to say another two hours flew by and next thing we knew it was time to head back. I have digested a lot of history today and I am sure I will either see starving children in my sleep or this escalator that went up a 100 ft that Monica tried to get me to ride on.......I took the elevator:)

Tomorrow, our plan is to take the Metro to Arlington Cemetary and then on to Pentagon City...

TUESDAY APRIL 14, 2009

This morning I slept in! It was great. Monica and I stayed up late last night watching "The boy in the striped pajamas."-Highly recommended and based on a true story. The trippy thing about the movie is that it is about a family during the holocaust. We had been at the Holocaust museum yesterday and everything we saw at the museum was also in the film, very authentic. We also watched Twilight but I fell asleep. Monica said it was super good. I am going to finish it tonight. We rode the metro to downtown D.C. again and waited in line for two hours to get into the National Archives. We had our books and it didn't seem like two hours. You're wondering what is even in the Nat'l Archives, the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Constitution, Magna Carta, and a bunch of other COOL documents and stories. It was great. We then headed up to Arlington Nat'l Cemetary and I saw JFK's grave with the eternal flame, and the changing of the guard at the tombs of the unknown soldiers. It was breathtaking. We finished are day at Pentagon City. They have a four story mall! Janelle, you would have enjoyed the stores. I got both you and Sis a little gift. What till Co nnor see's his helmet I got him. It's a green army helmet with netting on it. Picture the Mash show:)

Tomorrow we are having a private tour of the capital, the Native American museum, and something else I forgot, oh yeah massages:)

WEDNESDAY APRIL 15, 2009

Monica and I had another wonderful day. We began our day with the SPY Museum. It is a privately funded museum so it was very different from the public museums such as the Smithsonian's. They had a great gift shop so you'll all be getting some fun spy gear. After the SPY Museum we took the metro back up to Capital hill and went on a tour of the Supreme Court. This was one of my favorite buildings. The clerk who gave the tour was amazing. She was a wonderful speaker and she had an immense knowledge of the history of the court and the day to day happenings. Today was BEAUTIFUL in D.C. The sun was shining and I wore a sleeveless shirt all day. After the Supreme Court we walked across the street to the Library of Congress. Dad, you have read David Baldacci's book series on the "Camel Club" you know the building that Caleb works as a librarian in. It was cool to see the location. You can all guess what my favorite part of the place was, the books:) We took a tour there and learned a lot of facts.

As a mother anytime that you aren't waking up to the demands of children is considered a vacation but this trip is physically exhausting. My feet and brain are worn out and we barely skimmed the surface. Tomorrow, we are headed to Georgetown to site see and then in the evening we are going to an Independent film, all subtitles. I think we are eating Peruvian food for dinner. Don't ask me I am just along for the adventure.

My goal of writing each day to my family was two fold. I didn't want to forget what we did each day and I also wanted to share it with my family