DC day 3

The first museum of the day we went to was the Holocaust Museum.  This was the only picture I took there, a quote by an author I read in college- Elie Wiesel.  The museum was every bit as gray and ugly and horrific as the book "Night" was.  I can't think of a more appalling reminder, a more terrible tribute to the lows of humanity.  The point of the museum was to never forget, and I know that is a lesson we need sometimes.  That said, the museum was maybe a little too much for me to handle.  The images and stories are heart rending and sickening, and to try and enjoy your day afterwards is difficult.  The museum was highly recommended, but I don't see myself ever going back.  

There was an area of the museum dedicated to those who defied the laws to hide and smuggle Jews and the Roma out.  It was actually amazing to see that when the citizens in some countries did not just sit back and let the Nazis run unchallenged, the survival rate of the Jews and Roma was phenomenally better.  An impressive and noticeable difference.  There's a lesson there, I think.

Ryan texted me updates from the Saturday morning session of conference, which is how I learned about the new two hour church block and the reminder/shift in how we as a church should be referring to ourselves and Jesus Christ's church.  

On to the Natural History and American History museums!

 Creepy, large crab.

 The Hope Diamond

 I remember computers like that.  I guess that makes me old.

 Tsk, tsk.  The Smithsonian did not get the update about the correct way to refer to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  (This is said totally tongue in cheek.)

 My goofy picture of the day.

 Emma was really excited to see Dorothy's Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz.  The high school is working on their performance of this very play, and Emma was hoping to be able to brag to her peers about how she's actually seen the REAL slippers.  Alas, they are not currently on display.  This was the closest we got.

And the Swedish Chef is awesome.

The we risked life and limb again on our way back to the hotel.  Rick said he was going to write a scathing review online when we were done with this trip.  It wasn't only the driver, but the ants and beetles that were all over our rooms at the hotel.  Leaving snacks out was a really bad idea.

Emma and I reheated our left over take out dinners from the night before.  They were huge meals.  Then we watched Women's Conference on my phone before going to bed.

Ryan hadn't been sleeping well in my absence.  (Ha!  See, it's not just me.)  He informed me that he figured he would make applesauce at 11:30 pm the night before since he wasn't sleeping anyway.  He went ahead and fell asleep on the couch until the smell of burning apples awoke him much, much later.  He burnt my favorite rice and soup pot beyond help.  When I got back home, I soaked and scrubbed and scraped that poor pan, but in the end I just had to throw it away.

National Mall, part uno

It was the second full day in the DC area, and we headed to the National Mall.  We started at the White House.  There was very little press and protestors, considering this was in the thick of the Supreme Court Justice drama.  We had very good luck with the timing of our visit.  We saw the news upon returning to our hotel a couple of the nights to see that we missed throngs of protestors by a day or only a couple of hours.  It was very much a blessing to miss the crazies.

The Secret Service was out in force.  I think they are trained in the art of the photo bomb.

 I think we kind of color coordinated.  I didn't realize this until we got back to our hotel and I was going through our photos.

 Vietnam Memorial

 Korean War Memorial

At this point of the day we reached places I had not visited before.  When I went with Ryan and Brynne many moons ago, we only spent a single day in DC and there's only so much you can fit into one day.

 We had a ways to go before we got to the Jefferson Memorial.  It was waaaaaaaayyy on the other side.

This next photo is honor of my dad, knowing how much he loves FDR.  Or not.

I had no idea who George Mason was before this.

 Made it to see Jefferson!  He's barely visible at this point.

 Emma found her favorite Thomas Jefferson quote.  This bookmark was $7, so we only took a picture of it.  Later Emma found a lanyard with the quote for about the same price, and got that instead.

 Lots of quotes.

 We had each only eaten about a half of a lunch with the cost of sandwiches being so ridiculous.  Emma and I made use of the granola bars and water I had stashed in my purse, but even still I was ravenously hungry.  My body was completely confused on when was the right time to be hungry and sleep.  So we made it back to our hotel via the Super Crazy Hotel Express, and ordered Chinese delivery once our feet made it back on terra firma.  I offered to go downstairs to grab our order when it arrived, seeing how tired my in-laws were.  Where I authorized a tip for the delivery guy on their credit card.  I felt rather awkward coming back to the room and saying so.  "Hey, I spent your money without asking first!"  So I stashed a little extra cash in their room when I paid for our meals.

Arlington

Morning came before I was ready.  The sun was at least up, so my body was half convinced it was indeed time to get up.  Emma and I had barely unpacked the night before, mostly just crawling into bed after arriving at the hotel, so getting ready to leave was pretty straight forward.  Shower, clothes, make up and go.  We met Rick and Kim at the car and got cozy in the backseat with our luggage for the drive to our next hotel in the Arlington area.  But first, breakfast at a diner with a gift shop.  Emma and I were impressed with the size of the candy.

The drive was intense.  Drivers in Maryland and Virginia don't have much in the way of personal space, and cutting people off seems to be part of a regular commute.  Once we arrived at our hotel, Rick did not get behind the wheel again until it was time to leave Monday morning.  We did make ues of the hotel's shuttle to the metro station at Pentagon City, and aquainted ourselves with the train.  

Our first stop was Arlington National Cemetary.  The weather was surprisingly hot for October, and I was glad I brought a pair of shorts.  The cemetary is vast and hilly, and definitely somber.

We saw John F. Kennedy's grave site.  The flame did not show up well in pictures.

We witnessed the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, followed by a ceremony for some firefighters.  There wasn't a lot of information about the firefighters thing, but there were many in attendence wearing dress uniforms.  Plus one guy in a kilt.

I liked the amphitheater.  I have included some of my attempts for cool looking architecture shots.  Maybe someday I will figure out how to do those properly.

Once we had reached the uncomfortable temperature of rivers of sweat running down our bodies, we got back on the train to rest our feet for a few, and head to the Pentagon and 9/11 memorial there.

 We had to walk around three sides of the Pentagon to get to the memorial, and there were posted signs saying photographing the Pentagon is not allowed.  I generally follow rules, but... not always.  We were able to view the part of the Pentagon that had to be rebuilt.

Once our feet were good and tired, we made our way back to the train station and hopped on until the "Pentagon City" stop.  There we met our shuttle to take us back to our hotel.  I'm fairly sure we missed death or dismemberment by a very small margin.  That driver was insane!  We ran stop signs, found ourselves in the middle of intersections after the lights had turned red, nearly took off other car's bumpers, and took turns like a race car.  All the while our driver was singing along to the radio and snapping his fingers in time to the music.  There were more than a few pleas sent heavenward that we would survive the ride.

Thankfully, we did. 

We got checked into our hotel, only to discover that instead of the room with two beds that Emma and I thought we were going to have, we got a room with one king sized bed.  It's weird sharing a bed with anyone other than Ryan.