Washington, DC trip; July 4, 2014 (post by Lorri)

To celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary, we decided to take to trip to Washington, DC.  This was the hubs first trip to DC.  I'd been once before, as an almost 17 year old 4-Her (along with two busloads of Kansas 4-Hers).  That trip took place in 1976, in late July, just after the big bicentennial celebration. 

Boy, did things change.

We picked a hotel in downtown DC, so we could walk or ride the Metro.  We got the hang of riding the Metro pretty quickly, we only took the wrong train once. (Actually, we were on the right train line, it was just headed the opposite way we wanted to go.)

Our hotel was about five blocks from the White House.

Yup, we did a White House selfie.  

Of course, there was some kind of protest in front of the White House each day.  They were pretty small, and everyone seemed to be well behaved.

We strolled on to the Washington Monument next.  Photos just don't do justice to how magnificent it is.

There was a storm rolling through that evening, so the clouds were a nice backdrop for the monument.

The next morning, we took the Metro to the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery.
 I do not take a photo of the Pentagon.  There were many, many signs saying "Do not take any photos".  As I did not want to spend anytime in the Pentagon pokey, I happily complied.  There is a nice memorial on one side of the building, for the folks that died on Sept 11 when the airplane crashed into the Pentagon.

Arlington cemetery was amazing.  And extensive.

The changing of the guard was very touching.  They placed a wreath provided by a high school.  I'm guessing different organizations can provide wreaths for this.  When the soldier played taps on his bugle/trumpet, it just sent chills through me.  The word "respect" went through my mind the whole time we were at Arlington.

The next morning, we got tickets to go through the Holocaust Museum.  Oh my.  I would highly recommend spending some time here, if you have the opportunity.   Hitler was so very evil.  It was so disturbing seeing all of the exhibits.

Selfie at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. 

The hubs really liked this museum.  He's worked in the aircraft industry for a number of years, so he felt right at home.  It was so cool.  I lost track of how many aircraft they have hanging in the building.  I especially like the old planes.  There was a military band playing that day, so we were treated to some good music while we enjoyed the exhibits.

Here is Mark sitting at the base of the Washington Memorial.  This was where we sat on July 4th, while watching the fireworks.  On our anniversary.  I read that they were expecting 700,000 people that day.  Sure was nice of all those folks to help us celebrate.

And yup, the fireworks were pretty darn incredible.

More about our trip in an upcoming post.

Happy Birthday America!