Washington DC

Although we have been to DC before (about 2 years ago), Charlotte had not and so we wanted to take her to Washington DC while she was still with us in the States.  Call it our civic duty.  Here are some of our pictures from the trip which was a rush, but still super fun.  We packed a lot in in just one day.  I love visiting all those monuments and special places.

Super cool Lyman sporting his souvenir from this visit to our nation's capitol.

 The White House, all decked out for an Easter egg hunt.

 Charlotte in front of the White House - a must have picture for the scrapbook.

 A lovely picture of the flags surrounding the Washington Monument.

 Sad thing about the monument.  As you can see it is fenced off and closed for tours.  This is because of the damage it sustained in the earthquake a few months ago.  The super sad thing was that it hasn't been repaired yet because there is bickering in Washington as to who should foot the bill.  Com'on people!  Is this not a symbol of nation and a tribute to our first president?  It made me sad to learn this.

 The Jefferson Memorial - didnt make it here again this trip - its a long walk around that pond.

 This is the new Martin Luther King Jr Memorial.  It was quite impressive and I was happy to get to see it this time.  It  was not built yet last time we went.

 It was such a pleasure to get to walk around DC and share our visit with my brother, Bob, and his family.  The kids loved getting to spend time with their cousin Misha and, of course, see Ruby's personal favorite, "Unka Bob."

 Abraham Lincoln Memorial - my favorite thing in DC.  Just love this place.  For some reason there is such a sweet feeling there.  I would definitely put him on my list for people Id like to meet when I die.

 When we stopped for our picnic lunch, it became apparent that we had two opinions on which soda was best, Pepsi or Coke.  So I had each side present their best "ad" picture.

 The whole lot of us on the steps near the Potomac River eating our picnic.

 The Cherry blossom trees were still blooming making for some very pretty views.

 Bob works at the Pentagon now and so he gave us a tour of the un-super-secret-agent-spy parts.  Afterwards we went and saw the 9/11 memorial built there for those who died either in the plane that crashed into the Pentagon or in the building itself.  It was a neat memorial that had a lot of symbolic things.

 There is a bench with running water under it for each of the victims.  They are arranged by year of birth for the victim.  It was quite a solemn thing to go to the year of your own birth and see how many people your age died in the tragedy.  Also the benches each have the name of the victim printed on it.  It is on the open end of the bench.  If you look at the name and you are facing towards the pentagon, it means that person died in the Pentagon.  If you have your back to the Pentagon when you read the name, facing the open sky, it means they died on the airplane.

 We took a picture in front of the press stand for the Pentagon.  Just so we could feel cool.

The guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  A quick trip to Arlington National Cemetery was also necessary for our trip to DC.  It is also a favorite of mine and I am always glad to get a chance to be reminded of the beauty of those grounds and the sacrifice of so many men and women in the name of justice and peace and freedom.  My justice, peace and freedom.