At Easter-time, just aftet our visit to see Amy's family, we made a detour on the way home to stop by Washington D.C. and show the kids the sights. We 'warned' them that it was going be more like a museum and not so much like a 'park', and they were both geared up for the trip. So, we took a train from Vienna to the heart of D.C. and the four of us toured the hot spots between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
It had been about five years since the last time we came to D.C. with the kids. Kerrigan was literally a baby and Jude wasn't quite 2-years old. Since that time, the World War II Memorial and the Korean War Memorials were built and we were looking forward to finally seeing them as well as the other monuments we've seen before. Jude is especially interested in presidents, soldiers, wars and history. He was so into the trip... I'm so glad he was not disappointed. Even Kerrigan was totally into all the monuments and never complained once.
The picture above is of the ... uh, never mind.
Not so obvious, this picture is also of the WWII Memorial, though all you can really see of it is the fountain. The memorial itself is totally impressive and we spent more time there than at any of the others, I think. You can read more about the WWII Memorial here if you want.
The picture above, in case you didn't see the reflection in Kerrigan's sunglasses is at the base of the Washington Monument.
The Lincoln Memorial was one of Jude's favorites. Not only because Abe is one of his faves, but also because he bought a flip-card set of all the presidents in the gift shop :)
Now his favorite presidents are George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren... you get the picture. He was telling me all about Grover Cleveland the other night and how he was the only president to serve two inconsecutive terms in office... way to go buddy!
The Korean War Memorial was my favorite; if not from simply an artistic perspective, the power of the soldiers in the garden made the whole atmosphere very hushed and somber.
Even the picture below as from the same memorial. Much like the Vietnam memorial, the stone was very reflective and the kids were in awe.
When we got to the Vietnam memorial, Jude and Kerrigan both looked at all the names written in the stone and said, 'that's a lot of people that died.'
'Yes it was', we told them. It sure was.
Even though we didn't get to go to the White House, the Capital Building, the Jefferson Memorial, any of the art museums, the Holocost Museum, National Archives, et al... we told the kids we'd grab them next time. They can't wait for the next trip.
It was by far the best D.C. visit Amy or I have ever had.
