DAY 5: WA Monument, Printing/Engraving & Arlington Cemetery

DAY 5:

Today I went all the way up the Washington Monument and I could see everything around. I took some picutres of the White House and the Lincoln Memorial. The monument is the highest masonry building in the world and the highest building in Washington, DC. This is me outside and I wasn't feeling very good when I was up there - it was crowded, hot and loud, and the windows were really small.

This is Mom and me waiting by the elevator to go up the monument.

This is me looking out the really small window. There were two windows on each side (that's 8 windows).

Here is the only picture of the White House that I took. This is the back of it. We couldn't get an inside tour because we needed to get reservations 6 months before we got there.

Here is another picture of the Lincoln Memorial, but this one is from the top of the Washington Monument.

I also went to the Arlington National Cemetery. We took a tour bus up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier because if we walked we were going to be late. It was really cool. There was a wreath laying ceremony too that an elementary school presented for a field trip and a soldier played his horn.

Some of the tomb stones were really big, but all of the newer ones have to be like these small ones. They are government issued to save space.

Here is the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. It holds unknown soldiers from WWI, WWII & the Korean War. It did hold one from the Viet Nam war but they used DNA to find out who he was, so they took him out. Soldiers guard the tomb all the time, 24 hours a day. Each duty is 1 hour until the "changing of the guards". They clean the rifle, hand it off, then he marches 21 steps, stops, then he turns around and waits, then turns around again and marches back another 21 steps. Oh, and he switches hands, so that the rifle is always on the shoulder that is the farthest away from the tomb. The soldiers who have this job, have it for 2 years and they live in barracks underneath where the tomb is. They also can't drink alcohol or swear. When they are done with their duty they get a wreath pin to wear and not very many people have one, I think it's like 400.

This is the Kennedy area of the cemetery. We got there at 5:03 and the guard wouldn't let us go up! I really wanted to see JFK's memorial stone and the flame that is there all the time. Underneath this picture is a picture of where Robert Kennedy was buried after he was assassinated. At least we got to see this.

We started walking back to the metro, but got lost because we followed a group of high schoolers back to the visitor's center, but they didn't know where they were going. Finally, Mom looked at her map and we finally got out of there.

I went to the Bureau of Prining and Engraving. I got to see where paper money was printed and how they print it. Coins are made in Colorado and I think Pennsylvania. It was a pretty short tour but I liked it. The money is printed on big sheets of paper on one side, then it has to sit for 72 hours before they print the other side. Then it is cut in half (the big sheet) and then more markings are put on it. I got to see a whole clear box of $10 bills that equalled $1,000,000 but we couldn't take a picture. Then it gets packed and sent to the Federal Reserve - it doesn't turn into real money until they get it and put the final marks on it.

This is the very first kind of money printing machine. The new ones cost over $4 million dollars each and they are a lot bigger than this one.



I got to go on a carousel that's out in front of the Smithsonian Institute on the Mall. Tomorrow, we are sleeping in and then leaving. We might get to do one more thing but I'm not sure. We don't get home until almost 2 in the morning. I can't wait to see my dad and my friends. I'd like to say hellow to my dad, Teryk, Josh & Jacob, Aaron, Leah, Cameron, Rowan, Jace, Tia & Cade, Jessica, Abigail, Aunti Lisa, Uncle Billy, Auntie Shelley, Uncle Clint and Nana and Papa. I want to have a party when I come home but I don't know if my mom will let me. The End.

DAY 4: International Spy Museum & Swimming

DAY 4:

Today I went to the International Spy Museum, but they wouldn't let us take pictures. It was amazing. There were cigarrettes that shot bullets and an umbrella that pokes you and poisons you.

I really wanted to go to Ford's Theatre, where Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, but it was closed because they're fixing it up.



This is right across from the theatre where they rushed Lincoln after he was shot, but he still died the next morning.

Everywhere we go, we use the Metro. We usually ride the Blue or the Yellow. They run mostly underground and go really fast.
I got to go swimming tonight after dinner at The Hard Rock Cafe. It was a small pool but it was still fun.
Tomorrow's a big day: 1) Going UP the Washington Monument 2) Go to the Printing & Engraving Building 3) Go to the White House and (Jefferson Memorial if time) 4) Go to Arlington Cemetery to watch the changing of the guards. Then I get to go swimming again.

DAY 3: Mt. Vernon & Centreville, VA

DAY 3: October 18, 2003

I forgot to take the camera today, so we had to use Pops' camera. Of course his memory chip doesn't work in my camera or in the computer so we'll have to download photos of today when we get home. Marcus still gives a short summary:

Today we drove to Mt. Vernon which is where George Washington lived. I saw the slaves quarters and his main house. We walked down to his Tomb where he's entombed with Martha and 20 other relatives. There was a place where all the slaves were buried too but there weren't any headstones - only a memorial. George Washington started out with 50 slaves and ended with about 217. In his Will, he freed them all.

We went through the museum too. I got to see his teeth. I thought they were going to be wooden, but they are actually lead (based) with human and animal (enamel) on the outside.
I didn't go into any of the movies because they had blood and gore.

At the end, we went to see where Mom lived when she was a little girl, in Centreville, Virginia. WE got lost, but I got to play my gameboy so it wasn't too boring, just really long.

DAY 2: The Capitol & The Smithsonian Institute

DAY 2: WE MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU DARREN! WISH YOU WERE HERE. XOXOXOXO T&M

Couldn't get too close to the Capitol Building - they're getting ready for the Obama Inaguration!

I went to the capitol today and got a tour. I went into Representative Rick Larsen's office where everyone meeted up to go on tour. I started out in the House offices and walked through tunnels full of wires and tubes. The representatives use the tunnels so they don't have to go outside... for safety.

I saw the rotunda. There were tons of statues; most of them were bronze and some were marble. There were lots of historical paintings too.

We went into the old senate chamber but they don't use it anymore because there's one spot where if you whisper, everyone can hear it. So now it's called the Whispering Room. Guess what... what was originally in that spot was John Quincy Adam's desk. It was amazing.

The first place we went into was the crypt where they were going to bury George Washington in the 1800s but didn't becasue his wife was buried in Mt. Vernon and he wanted to be with her. They didn't want to disrespect Washington's will, so they changed plans and he's in Mt. Vernon.

In the tour I got to stand in the very center of the whole district. There was a white star on the floor that's in the very center of the district. (This was where Washington was going to be entombed.)

In a stair well, there was a chandelier with 4,500 hand cut crystals... I just can't believe it.

I also went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and I saw the Hope Diamond (below). It's the biggest diamond that has ever found. I thought it was going to be dclear, but it was dark blue. You could mistake it for a sapphire - so don't be tricked!

There were dinosaur bones and tons of dinosaurs - a T-Rex and a triceratops and so many others. So many that I couldn't even tell you all of them. The T-Rex was about as long as 5 or more grown men. It had big teeth and they were probably once very sharp. The triceratops I saw was a baby and was probably as big as a pillow. (Below is a Land Sloth).

More Day 1 Photos

Marcus in front of a Viet Nam Sculptor
Amazingly life-like sculptors in at the Korean War Memorial.

Marcus, Grani & Pops at the Lincoln Memorial. He stood in the exact spot MLK, Jr. stood too!

Marcus working on his daily sketch. Day 1: The Washington Monument, Reflection Pool with Lincoln Memorial in the background. He used watercolors on the sketch when we returned to the hotel. I'll have to take a photo of it and place it here!

There are many more photos, but it takes so long to download them all - we'll have to do it later.

DAY 1: Lincoln Memorial Plus!

DAY 1: October 16, 2008

I am homeschooled and I like it. Today we are in Washington, DC on a field trip. So far, I've been to the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial, The Lincoln Memorial and the Korean and Viet Nam War Memorials.

I also stood in the very same place that Martin Luther King, Jr. did when he gave his "I Have a Dream Speech". It was amazing!

My favorite part of the day was rubbing two soldiers' names off of the Viet Nam Memorial wall. I took a piece of paper, put it over the name and rubbed the pencil on the paper and I got an imprint of two names of soldiers who died during the Viet Nam war.

These are really cool sculptors of KOren War soldiers. They look like they are walking through a field (in a garden) and they really look like real people.
Watch my video: