An update of the last four days (feel free to skim)

Friday March 30, 2006-WARNING-Long trip explanations!! Prepare for skimming ahead!!

The first place we started this morning was at the Library of Congress. While we were waiting for our tour, we walked next door to the Supreme Court building. I was moved to tears by the huge majestic marble columns. (Remember, I am a sentimental sucker for all things patriotic.) We went back to catch our tour of the Library of Congress. This was a spectacular building fully decorated in Italian Renaissance style. Of course, any Classical educator worth their salt gets excited about seeing one of the three surviving original full Gutenburg Bibles. I was amazed at the perfection of the type set and ink. The reading room was something we looked into from behind a closed window, but I’m pretty convinced that any book read in that room would make you smarter just by osmosis. Both Annsley and I fell in love with that room! I also enjoyed seeing some letters written by George Washington and an original manuscript of Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography since that is what I brought along to read.


Next we went to hear a lecture at the Supreme Court Building. It was interesting and we took a little tour of the place.














The highlight of the day for the boys was the Air & Space Museum. I realized that Danny and I are great complements for homeschooling because he got so excited in the hands on science part and was explaining things to the kids (and me, as well!) I get more excited about all the history/literature stuff. So, between the two of us, our poor children are constantly being subject to school.

We also took in the Botanical Gardens which were lovely.

Note to future DC travelers…SKIP THE ZOO!! To be fair, it closed earlier than we thought and so many of the animals were put away for the night. But, the joke is now that the only animals we saw were a squirrel and an emu. Part of the problem is that is was quite a distance of walking for us at the end of a day already full of walking.

Saturday, April 01, 2006
This morning started at the Washington Monument. We walked around the mall and the cherry blossoms were absolutely amazing!! No wonder they seem to make the National news every year. The weather was perfect for this day. My favorite is the Lincoln monument. (Yes, I teared up.) I had the kids quote the Gettysburg address for me. (they’ll have to do it again in Gettysburg. J) I had never seen the Korean or WW2 memorials before and I was very moved by the sculptures done of the Korean War soldiers. We haven’t studied WW2 yet and Danny gave a short history of WW2 for the kids while sitting looking over the memorial.

The one place where we have had to pay for admission so far is the National Aquarium. Don’t bother. It is very unimpressive. Neither of the kids even ranked it in the top 5 things we saw today.
Our bonus treat for the day was a tour of the White House grounds. We were disappointed because we were not able to get a White House tour before we left. However, two times a year they open up the white house grounds for tours. We got to go right up to the White House. This was an unexpected addition to our itinerary and it was in everyone’s top three favorite things of the day.

Lastly, we went back to the Air & Space Museum for the 5:00 planetarium show. This was very interesting. Then we took the subway back to the hotel and rested our oh-so-weary feet!


Sunday, April 2, 2006
This morning we started out the day at the Museum of American History. We enjoyed seeing things from the Revolutionary War time since that is what we have been studying and I really loved seeing the original Star Spangled Banner. (Yup. Teared up!) Danny enjoyed taking the kids through The Price of Freedom exhibit and explaining the different wars. Annsley and I liked the First Ladies’ gowns.

But the highlight of the day for everyone was the Museum of Natural History. If our feet would have lasted we could have spent 10 times as long there. The gems and rocks were a big hit for everyone. Seth gave us a guided tour in the animal sections. (Who knew he was actually reading all those books. I always figured he was just looking at the pictures. He knew all sorts of animal trivia.) There was also a cool exhibit on ancient peoples including a real live (dead) mummy. There were some cool little videos about Ancient Egypt. We saw some of the vases from Ancient Greece that were just like the ones we studied from Story of the World.

We ended the day at The National Archives and saw the original copy of The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and The Bill of Rights, and one of the original copies of The Magna Carta. The kids were so excited to see John Hancock’s name. I made the kids quote the intro to the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution. I got a little teary just standing in the room with such greatness.

Monday-April 3 We started out the morning with a Congressional tour of the Capitol building. It was very interesting until about 3/4 of the way through our tour the lights went out in the Statuary Hall. All of a sudden they started ushering people out of the building and the men in charge didn't look like they were fooling around. I would be lieing if I said my heart wasn't beating a little faster than normal, but it was amazing how fast and efficiently they got people out of there. It turns out that it was just a power outage, but it made for an exciting morning.

This afternoon we spent way too short of a time at the National Art Museum. I had no idea the amount of famous paintings they have there. I went from room to room in awe explaining to the kids and my less than enthusiastic husband and father-in-law what I remember from Art in Story. (Thank goodness for homeschooling!) I could have spent hours there, but we had to check into our next hotel. I loved comparing the different Madonna and Child paintings. Those were my favorites, but there was art from Monet, Cezanne, Manet, Van Gogh, VanEyk, Renoir, Ruben, Rembrandt, and the list goes on and on.

I'll update again tomorrow before we leave this hotel.