East Coast Trip - Part 4 - DC Day 1

So Monday morning arrived and we started our adventures in Washington, DC with the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum over by Dulles Airport. We got there right as it was opening so there were hardly any people there.

Doug and I grabbed a map and went and searched for my grandfather's WWII plane. We asked some of the workers where it was and they didn't know...so we were on our own. After a quick search, we found it sitting right next to the Enola Gay, the plane famous for dropping the Atomic Bomb onto Japan

A Kingfisher, the plane my Grandpa Bob flew during WWII

We spent the rest of the time at the museum taking a million pictures. There were so many cool airplanes. And they even had the Space Shuttle Discovery:

It was HUGE!!

Even had real battle scars from reentering the atmosphere

 There was a part of the hanger that we could look down into and see them working on reconstructing old planes:

 There were so many things to look at, here are a few of my pictures:

The Concord

 

There are Mike, Nicole and Joshua...we caught sight of them every now and again.

I had to make a model of this one back in High School...it was cool seeing it in person

When we had walked the entire museum we rode up to the observation tower to see if any jetliners were taking off. It was a little cloudy so most of the flights were taking off on the far runway. But it was a great view. They even had a control room to look at.

And it wouldn't be complete without a stop at the gift shop. Mike and Nicole had fun trying on hats.

Then we hopped back into the car and headed for downtown Washington. I got my very first view of the Capitol through the window of the car.

Once again Mike had found us a great parking garage just a couple blocks from the Mall. We were going to split up that afternoon, Doug and Josh were heading for the Art Museums and Mike, Nicole and I were heading for the Holocaust Museum. But before we split, we found a whole block filled with food trucks, so Doug and I grabbed some lunch.

Doug and I found a yummy looking teriyaki truck and ordered some. Waiting for our food to cook, I had a nice chat with some of the ladies waiting line. Friendly folks, those locals. Then we headed for the museums, there are some pretty cool buildings along the way.

Department of Agriculture Buildings

Just a short few blocks and we were at the Holocaust Museum. I took a bunch of pictures there as well. It was a very sobering experience. It displayed a very dark part of our world history. Here are some of my pictures:

Entrance chamber designed to look like the buildings of a concentration camp

Rise of the Nazi Empire

Fall of the Nazi Empire

Some of the men and women that tried to help the Jews get out

It was a great museum, sad...but not all history is happy. Then we headed back to the Smithsonian Castle to meet back up with Doug and Josh. The Castle is probably the coolest looking building on the Mall. It is used as a visitor center with a cafe. There was also a huge map of the Mall.

We were all pretty tired at this point in the day but we wanted to go and try and see some of the monuments. So Doug, Josh and I headed for the Washington Monument while Mike and Nicole would follow after getting something to eat. The Mall between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building was all torn up and under construction. And the dome of the Capitol Building looked like it was covered by a shower cap...so they didn't look their best but all the other monuments were breathtaking.

Washington Monument...so HUGE

It's just a little bit bigger than the Bunker Hill Monument

Glimpse of the Capitol Building

Lincoln Monument in the distance....its a lot further away than it looks.

Josh was always finding a good tree to climb

And Doug was always looking for four leaf clovers

One of my favorites

There is a column for every state

This shows the numbers lost in the war

Then we walked down the reflection pool to the Vietnam War Memorial, Lincoln Monument and the Korean War Memorial.

Looking back at the Washington and WWII monuments

Forward to the Lincoln Monument

Vietnam War Memorial

There are a lot of names on that wall

Steps of the Lincoln Monument...we met up with Mike and Nicole here.

Good ol' President Lincoln

Looking back at where we had come from...the Washington Monument doesn't look any smaller. Notice the little Eagle sitting in the lower right hand corner? It was nice of him to pose for my picture.

No matter where you stand there is always a statue looking at you....kind of eerie.

After this one Doug and I made our way back to the car, Mike, Nicole and Josh had already headed back.

Glimpse of the Jefferson Monument...we didn't make it over there

Doug showed me a cool rose garden on the way back to the car. He had seen it earlier with Josh...Roses are my favorite flowers so I loved the garden.

 

 

A secret pathway...very cool

With one last sight of the Capitol Building, we made it back to the car where the others were waiting.

We headed back to the hotel and Doug and I took advantage of the pool, while Josh and Mike went to get pizza. Then we ended the night watching Pitch Perfect on Mike's laptop....resting up for our last day in DC.