The next stop on our summer road trip was Washington, DC. We left Philadelphia early in the morning to start our drive down. For all of the Smithsonian museums and other attractions, we had timed entry tickets, so we were a little rushed to make sure we got to everything on time.
Our first stop was the National Archives. We had to enter in two groups because they would not allow backpacks inside. They also did not allow pictures, but here we got to see the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. These were really cool to see, especially since we had learned all about the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia and since President Oaks spoke about the Constitution and Bill of Rights during the last General Conference for our church.
We also had tickets for the Museum of Natural History. We were able to get in an hour earlier than our tickets said, which was good because they closed the museum an hour earlier than we were expecting.
Our children loved the section with the rocks and gems. We probably spent just an hour in this section looking at all of the different types of stones. This is a picture of Agnes with the Hope Diamond.
We thought this next one was cool, especially since it shares a name with my brother Malachi. It was cool to see all of the different types of natural formations that these rocks and crystals make. Some are naturally rough with sharp contours and this one was naturally round and smooth.
Our children also really liked the bones and skeletons section. Some of the animal bones look just like you might expect based on their bodies, but others look really strange.
And of course a favorite was the mummies. It is funny that the Egyptians went through great lengths to preserve the bodies and did many things to keep them private. But as a result, their bodies get put on display for all to walk by and see.
The dinosaur section was cool. They were closing the museum by this pint, so we had to hurry through to see everything.
Unfortunately, the Washington Monument, the Capital Building, and the White House were all closed. Not sure if it was due to COVID-19 or the general unrest in the government at the time. It was still fun seeing all these things from the outside. As we walked by some of these things, it started pouring rain on us. We got drenched!
The next day we went to the Smithsonian Zoo. I think this is one of the best zoos in the country and it is great that it is all free.
The elephants were up close in their indoor feeding and play area, so we got a good view of them.
While we were in Washington, DC, we got to stay with Rebecca's cousin. That was really nice. It was nice to be able to talk with them and see what their family has been up to, but it was also nice to finally have a real home to stay in. On Saturday night, their city (Alexandria) was having a firework show.
Before church on Sunday we drove back to the National Mall to walk around some of the memorials. It was hot, and some of our children were not happy about walking around and getting all sweaty before church.
At the Lincoln Monument.
All of the children got pictures next to the monument for their birth state.
The White House in the background.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Monument.
After the monuments, we drove straight to the church. Rebecca's cousin's ward had just started doing the full 2 hour meetings again and so we were excited to be able to do second hour classes with them. It was a smaller ward, with maybe only about 100 people in attendance. When we walked in the chapel, we saw President Oaks sitting on the stand. It was completely unexpected for the ward. Even their bishop did not know he would be there ahead of time. He spoke at the end of sacrament meeting and it was really inspiring to hear his message. Then, during the second hour, he visited different classes for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. It was a little intimidating when he was in Elder's Quorum, especially for the teacher who was teaching from one of his talks (the one on the constitution). Rebecca got to be in Relief Society with his wife. She got to have some personal conversation with her. That instructor was also teaching from Elder Oak's conference talk and Sister Oaks was able to share some background to his preparation for that talk. I think Rebecca and Asher also got to shake President Oak's hand at one point during the meetings. It was a really cool unexpected surprise that fit perfectly with our time in DC.
We spent the first half of the next day at the Air and Space Museum. The one at the National Mall was closed for renovations, so we went to this larger one at by the Dulles airport instead. This was our first time going to this one instead of the National Mall one. It was really cool. There were less hands on learning things at this one, but way more planes. Basically, it was just a couple really huge hangers with historic planes all crowded in. Our favorites were the SR-71 (that still holds one of the flight speed records), the Discovery space shuttle (which flew 39 missions into space), a concorde, a section on hot air balloons (we learned that some of the first unmanned ones that flew in France landed in villages where people thought they were demons fallen from the sky and they destroyed them with clubs and stones), and an x-wing fighter.
The second half of the day we went back to the National Mall to see the National Art museum. Rebecca and I were worried about how the children would do in the art museum, but we really wanted to see it so we decided they would just have to put up with it. But they loved it. It may have been their favorite museum of the whole trip. They each got a small sketchbook and pencil at the front desk and they loved looking for favorite paintings and trying to draw them. Here are some of their favorites.
These next four showed the different stages of life (with the appropriate people standing next to each). Childhood.
Youth.
Adulthood.
Old age (Rebecca still had a week before she turned 40, so it was just me alone with this picture).
This painting reminded our children of our neighbor's dog Tootsie.
We had a great time in Washington DC. There was a lot more that we could have done if we had more time or if COVID-19 restrictions had not been in place, but we were able to get most of the things that we really wanted to see in, which was really nice.
1 comment:
What an amazing experience to see and hear from Elder Oaks! I can’t even imagine teaching though with him there - especially on the talk that he gave! And I wish we would’ve known that the zoo was free when we took our kids to DC! Looked fun. Your whole trip sounds amazing.
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