Quick DC Visit

My sweetie was on vacation this week,  he has to use up certain number of days before his anniversary date, or he will lose them..  So on my two days off, we flew with our girls toWashington DC.  we got up by 4 am, to get to the remote parking at DFW, then caught the 6 am flight to DC.   When we arrived, we picked up our rental car and found a place for brunch.  

We found a parking garage not too far from the where we wanted to be..  and took off walking towards the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

 On our way, we saw the National Archives (Made me want to watch National Treasure again!) We didn't go in, I wish we had, but we only had the 2 days there, and so many things we wanted to see

  and then there was this building that looked SO very secure, had guards, one with a guard dog walking around it, then I found what it was...   The J.Edgar Hoover FBI Building!!! How cool is that!!!

We also saw the Department of Justice building.  It had some beautiful architectural features.

Then we got to the Natural History Museum.  That place is amazing...  (And seeing the exhibits in person was so much better than seeing it on Night At The Museum 2)

Jessica wanted to see the mummies -  so we made our way to that floor and began our tour of the museum. We first went into what I think of as the "bone gallery"   skeletons of all sorts of creatures.

Then we went to the mummies, Insects, Dinosaurs and Fossils, then worked around to the Gems and Minerals..

 We didn't see everything there was to see there, we could have spent the entire time in the one museum. and still not see it all I think.

DumDum..    :) 

Containers that held brains, and organs of the mummified. 

Reading about Scarab Beetles (Yucky things!) 

Tarantula

Bird eating spider

Mammal working on fossils  ;) 

The Hope Diamond..  Photo does NOT doit justice. 

In the hall of Gems and Minerals.. my favorite area! 

HUGE chunk of Amethyst

After the Natural History museum, we made our way to the Smithsonian Castle.. such a beautiful building, and knowing that it was the "first" Smithsonian and now there are 19 museums and galleries that are part of the museum complex is pretty awesome.

Smithsonian Castle

Museum of Natural History

We were all pretty exhausted after that, and Becca wasn't feeling very well, so we made the trek back to the car, *only getting a little turned around*, and headed to our hotel.  After checking in, and seeing what food places were around,  Daryl and Becca decided on   Atlantis Pizzeria and Family Restaurant.   The hummus was very good, and my dinner was the Chicken Souvlaki Platter.  

It was very delicious..  I think they made a good choice.

Next morning we all slept in a little, had breakfast at the hotel, and headed to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.

Side of the Jefferson with Washington in the background..  

After we visited there, then drove to the Lincoln Memorial, where we couldn't find a parking place anywhere, I dropped Daryl and the girls off, and drove around looking for parking. I got extremely lucky and found a very close spot.

In front of the Lincoln Memorial.. Looking down the National Mall

Our next visit was to Arlington National Cemetery..  

We paid our respects to our 35th President.

Then we walked to the Tomb of the unknown soldiers.  We got there right at 'changing of the guard' time..

Our last stop of our visit was the Pentagon.  

We met up with my nephew Justin, who just happens to be a member of the US Navy and now stationed there. 

 He took us to visit the Pentagon Memorial, honoring those lost on 09/11 at the Pentagon when the plane hit.

 The benches represent lives lost, ones facing the Pentagon were lost in building, facing away were on the plane.  A very somber reminder of all those lost.

We got in lots of hugs, and chatted a bit before we left Justin, then we piled back in our rental, to find the airport car rental return,  dinner, and wait for our flight.

Got home after midnight.. was quite a whirlwind 2 days, but saw some amazing things.  Probably our last little "vacation" with both our girls before Becca is married next year.

So - all recovered from that trip now,  Daryl and I will go in 2 weeks to Europe for our vacation. I have 10 full days off of work, not exactly sure where we will go yet, But we will go somewhere.