Washington DC

Russ and I just returned home this past week from Washington DC.  We stayed with Sherrie and Dave  who are serving a mission there right now. We had a great time visiting them and seeing many of the sites. Although it was a great trip, it definitely wasn't a relaxing one. We were on the go for 12-14 hours a day. A couple of days we were so tired we could hardly walk!

 The day we flew into DC Dave & Sherrie met us at the Metro Station to show us where they lived, handed us the key & had to leave to go and teach a class. We arrived at their condo with a delicious  dinner on the table, ready to eat….talk about service. The Metro Stations are very clean, very efficient & a great way to get around. After dinner we walked over to Georgetown for a couple of hours. We went there several times throughout the week, because we liked it so much. We fell in love with the Dean & Deluca store. They had a key lime macaroon bar that was awesome!!

Our first morning there we attended the Washington DC Temple. Back in 1978 I took a trip with the single adults from my stake & we came here. After seeing this temple I've always wanted to go inside & today my wish came true, it only took 37 years. 

After the temple and the visitor center we ran some errands with Dave & Sherrie & then went to the Holocaust Museum. As amazing as it was, it was very depressing to go through. What a contrast from 

the temple!

Early Friday morning Russ and I took a boat down the Potomac River to Mt. Vernon, another place I've always wanted to go. We had a leisurely 1 1/2 hour cruise that was beautiful, other than the near 500 kids that were on it for field trips. This picture is on the way back and was very quiet as the kids 

weren't on it this time.

Mt. Vernon belonged to George & Martha Washington from the time of their marriage in 1759 until their deaths in 1799 & 1802. Washington expanded his plantation from 2,000 to 8,000 acres and the Mansion house from six rooms to twenty one. We spent three hours exploring this beautiful estate. We saw the mansion, gardens, Washington's tomb & all the different buildings that helped run the estate when he lived there. They are all original buildings. He was such a HARD working man & totally believed in being self-reliant. Some of the buildings were: The Blacksmith Shop, the Spinning House, Salt House, Smokehouse, Wash House, Coach House, Stable, Shoemaker Shop, Paint Cellar, Greenhouse, Slave Quarters, etc. It overlooks the Potomac River & is such a lovely setting. I felt such a peace walking around there & it was one of my favorite places we went.

Greenhouse

This was the "Necessary" room or in other words, the outhouse. George wanted all his buildings to be unified in their appearance around the mansion so they were quite nice looking. 

These were "3 seaters."

They grew as many fruits and vegetables as they could.

In the winter they would move tropical plants into the Greenhouse and heat the floors so the plants 

would survive the cold.

Washington came up with this 16-sided barn so that he could put wheat on the top floor and have horses tread over it to knock it into the bottom floor. It was amazing.

After our return boat ride from Mt. Vernon we walked over to the National Geographic Museum. They had a special exhibition on Indiana Jones & archeology & another one on Monsterfish.

We had dinner in Georgetown & then walked to this cute stone church we had seen the day before. I love all the cute shops & flowers they have everywhere! This was one of our 14 hour days & both of our feet were so tired by the end of the day.

Saturday we went to the American History Museum which had some really interesting things. It had one of the sun stones from the Nauvoo temple…that was cool. By the end of this day we were both so tired. I was actually more tired than hungry & didn't even want to go out for dinner. 

Museum of Natural History

This is the Hope Diamond, it is 45.52 carats & is known as the most famous diamond in the world. Its a dark blue, but looks black here.

Wilderness Forever -this was a temporary exhibit that had some amazing photography in it. These are  a few pictures of pictures.

Washington Monument

World War II Memorial

Vietnam Memorial

Lincoln Monument

We were so glad it was Sunday & we got to rest a little bit. We really enjoyed going to the Singles Ward where Sherrie and Dave go. What a great group of young men and women.

After church we attended the baptism of Hazel Minich from Ohio. She was there as a Page from her High School.  Moses, a Page from Utah shared the gospel with her & was able to baptize her. I loved her enthusiasm.

After church we went to the National Cathedral. It reminded me a little of Notre Dome. Wow, all the stain glass windows were amazing & showed a lot of the history of our country in them.

There were dogwood trees everywhere! They are so beautiful when they are in bloom.

On Memorial Day we headed to the Arlington Cemetery, but when we arrived it was packed!! We didn't know President Obama was speaking there that day so we left and decided to come back the next morning. We headed for the Jefferson Monument and it was lovely with a High School band 

from Georgia playing.

From the Jefferson Monument Russ and I went to the Air & Space Museum. We spent several hours here and saw two great IMAX movies. One of them was called "Airplanes" & the other was on

 D-Day & gave a great recap of how it took place.

There was a big parade going on with it being Memorial Day. This was on our way to the National Archive (where you couldn't take any pictures) & then to the National Portrait Gallery. I really enjoyed the Gallery as it had portraits of all of our Presidents & of other significant people.

Tuesday morning we were up early to go to Arlington Cemetery again. The land, 1,100 acres once belonged to George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha & step-grandson to George. It has now evolved from a place of necessity to a national shrine to those who have honorably served our Nation during times of war. It is the final resting place for more than 400,000 active duty service members, veterans & their families.

Sherrie, Russ & Dave

We were able to watch the "changing of the guard" at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. 

The last thing we did was visit our Nation's Capitol. The tower is under construction right now, but we enjoyed our tour by one of Dave & Sherrie's students, Neil Longo, from the Barlow Center. He did a great job and was very knowledgable.

Brigham Young

I know this has been a LONG post, but I have to write about our last experience in DC. After Russ and I packed up we headed to the Metro Station to go to the Airport. We got our bags all checked in & received our boarding passes. We were happy to see we got "pre-check" on our passes. As we started to head to the security checkpoint I asked Russ where my camera bag was. He got a look of horror on his face & when I asked him if he left it on the Metro, he meekly said, "yes." We ran back to the Metro Station & pleaded our case to the lady in charge. To make a long story short through lots of quick prayers, helpful ladies and intervention we located my camera bag at the last stop of the Blue Line. We had about 50 minutes before our flight left so we hopped on the next Blue Line & went to the end of the line. By the time we got back to the airport, ran down the terminal, went through security & got to our gate & in our seats the door closed and within 5 minutes the plane took off….it was truly a miracle!! 

One thing I learned through all of this was…..as I said a silent prayer I realized my camera was just an "earthly thing," that I can't take it with me when I die. I had a peace come over me that it was O.K. if I didn't get it back. My biggest concern was our Stake has been preparing for a Dance Festival since December & I had 3 nights in the coming week I was suppose to take pictures. Oh, the tender mercies of the Lord!! I've been very emotional about it the few times I have shared the story. I told Russ it was amazing how every step of the way went the way it should have. If we would have realized sooner we'd lost it we wouldn't have had time to get our boarding passes & what would we have done with all our luggage while we were chasing it down?? I'm so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who continues to bless us each and every moment of our lives:)