Hello from Washington everyone! Matthew is at the SBL conference and Elijah is napping, so I thought I’d try to let everyone know what we’ve been up to. The wireless internet signal here is a bit unreliable so I never know when it’s going to work or not.
Yesterday we got up and left the hotel around ten, we drove to the White House visitor’s center and looked for a parking spot. Of course, since it is downtown DC there are no parking lots or available spots on the street. Finally we found a public parking garage under the Ronald Reagan building. (It’s a new building, and I’m not sure what it’s for.) Security is so tight around the White House they even check your ID and car trunk just so you can park in the garage several blocks away. Unfortunately, you can’t even drive on the street in front of the White House, all you can do is in front of it several blocks away. We arrived at the gate to start our tour several minutes early, which was a good thing because they informed us we could not leave our stroller outside. We had to take it two blocks away and leave it at a hotel. By the way, you cannot take anything with you when you tour the White House, no camera, purse, diaper bag or stroller. It’s a good thing it wasn’t a long tour, because we had to carry Elijah the whole way! The tour was great, we got to see a lot of the ground floor. We went through the East Room, Green Room, Red Room, Blue Room, State Dining room and few others. Apparently they weren’t very creative when it came to naming the rooms! When the tour was over we left through the back entrance and got a good look at the exterior. Even though it was the back side it is just as impressive as the front! Matthew may have more to tell you about our tour later. As for me, I’ll move on to today.
Today we woke up a little late, Elijah was waking up every couple of hours, so when he finally went back to sleep we all did. After we got all bundled up we walked across the street to the Iwo Jima Memorial, yes it’s that close! We walked around and took some pictures. Since it’s up on a hill you can actually see all of DC from there. After we were finished, we walked over to the Arlington National Cemetery. On the way we passed a tall bell tower which was given to the United States from the Netherlands, apparently they no nothing about architecture because the thing was more of an eyesore than a monument. It must be fairly new as well, because it’s not in our guidebook which was put out in 2005. First off I have to say that Arlington is huge! I always knew it was big, but I had no idea it was this big! We walked for miles, we saw the Women’s Memorial, which is now actually a memorial to all of the soldiers killed in Iraq, John F. Kennedy’s grave, Bobby Kennedy’s grave and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and of course countless other graves. We spent way more time there than we intended. (since we got a little lost!) But it was worth it since we ended up at the highest point in the whole Cemetery and could see all of Washington from there.
Over the next couple of days we hope to head back the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument again, as well as the Jefferson Memorial. We are also touring the Capitol some time tomorrow I believe. I am now going to attempt to post some pictures, is hasn’t worked so far on this trip, but maybe I’ll get lucky!
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