Swimming

We couldn't end the trip without a dip in the beautiful pool at the hotel. It was a good end to a hot and tiring day.  I enjoyed reading by the pool while Delaney played around with some other kids there.

Smithsonian - Art

On our last day, the boys headed out to the Udvar Hazy complex on the edge of town to see the latest additions to the Air and Space museum.  I'm glad Delaney and I didn't join them...the trip ended up taking 1 1/2 one way thanks to some poor signage.  

Delaney and I chose to go to the Art Museum.  We spent several hours wandering the picture galleries and then realized as we were starting to get hungry that the sculptures (my favorites) were downstairs.  At this point Delaney was ready to drag me out so we could got to the fountain again and it our lunches...oh well.

Delaney and I had a good time comparing notes on how Mary and Jesus were portrayed by different artists.

Wish we could have spent more time in the sculpture sections.

Bike tour of monuments at night!

This was my favorite activity of the whole trip, even though it ended up raining on us in the end.

Jefferson is 19 ft tall, just 6 inches shorter than the Statue of Freedom on the Capitol building.

Clouds gathering (preparing to rain on us later)

The FDR memorial was my favorite.  It had four "rooms" /sections to it for each of his terms.  There are cascading water features throughout and beautiful lifelike bronze statues.

FDR memorial

FDR went to great pains to hide his disability and the fact that he was in a wheelchair.  This sculpture was added relatively recently (2001) (and he would likely not approve).  One of the other large sculpture shows him in a large chair.  The sculptor put very tiny (out of proportion) wheels on it.

Delaney listening to a Fireside chat with the statue.

 MLK memorial.  It started raining fully on us at this point in the tour.  We were afraid they were going to call it off because of lightning, but the storm called down and we continued on.

View of the Jefferson Memorial across the basin.

MLK - sculpted by a Chinese artist.

Korean War memorial - 19 stainless steel statues, 14 army, 3 marine, 1 navy and 1 air force.   In the reflective wall there appear to be 38 soliders - symbolic of the 38th parallel and the 38 months of war.

Reflective Wall - laser engraved with images of over 2000 images, all combined they create a mountain landscape as a backdrop to the memorial.

Lincoln Memorial.  We got to stand on the spot where MLK made his I have a Dream speech.

Can you find the engraving mistake that was corrected?  "F"uture was originally "E"uture.  Part of the stone was filed away to make it less visible.

Vietnam memorial sculpture

Sculpture for the nurses who served in Vietnam.  (Modeled after the Pieta by Michangelo)

WWII Memorial.  There is a pillar for every state and territory.  4000 gold stars, one for every 100 soldiers lost.

An obelisk is 10x as tall as it is wide.  Washington Monument is 55 x 550 ft.

More museums and some fountain time

While I had my other conference obligation, the family went to the Air and Space museum.    I met everyone and lunch and Delaney and I decided to head to the Natural History Museum.  On our way, we passed a lovely park and fountain area and chose to picnic there.

We went to the marine exhibit and the geology exhibit.

The Hope diamond. 24 kt world's largest blue diamond

Exhibit after exhibit of really wild looking rocks!

Spy Museum

We didn't originally plan to visit the spy museum, but decided it would be worth trying.  We had a great time!  I didn't think I would ever get Delaney out of there.  When you start, you are given a 'false id' and cover story to memorize.  You have to keep that in mind through the whole museum and and then quizzed on it at the end.  Delaney had her cover down pat.  There were interactive exhibits with use of decoding, surveillance technologies, and other fun things.  We regretted that Adam was sick and didn't join us.  He would have loved it!

Smithsonian - US History

We could easily have spent an entire day in the US History Museum, but we only took a couple of hours.  Delaney and I saw Julia Child's kitchen, the pirate display, and the dress collection from the First Ladies.

I had no idea that non-wives had served as First Ladies in the past...

Michelle Obama's dress.

As Kansans we found this irresistable....

Original shoes used in the Wizard of Oz movie.