Washington DC Recap

Washington DC joins Disneyworld, Disneyland and Prince Edward Island on my short list of places that were as fantastic as I imagined them to be!

I loved it all and wished I could stay longer and see EVERYTHING! (or at least more!)

As it was, we got in quite a bit on our short trip! I'm not sure five teenagers and three adults in one suburban was the best plan ever -- at moments, it super-sucked, but mostly it went very well.

Our first full day in DC, we spent the morning at the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall -- The first steps inside the doors of the museum stopped us in our tracks, on the wrong side of security! But when an aerospace explorers post (and their crazy leaders) walks through the doors to be greeted by Apollo 11, Friendship 7, Gemini IV, SPACESHIP ONE!!!!, Glamorous Glennis, the Spirit of St. Louis and more... well, we're awed.

When we left the Air and Space Museum we headed over to Arlington National Cemetery. Which is unbelievable, breathtaking, amazing... We saw the Changing of the Guard, Kennedy's eternal flame, the Columbia and Challenger memorials. I had read that one thing that makes Arlington more real and is an essential element of the experience is to seek and find a specific grave, we went in search of and found Apollo I Astronauts Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee's graves.

On our second full day, we visited the National Mall in the morning - making stops at the Jefferson, Washington, WWII, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lincoln Memorials/Monuments.

In the afternoon, we had the AMAZING experience of a private tour of the United States Capitol with a former Congressman. In addition to the usual tour stops, we got to go out on the Speaker's Balcony (BEST VIEW in DC!), up the British Stairs!, and a few other places... and we got to do the usual tour stops - on our own! This is me, standing in the dead center of the rotunda! (After that we visited the White House, too!)

Our third day included a tour with a midshipman at US Naval Academy, and a visit to NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center... and later a speedboat cruise on Baltimore Harbor!

On our final day we visited the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport, which is the companion facility to the Museum on the National Mall. BEAUTIFUL. Amazing things to see! including the Enola Gay, an SR-71 Blackbird and....

Space Shuttle Discovery!

It was an INCREDIBLE trip!!