The District of Columbia

We left the Outer Banks on Sunday, July 5th and decided to break up our trip home into 2 days as well (mostly for the kids sake). We were able to stay with our dear friends, Nikki & Peter, who were living in DC for the summer while Peter interned for a law firm before his last year of law school. We left the outer banks at about 9 AM and didn't pull into DC until almost 7 PM! 10 hours of traffic- and it was stop&go the whole way. It was really unbelievable.

Anyway, we were happy to finally get to DC & took the girls on a walk to the local playground to get their wiggles out. We ate & caught up with P&N. Here are Nikki&I with our children on the steps of their cute townhome (they were renting the "garden" apartment).

And then spent the next day taking a fast tour of many of the local sites:

The Capitol

The White House

(a beehive on the front lawn of the White House):

The World War II Memorial- my grandfather fought at Iwo Jima and Matt's father fought in Europe.

The Washington Monument- we wanted to try and get tickets to go up inside, but the line was crazy long & we didn't have all day, so we skipped it & just took a photo instead.

Walking the Mall:

Lincoln Memorial:

Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial:

The Vietnam Memorial- my mother's family was very close with the Dunkenbergers. In fact, Mr&Mrs Dunkenberger were my mother's godparents. Their son, David, was sent to Vietnam during the war and did not return. His death had a profound effect on my mother and because of that I have always been somewhat aware of him and his ultimate sacrifice for our country. I remember seeing this memorial many many years ago & watching as my mother rubbed his name into her scriptures. We found his name on the memorial this time as well- only after I snapped the photo did I realize that you can see Alexis' reflection in his name (& a little of Ella as well). Another woman was very emotional not too far from us, which really affected me as well & I found myself full of emotion for a man I have never met, but who has affected me in many ways. Thank you, David Dunkenberger. You are still loved & missed.

After our whirlwind tour of the Mall, we decided to check out one of the Smithsonian's museums- the Museum of American History. We got there just in time to participate in an unfurling of a Star-Spangled Banner- the same size as the flag that flew over Ft. McKinley the night that Francis Scott Key wrote the national anthem. It was HUGE. And heavy!

We were instructed not to let it touch the ground....

Once inside we saw the actual, original Star-Spangled Banner in a wonderful exhibit. And then took some time to see a few other very exciting things:

(Julia Child in her kitchen in France- this is how I feel most of the time!!)