American Heritage - Washington DC

Kali and I spent 9 days back east for an American Heritage tour. Our days were jam packed with museums, tours, broadway productions, and very little sleep. We had a great time and saw more things and experienced more sights than most people do in a lifetime. We feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to see a part of our country where so much history took place. I will break this blog into parts so that you can see a few things that we experienced.

We woke up bright and early on Friday March 19 to catch the bus at 1:00am here in town. We flew out of out of Salt Lake at 5:00am. It is a good sign that we are still smiling because both of us love our sleep.

We got into Baltimore early enough to catch some sights. The weather was beautiful - mid 70s all 3 days that we were in the DC area. We saw the National Archives where they keep the Declaration of Independence, (Name that movie!) Washington monument, and the Pentagon Memorial all on the first day.

Sporting the new shades purchased from the street vendors for only $5. They made a lot of money on our group.

Day 2 in Washington/Baltimore was spent at Fort McHenry, the White House, the US Capitol, Union Station, and an illumination tour of all of the monuments in and around the area. (Lincoln, Washington, Vietnam War, Korean War, World WarII, Roosevelt, Jefferson, and the White House.) Some pretty amazing sights!!

Lots of protesting in front of the Capitol against the Health Care Reform.

We kind of got side tracked on one of our tours and when we went to cross the street, traffic was blocked and bus loads of police officers were filling the intersection, snipers lined the Capitol roof so we knew something was going on. We were not allowed to cross the street. We were told earlier that President Obama was in the Capitol building with us but we didn't believe it until we saw his motorcade drive right in front of us. He is in one of the 15 black SUVs in the picture. Pretty amazing to see the President of The United States even if you don't support all of his decisions!

Day 3 we went to the Arlington Cemetery (one of my favorite sights) where we watched the changing of the guard, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, and Mt. Vernon (George Washington's home).

Day 4 was spent touring the White House, exploring the Smithsonian Museums of American History and Natural History, Ford's Theatre, and ghost stories in Gettysburg.