A Visit to D.C.

Tuesday, 23-April

Our first, of what we expect will be a few, trip to visit the National Mall area of Washington D.C.

We began trying to find a parking garage that could handle a 7'-1" van. It took us a couple tries, but we finally succeeded! Thank you Capital One Arena!

On our way to through the national Mall, we walked through the sculpture garden.

The famous LOVE sculpture... in Español!

Candid photo in front of the fountain. The sprayers slowly grew to meet in the middle.

This house was fascinating to walk by. Its dimensions are actually concave, meaning the roof is coming toward you and the vertical corner between the white and yellow sides is the furthest point from us.

After passing through we made it to our first stop: The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I remembered it being a highlight when I came to D.C. as a youth and hoped the kids would love it! The sign on the door, however, said no food or drink was permitted in. We had our lunches though, so I sat out with the diaper bag. To pass the time, I strolled down the national mall and into the Smithsonian Castle which is kind of the hub of all things Smithsonian. There I learned that I really could take the food in as long as I didn't get it out for eating in the galleries. Ah well, nice to know now! :-)

I decided to go to the United Statues Holocaust Memorial Museum. Since my youth I've taken an interest in World War II literature and this museum was one place I was particularly interested in seeing. It was quite a site! Knowing I had to meet my family in an hour, I walked through it faster than I'd have liked. I wished for 3 or 4 hours there. But at the same time, it's not exactly a comfortable place to be.

At the entrance

"We are the shoes, we are the last witnesses.

We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers

From Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam,

And because we are only made of fabric and leather

And not of blood and flesh, each one of us avoided the hellfire."

--Yiddish Poet Moses Schulstein

We are all one people, one human family.

At this visit and since I've learned that the Holocaust was far from the first, or even the worst, of genocides committed on this planet in the 20th century up to today. The annals of human atrocities are deep and varied. I can only hope and trust in Christ's infinite Atonement to somehow, someday, make all things right.

After meeting back up on the National Mall, we ate lunch, then went into the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. This museum did not disappoint! And we didn't see everything we wanted to before we left. They have a vast gem collection including the famous Hope diamond. It's rather... small, really. I mean, big for a diamond, but not huge or anything. My pic of it unfortunately came out rather blurry.

This one was my favorite of all the many gems we saw. I love the color and size! It's gorgeous.

We then scored free tickets into the butterfly pavilion. Sweet! This was a highlight of today!

The butterflies would often let us get pretty close for pics

This one is called a pretty blue and black one with white spots. I'm a biologist. 😂

You're not allowed to touch them, but it's okay if they land on you. Ben wanted to so bad!

Noel got one on her shoulder.

And Amy on her hat! Hats? Whatever.

This one landed on Amy, but she took the hat off and put it on Eliza, to her delight! If you look closely, you'll see this butterfly has a sizeble piece of torn wing.

This one's called orange and black with white spots. Convinced yet?

Leaving this museum, we walked around the Washington Monument toward the Lincoln Memorial. Unfortunately for us, the Washington Monument is closed until August as they are updating the elevators, so going up was not an option this time.

Somehow, I didn't get any pics of the Lincoln Memorial. :-/

View from the Lincoln Memorial looking out toward the Washington Monument.

As you can see, the shadows here are growing long. It was time to head back toward the car. We made it well before dark, but it was rather late when we got home! A good day in D.C.!