The Monuments

Okay, so here are a million or so pictures in no particular order of the monuments. Seeing the monuments was probably my favorite thing. I don't know how anyone can go to Washington DC and see the monuments, learn the symbolism, read the quotes, and not feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude and respect for our great country. Unfortunately, these pictures do not do any of these sights justice. We took a night tour to see the monuments at night, but then my friend and I walked down to all of them again at night and we were sooo glad we did, even if it was a little scary! :) We have plenty of funny memories to remember from our night walk around the monuments. I have so many pictures so I figure I will just update a little big at a time.

This (to the left) is at the FDR memorial. It is fairly new and totally awesome. Each section of the memorial portrays a term of FDR's presidency.

To the right is the Jefferson Memorial and I think it was my very favorite. It looked incredible lit up and I loved the quotes. The statues are so incredibly huge!

Monuments at night. So beautiful!! Wish the pictures did them a little more justice.

I loved the World War II memorial. The Vietnam wall was really touching. It was neat that you could see your own reflection on the wall.

So I know these pictures are all really messed up on the blog. I'm not quite sure how to do so many multiples. This is part of the WWII memorial. There is a pillar for each state.

The Washington Monument was cool because you could see it from pretty much everywhere in the city. The reflection of this monument looked really cool on the Tidal Basin as well.

The time in DC went by so quickly and I really wish I could go back and see a little more.

SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!

So for the past week I have been in Washington DC and I it was a BLAST!! Oh my word. I just want to go back! We hardly slept at all, but it was worth it because we went everywhere and did everything we possibly could in the amount of time we were there. I have over 340 pictures so it may take me a few posts to highlight the highlights. The only thing that would have made the trip better would have been if Jeff could have come. We went to the math conferences we were supposed to, but we did A LOT of sightseeing and had the greatest time.

I don't have time to post everything so I will just try to do a little everyday. This is the night we got into DC. I was really excited because I had never taken a cab before. It was great fun because our driver was really scary and I was just thrilled about the whole thing. We got in pretty late and checked in late. I only slept for an hour and half Tuesday night. I thought for sure I would get a headache, but I lucked out. I also lucked out because I was able to stay in the same room as my two friends on a cot. We had a great time although we really were not in our room for very long.

Washington DC was absolutely beautiful!! The weather was nice as well. The first two days it was overcast and rainy, but it made it nice for all our walking. I loved the trees and flowers and how well kept up everything was. The cherry blossoms were pretty much done, but we did see quite a few when we went to Arlington. This is a picture of mye and my friend Annie outside the butterfly sanctuary.

Since I can't get to everything today, here is a list of highlights that will be coming soon:

* Monuments and Memorials--day and night!

*Seeing Whitney

*Arlington Cemetary and changing of the guard

*Pentagon and Pentagon Memorial

*Smithsonian museums

*Archive Museum

*Wax Museum

*Ford Theater

*A PERSONAL TOUR OF THE WEST WING OF THE WHITEHOUSE!!!!!!! We saw Obama's daughter playing with the dog on the lawn.

*Secretary of Education and Ron Clark speaking

and much, much more to come!!!