We started off our second day in D.C. early in the morning with a visit to Arlington National Cemetery. I remember visiting here many years ago. It brings up such emotions to see the grave markers of so many soldiers who fought to protect our country.
We explained to the boys about the President Kennedy and the special memorial there. In 2012, the flame began to malfunction and so plans were made to upgrade it. In May of this year, the newly refurbished and permanent eternal flame was put in place.
The Kennedy Memorial also has a wall with several quotes from JFK and it has a beautiful view of the Washington Monument...
We left the cemetery and decided to walk to the other memorials and help the boys finish their Junior Ranger books. It didn't look too far across the bridge until we had been walking for awhile...
We walked and walked (and tried to get out of the way of bicyclists...they were everywhere!)
and then we walked some more:)
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial...
Then we did some more walking:)
Thomas Jefferson Memorial...
After lots of hard work (and lots of walking around Washington D.C!) the boys earned their Junior Ranger badges!!!! YAY!
After all of that hard work, we headed over to the Smithsonian! Have you ever seen the movie, "Night at the Museum 2"? This is the place where many of the scenes in that movie were filmed! The boys enjoyed watching the movie for the first time the night before we visited the museum.
Recognize this T-Rex??
For our final day in D.C., we started off visiting the National Archives. We saw the original Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and U.S. Constitution. The rotunda and display cases are very dark, and photography is not permitted. Unfortunately, over time the ink has faded on the documents so much that you can barely read them. It was pretty fascinating to see though!
Our next stop was to tour the U.S. Capitol building...
Can you see all of the black SUVs parked in the front of the capitol in the picture below? There were also several armed guards everywhere. I almost felt like I was in an action movie or something:) At least I felt very protected!
The capitol building was very crowded, but we were very impressed with how they managed all the of tours. Each person received a headset that was linked to a tour guide. That way we could hear over all of the crowds during our tour.
Joshua fell asleep before the tour even started! I think all of the walking and sight seeing over the past few days just wore him out!!!
The beautiful rotunda..
The Old Senate Chambers...
After our capitol tour, we stopped by the Library of Congress for a quick visit. Can you see us in the photo below?
The boys are busy "reading" some books:)
Next, we stopped by the Air & Space Museum. The boys enjoyed seeing all of the cool aircrafts!
The photo below is of the original Apollo 11 Command Capsule that took the astronauts to the moon and back!
After a full day of sight-seeing and fun, we headed back to the Metro Station. While walking back, we realized that we were very close to Ford's Theatre, where President Lincoln was assassinated many years ago. We made a small detour just to see the outside of the Theatre...
Across the street is the house where Abraham Lincoln was brought after he was shot. He died there the next morning.
We really enjoyed our time in Washington D.C. It is such a great place to visit, and everything we visited was FREE! All of the museums, tours and monuments are FREE and open to the public. That is great news for a homeschooling family of six!!! So much history and learning! I wish we could have spent more time here, but we still got to do a lot in just 3 days!
Blessings to you and yours,
Jill and the boys:)
