Day 7

**First of all, I highly recommend the book we have used on this journey. It is called "Kids Love to Travel and we have the Virginia version. It is broken into states and down by areas of the state. It is then in alpha order. It has been a GREAT resource. It is written by a great homeschooling family that RV fulltime.**

If you would like to start at the beginning, you can click on Day 1, Day 2, Day 3,Day 4,
Day 5, and
Day 6.

Well this was the first day that we were "on our own". We were on the fence actually about what to do about transportation. Should we take the METRO (train), should we drive to Arlington Natl Cemetery or should we "wing" it and try it downtown. Well we compared cost and either way, we knew that metro was out, due to the cost (especially times 5). So it would either be Arlington or "wing it". We decided to go downtown first and look at the parking situation and if it got to a point that it was either too expensive or no parking was available, then we would default to Arlington. Well to our surprise, there was a small parking lot in across the Potomac from the Jefferson Memorial that had "FREE" 3 hour parking! WHOO! So we parked there and walked to the Washington Monument for our ticket to go up to the top. They gave us our tickets for immediate access (no big crowds) and it took about 70 seconds for us to go all the way up to the top. It was really cool! Exciting! And I was STOKED that I had my lens! :o) Here are some pictures from the experience:

The White House:



The World War II Memorial:



Lincoln Memorial:



Jefferson Memorial:



The Beautiful Capital Building:





We then went to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving where they make paper currency. When we first got there at noon, we were told to come back at 12:45 for our tour. Lukily there was the US Holocost Museum next door, so we went there. We first went into a "Daniel's Story" that tells the tale of a Jewish boy and what his life was like before and after the concentration camps and how he survived. On our way out, we were talking to the information desk, when they informed us that there were survivors at the table over across from us (there are actually 5-6 actual survivors from Auczweitz there). We met two. The first one was man and didn't get his name. He was on his way out and didn't get to speak to him much. The other one was Neese Godin. (If you click on her name you can read and hear her story). She was in the concentration camps from ages of 13-17. She now goes worldwide speaking and she is a very humble woman. She made a huge impression on us. She talked of how she lost a total of 149 of her family members. How all of them were seperated. How she prayed to die, but the Jewish ladies encouraged her to pray to live and not to die. Her father died in the gas chamber. Her mother and brothers survived. We were glued to her. I will never forget her and her story and neither will the boys. We were only there for about 45 minutes but we will definately be back!

(The boys with Nesse Godin)

We then headed to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving for our free tour. We got to see the process of how money is made, etc. Very interesting. Unfortunately, no pictures. We then went from there to move our car. Our 3 hours was up. We moved it and was happily surprised to get a spot on the street between the Capital and the Washington Monument. We paid $2 for 2 hours and we headed to the Air and Space Museum (Smithsonian).

The boys were excited and I was too. My dad has worked for airlines for a loong time and I love airplanes and find them cool too. How exicting it was to see the

Spirt of St. Louis (Charles Lindberg):



The plane of Amelia Earhart:


And then there is the area of the Wright Brothers (which our boys were SOO Excited about, including Joshua. He knew what would be there and he told us what all was there, when it was donated and what it was used for :o)):

(the Wright Brothers owned a bicycle shop. Here is one of them. It was owned by Orville Wright).



The boys with the REAL Wright Brothers Flyer. The fabric has been replaced but everything else is authentic. It was the one they used to make their first successful flight.



The boys with the Wind Tunnel, used by the Wright Brothers. Also Authentic.



The Wright Brothers Flyer:





The authentic fabric that was on the Wright Brothers Flyer:



The weights used in the wind tunnel to figure out the minimum and maximum weight for flying:

Camera used for documentation:





The Wright Brothers 1909 Military Flyer:





This is for my daddy. My daddy used to work for Northwest (about to be Delta, and formerly Republic). There was the front (cockpit) of a 747 there:


From the Space section:





We finished the night off by going to the Jefferson Memorial. It was beautiful seeing all the buildings lit up. The monuments are open until 11:30 pm nightly, which is cool.