Day 8

**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,
Day 6
and Day 7.

This morning we woke up at a decent time. It is difficult to have 5 people in one bathroom again, but I know people that do this on a regular basis, so I can deal with it for a couple of days. You learn to get in the shower early, because by the time the third or fourth person gets in, it is cold water. We got breakfast, our drinks (in the cooler) and snacks for the car. Today was our yukiest day yet on the weather. It has been cold, but doable so far. Today it was cold and a consistent rain throughout the day. Thank goodness we planned inside stuff today.

**One piece of advice for those thinking about coming to DC-plan out your trip. Not only have we planned it out by the state map, but we have sectioned off the city of DC and done all the things grouped together. Also we are making sure to do the things that require tickets during the week, instead of the weekends, due to crowds. This maybe different when coming during the holidays or breaks**

So, I made the final decision on the map. We knew we wanted to do high traffic areas first. So we decided to start our day at the National Archives. Since they were all close, we grouped together the National Archives, the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian-American History Exhibit. The NGA and Archives are across the street from each other. We did those two and then moved the car a couple of blocks (it was raining), for the Smithsonian. Also something disappointing is that my mom works with a lady who's son works for the Republicans here in DC. He could have probably gotten us into the White House, but you have to be in business dress to get in. We didn't bring any of that clothing with us :o(

It took us a little while to find parking but we did. We were able to pay parking on the street. It was good. We went in. Goosebumps galore! So many things to see there. We saw the original Declaration of Independence, the Louisana Purchase, the 13th amendment, the Consitution (original form), Magna Carta and the Emanicipation Proclamation, and even a very rare letter, written by George Washington asking for food rasions and all they got was kernel corn. So much to see. (We were also thinking about scenes from the National Treasure movie :o) It was incredible. Make sure you notice on the signing of the Consitution, how many states are represented: Only 12. Deleware did NOT send any delegates, thinking they were too small.

(the Magna Carta)

(Letter to Continental Congress)

(Handwritten changes to the Preamble)

(Consitution of the USA)





(The Bill of Rights)

(Louisiana Purchase)

(The Thirteenth Amendment. The actual document that offically freed the slaves.)

(The Emmancipation Proclamation)

(The letter from G. Washington, during the American Revolution).

From there, Aaron went and fed the meter some more quarters and we headed to the National Gallery of Art. We were only there a couple of hours but to be honest, we should have allowed MORE time. That would definately be an all day event. It was overwhelming. We were excited to see beautiful art, particularly from our favorite artists like Degas, Monet, Morisot, Cassatt and Davinci. Here are some pictures from our day there:

Edgar Degas loved and specialized in Ballerinas:





George Washington by Houdon.



Thomas Jefferson statue:


George D. Widener Collection. This came from his wife and he was lost on the Titanic. This was a good surprise for our 15 yo Titanic enthusiast. This also looks like one of the rooms on the Titanic.




(George Washington by Gilbert Stuart)

(Mary Cassatt)

(Berthe Morisot)


(The two above are Claude Monet)


(Renoir)

(Van Gogh)

(Claude Monet, both pieces. The one on the left was done before he went blind and the other one is the same picture, after he started going blind)

(The only painting of Leonardo DaVinci that is in the USA)

We then went out to the van, ate some snacks and reparked the car. We were thankful to find free 3 hour parking, which was good because it was 2:30 and the American History exhibit closed at 5:30. We walked in, went through security and went to the first exhibit, which was the American Flag. No pictures were allowed, which was fine. The lights were extremely dim. I was very struck by how LARGE it was. The original flag was 20'x42'. The flag that was there (that was still attached) was 20'x32'. It was so tattered but you can tell that they are going to a ton of measures to ensure it's care.

We were struck by the magnitude of the museum. It is enormous! It is hard to say what we didn't like about it. We liked all of it. There was even something for hubby. He doesn't get into the history stuff as much as the kids and I do (which is funny because I absolutely detested history in school), so he was thrilled when there was a Transportation section.






A new exhibit, was the actual Gettysburg Address, which the museum has on loan from the White House.

Of course there was the famous shoes of Dorothy (Wizard of Oz)the red ruby slippers:



Kermit:



Oscar the Grouch:


C-3PO from Star Wars:


And then one that I loved. I spent my childhood in Nashville. I LOVED Minnie Pearl. Here is her hat!




We enjoyed all of it. They also had a very cool exhibit on the Presidents. Lots of cool stuff, like Lincoln's suit and top hat, his death mask and all kinds of artifacts from the presidents. We were a little disheartened hearing a 5th grader, I am sure repeat from his parents, "I HATE Bush!" The adult chaperone with them talked about how much he disliked the presidency's of Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk, when I promtly asked him and the kids where these two presidents were from. NONE of them knew (they were both from Tennessee). There were other things they didn't know either. Yep, your tax dollars at work folks, *snicker*

Here are items from George Washington, which we were thrilled, since we couldn't take pictures in the museum or in the house at Mt. Vernon:





Furniture used during the signing of the Letter of Surrender between Grant and Lee:



Dwight D. Eisenhower's uniform:


Thomas Jefferson's writing desk that the Declaration of Independence was written on:


Compass used by Lewis and Clark:


Items from Ulysses S. Grant:
Some slippers made for him:

His buggy:


Of course, Joshua was THRILLED with the Invention exhibit, in which it had artifacts from Thomas Edison and all of his inventions (in which Joshua told me that Edison actually had 100 patents and all kinds of other facts that came spilling out of his head!) I will upload pictures from this tomorrow. It is late and I need to get to bed.



Tommorrow, our section is going to be the Capital area. So things on our list will the the Capital, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, the Union Station and the Postal Service (Joshua loves Lincoln and wants to go to the Peterson House, so we might do that too. The Ford's Theatre is closed for renovations). If we can't get all those done, we may move them to Saturday! It has worked out great to do this. That way, on Saturday, whatever we don't get done tomorrow, can be picked up then.