Washington D.C. - Day Three

Wow - what a busy day today. We got up extra early this morning so we could leave to get tickets for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Michael really wanted to go on this tour and we were told we had to be in line no later than 7:45am to get tickets as they go fast. We waited patiently and finally it was our turn at the window and we got tickets for 5:15pm.

Matt, Evan, and Michael sit and wait for the line to move at the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. We cross our fingers to get tickets.
Michael sits on the steps of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing . Did you know they also print stamps?


We decide that we're going to walk over to see the monuments since we're in the area. So we head off to see the Lincoln Monument - on foot. We start walking and find that they're starting to set up for the 4th of July and they have closed off many areas making our walk even longer. We finally arrive at the World War II Memorial - amazing! It was definately a powerful experience. Then we walk more and end up at the Korean War Memorial. Following this, we stop at the Abe Lincoln Memorial. By now it's REALLY hot and we're all dying of thirst, but there is no water in the park. It's supposed to be 92 degrees today and it's really hot by 9am. So we admire the size of Lincoln and move on to the Vietnam War Memorial Wall. The number of names on the wall was absolutely unforgettable. We take a moment to look at the wall, then move on out of the park - or at least make our way in that direction. We must have walked miles before we finally end up at the Smithsonian.

Michael, Mom, and Evan at the Lincoln Memorial.


Ahh, a family photo finally. We swap opportunities to take pictures with another gentlemen who wants his picture taken also. We're standing at the reflecting pool on the other side of the Washington Monument.

The Vietnam War Memorial. How horrible that so many had to die in this war.

This is the World War II Memorial. It's a wonderful place to reflect upon all that was lost and gained during these terrible times.

This is printed on one of the walls at the World War II Memorial. It was very moving. If you can't see it, it says "The Wars End. Today the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended. A great victory has been won. The skies no longer rain death - the seas bear only commerce. Men everywhere walk upright in the sunlight. The entire world is quietly as peace."

Evan stands at the Korea War Memorial. It's also known as the "forgotten war."

Our first stop at the Smithsonian is the Museum of Natural History. The Museum's dinosaur exhibit is very busy. The kids and we browse thru the museum and notice they've closed many areas of the museum to remodel. We see the Hope Diamond and several other exhibits. Following a quick, but very expensive Museum lunch, we head over to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. Michael and Matt spend a lot of time reading about the exhibit information and looking at the exhibits while Evan and I just "look". A security guard at the National Archives the other day told us there are two kinds of Museum visitors. There are "readers" and "lookers". So true!

Matt stands by a dinosaur skeleton at the Museum of Natural History.

Evan and Michael look at a display at the Museum of Air and Space.

Ahh, my boys!!

We leave the museum in plenty of time to walk back to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for our tour. We get to see the entire printing process and learn how they make paper bills from start to circulation. Very cool! Michael wins $25.00 by answering a question. Now don't get too excited as he did - the $25 is shredded and in a very small ziplock bag :)

We can't take pictures inside the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, so I snapped this before we went on our tour. Evan plays on the money bench while Michael sits on it. Needless to say, we saw hundreds of millions of dollars in various stages of completeness.

There are no restaurants in the area so we hop on the Metro to head back to our hotel to figure out what to eat. Matt decides he's feeling adventurous and tired of the same route so he takes on a new route which involves getting off our train four times instead of just one that the other route would have taken (MPK: actually only 2 planned train changes vs 1 on the normal route, plus 1 more when the train we were happily riding deciding it was going out of servicve, and 1 being so crowded we decided to wait for the next one). We finally arrived back at our hotel very tired and decide just to order dinner up to the room. Tomorrow we're planning to go to Mt. Vernon and we're still tossing options around for Saturday.

Evan and Michael wait for a Metro train. The one behind them is not in service, so we have to wait for another one to arrive.