Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Why we went to Washington.

We had talked about a Washington D.C. trip during fall break last year, before JP band scheduled practices throughout the break.  This year they didn’t have practiced schedule so we were debating whether we should.  The deciding factor was a conversation I had with JA a few weeks ago, where I mentioned to her something about Thomas Jefferson and she looked at me blankly and said, “Who was Thomas Jefferson”. I probed deeper and found that she knew almost nothing about the Declaration of Independence, what the three branches of government were, or such.  Now I had previously realized that we have horrible public schools here in Tennessee, but I had not realized how bad.  So my mission was to teach her about the origins of our government and those who had shaped it for good or ill.  So in my mind our trip became a four day civic lesson.

In the book store of the National Archives we picked up one of those President’s Brain Quest games that has lots of questions about various presidents and historical events. I am happy to report that now on our way home she can answer probably over 90% of them. So I feel our mission was accomplished.

An overview of what we did and saw.
National Art Gallery (East wing.
Sculpture Gardens.
Air and Space Museum (including a Wright Brothers glider, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Apollo 11 command module, Space Ship One.)
Competitive Kickball tournament.
US History Museum (including the Star-Spangled Banner).
Viet Nam War Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
Gettysburg Battlefield ( including the Visitor Center film, cyclorama, and Museum and stops at Big and Little Round Top, the Pennsylvania Memorial, the High Mark of Pickett’s Charge, and the Solider’s Monument where the Gettysburg Address was given.)
Shippensberg.
A Mennonite market (to pick up some extremely tasty apples).
Turkey Run State Park (for an emergency pit stop.)
U.S. Capitol building (which has a beautiful new visitor center.)
Library of Congress
Supreme Court (walked by only.)
National Archives (houses original copies of Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.)
Smithsonian Natural History Museum (including the Hope Diamond and lots of bones.)
Jefferson Memorial.
George Mason Memorial.
Trip up to top of Washington Memorial (except AM who is afraid of heights)
World War II Memorial


Some general travel tips we got out of it:
Expect to walk about five miles each day, probably good to get the kids prepped for this with regular work-outs carrying 10 pound packs.
In the fall, the Smithsonians and most other locations open at 10 am and close at 5:30 pm. Everything is much less crowded after the summer season, so it’s a much better time to go. Memorials are open until 9 pm (perhaps later in some cases.) so these are best visited in the evening or early morning.
All major sites require screening, which mostly consists of metal detector and bag x-ray. In general, small backpacks are allowed and you can bring unopened food and water bottles inside. U.S. capitol is more strict. Cameras are allowed everywhere, but there are some exhibits that one can not photograph. The Declaration and Constitution can no longer be photographed.


Making reservations for visits. You can get a better tour if your arrange with your Congressman for tours of the Capitol building or the White House, but this needs to be done 30-60 days in advance, so plan ahead.(We didn’t, so we didn’t get to go inside the White House but it will be in friendly hands for at least another two years.)

Hotels near the National Mall usually range from $200-$350 per night. Much cheaper to stay outside the beltway and commute in. It is slightly cheaper for a family to park in Washington D.C. than to take the Metro.All day parking on weekends is $10, and for weekdays is $18. Metro fares are $2.50 one way, for off hours and $5 for peak hours which is pretty much when you will be traveling. There is free 3 hr parking on the perimeter of the National Mall is you arrive promptly at 9:30 am (you can’t park before then). Might be available after 9:35 am if you are very lucky. Later on in the evening it might be possible to find spots as well.

Visiting the Billy Goats Gruff

Some of our dear friends from TN relocated to Pennsylvania several years ago.  Since we were in the neighborhood (sort of), we stopped by.  We were suppose to meet them at their stake conference just outside of Gettysburg, but thanks to a very late start (not used to just having one shower and being on EDT) we just ended up meeting them at the battlefield. After a ranger-shortened picnic , (and after we toured the battlefield), we made the very scenic drive over to Shippensberg.

Ain't he a cutie.  Hard to imagine that just last year he was battling cancer.

Superstar is getting pretty big as well!

An intense discussion on the merits of various iPod apps.


It such a pleasure to meet up with old friends.

I'm Just A Bill

The new visitor's entrance to the US capitol.  Much nicer than the old tent they used to use.  The underground entrance was apparently the old metro station, no longer in use since 9/11.  They have moved many of the statues previously in the old House of Representatives chamber (Statuary Hall).  Also not so many guys standing around with M-16s like last time I visited in 2007.

Washington's Accession, the Inner Dome of the Capitol Building.

Some rather famous painting hang in the Rotunda.  You know you've made history if your image makes it here.  Almost as a high an honor is if you are allowed to lay in state here.

Only Mississippi would be so silly as to chose Jefferson Davis as one of their two allowed statues for the capitol.  The old House of Representative chamber is now called statuary hall.  But many of the statues have now been moved to the visitors center.

We took the secret tunnel from the Capitol to Congress's library...

...but couldn't get a library card to check out the Gutenberg Bible.

And I still don't understand the filing system...