Washington DC 2007

Mount Vernon...

Seeing the sights...

The Capitol Tour...

We just got back from a trip to Washington DC. We had a great time being tourists. Molly and Caroline Holden met us in DC and joined us for a vacation also. They are in a few of the photos with us along with my sister and her family. Molly's husband Mark had to work and couldn't join us- We missed you Mark. My sister and her family live in Woodbridge, Virginia. She lives just down the street from IKEA! No, I did not take my camera to IKEA, but I did take it everywhere else.


We visited Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington. Seeing his home and walking through the estate really makes history come alive. I hope that my kids remember this and can share what they saw and learned with their classmates in school. We saw the mansion, gardens, his 16 sided barn, the slave quarters, the original tomb and the new tomb and we drove down the road to see the Gristmill and the Distillery.

We went into DC to the Mall and visited the National Museum of Natural History, the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and even got to tour the Capitol. The Museum of Natural History was our kids favorite place to go. We went three times this trip. Walking through the dinosaur exhibit and seeing the 'evolution theory' shown as "fact" was a great teaching tool for us. We could take our kids back to Genesis 1 and ask them who created the trees? Did they really ooze out of a pool of sludge and make their way across the entire earth like the pictures show? No, God created them. Did man 'evolve' from another creature? No, God created Adam and breathed into him the breath of life. Sorry for the detour in thought... it was a great time to teach our kids first hand that just because it says something in a textbook, doesn't mean it is fact.

We also got a private tour of the Capitol. When I was in High School, I babysat for a family that later was elected to office. Texas Congressman Mac Thornberry from Clarendon, TX. I found his website and emailed him to see if he would be able to have someone give us a tour. Surprisingly, I recieved a call the next day. We were able to set up a time to tour the Capitol during our visit. While we were there, Congress was in session, so after our tour, we went back to Mac's office and everyone got to meet him. Just to let you know, it does take 30 minutes for 12 people to walk from the Museum of Natural History to the Capitol and get through security. We were a little late for our tour, but they were nice enough to accomodate us anyway.

In our four days of sightseeing alone, we walked about 22 miles. We bought pedometers for the kids. They had a lot of fun keeping track of their steps on our trip. We did calculate the mileage. Rachel walked twice the number of steps John walked each day. Hayden, well, he had the best seat of all. By the end of each day, we were all wishing we had someone to stroll us around.