DC Part II

The second day of touring started out with a quick trip to Starbucks before heading to the metro. 

When Keith and I were brain storming different things to do, we both agreed that we wanted to view the Smithsonian museums since we'd heard so much about them.

First stop: The Smithsonian museum of Natural History. The science nerd in me was loving every minute.  

Thank God for the ever evolving brain. 

This thing was literally changing by the minute with new babies being born. So cool  and so accurate.

This exhibit showed just how far the human brain had come and how it actually was very similar to the ape species at one point 

A map of all the dinosaur sites in the US where they once were. There were only two in South Carolina.

Next up was the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  This thing was huge and chalked full of neat American facts. As soon as we walked in, there was this big display of the American flag. Behind it was a little tunnel that had the first ever American flag and the story behind it.

On the other side, there was a display of George Washington.

Artifacts from the sit in of 1960. I can't imagine what the young black people went through during this time. Many of them were the same age as Keith and I if not much younger. I am so thankful for their bravery.

First chemical flask and the DNA helix model both made us super excited

Each one of the artifacts had a little description and who they were donated by. Dorothy's slippers that were donated by an 'anonymous' person which was pretty neat to see. 

China patterns of the first lady's past

An American flag made of over 100,000 legos

My handsome engineer with one of the turbine engines :) 

The Smithsonians were huge. I mean ginormous but we still wanted to visit each of the monuments. 

A little side note: visiting each monument really seemed like an awesome idea... in the beginning. And they each looked relatively close to each other...from the map. So before each one, we would look up the distance and say something along the lines of well since we're right here we might as well. I have no idea how long I expected it to take but I'm sure it was a lot shorter than what it actually was. :)

So off we went to the first one

The Washington Monument.  While one one of the tours we were told that its actually two different shades of white because there was a 20 year break in the building process.

Next, we headed off to the Lincoln Memorial which actually didn't seem as far as it actually was just by standing at the Washington Monument. I mean, technically it was right across the little reflection pond {which was actually about a mile's walk but I wasn't keeping track or anything ;) }

Here we are in front of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The same place where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his I have a Dream speech almost 52 years ago to the day.

Xo

Next up, we headed to the newest memorial of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Then to the FDR memorial 

Last but not least, was the memorial of Thomas Jefferson

We walked for hours. But, as crazy as it sounds, we both loved it. Being able to actually see the city on foot was an experience that we wouldn't have been able to get had we brought a car or decided to take a shuttle or taxi. That night, we went out to dinner for a night on the town before boarding the plane the next morning. It was ah-mazing but I think it deserves its own post :)

For part I click here