We left the hotel today headed for lunch and then to the Newseum - an interactive, exhibit filled news museum that is located in Washington. This is one of the things Emily really wanted to do on our trip to DC, so we did. This place was awesome - it is dedicated to "news" events, the reporters that report that news, and the profound stories that are sent out to the world's public, via TV, newspaper, radio, cable, internet, etc.... It has some awesome exhibits from the huge concrete pieces of the Berlin Wall, one of the Death Towers from the Berlin Wall American Zone, the actual antenna that fell from one of the towers of the World Trade Center that the firemen used to raise the American flag - there was an exhibit of Tim Russett's actual office at NBC from his days on "Meet the Press" and even an area where you could get on camera and "be a reporter" yourself. Everyday, outside the entrance of the museum are the daily front pages of newspapers from towns and cities all over America - these front pages are changed each day to reflect the day's news. The museum is basically dedicated to the very American ideas of Freedom of Speech, Press, Assembly, Protest and Petition - the 1st Amendment. It had a huge map of the world that showed where these ideas were shared in the world, and where they were not - it was unreal to see the world color coded in terms of Freedom of Speech and Press - it's hard to believe that the majority of the world, or much of it, doesn't share the same rights that we all take for granted. It was awesome, and I'd love to go back through it again one day -
We left there and walked down to the United States Archives but the line to see the original Constitution and the original Declaration of Independence was too long, cause we wanted to visit the US Capitol today and it was getting late in the afternoon, so we skipped the Archives. You just can't not see everything in a few days - it would take weeks. We walked to the Capitol and seeing it in person is just mind boggling - it is massive, and as I've said before, I was here when I was 17, and it seemed so different to me today. There were protestors on the lawn protesting the circumcision of baby boys, and I just took a picture, smiled and moved on as one protestor shoved a poster in my view that had a picture of a baby boy on it and the caption read, "You wanna cut what?" I had to laugh to myself, cause I just never gave that much thought to the idea of circumcision and for a brief moment in time, I thought to myself - "hmmmm, well maybe I should have, cause hell, I bet that hurts! " Anyway, we move on to the back of the capitol to try to catch a glimpse of our "famous person of the day" - but to no avail -the senators were gone for the day, so we took a pic with a capitol police officer and told him he'd be our "Famous person of the day" for our trip. His name is Officer Nunn. So today, he is famous.
We left the capitol to go over to the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress, but there was a "suspicious package" investigation going on in the area of the Capitol visitors center, so we were told to leave the area - we are going back tomorrow for a Capitol tour before we leave DC, compliments of Senator Mary Landrieu's office at the Hart Senate Building -we visited her office and they gave us tickets -the workers in her office were so nice and I felt really sorry for some of them as they were fielding calls from angry, angry people concerning the Oil Spill. We could actually hear a man ranting and raving on the phone to one of the staff members as we sat waiting on our tickets to the Capitol.
We left there and went to Arlington National Cemetery, and yes, this was one of my favorite parts of the day. It is an amazingly heart felt sight to see the thousands and thousands of perfectly lined up white marble headstones - which, incidentally is done to symbolize the soldier's stance in the military. The cemetery is the final resting place for many military related people from Civil War Soldiers to those who lost their lives in the Space Shuttle Columbia accident, and many others in between. We visited the eternal flame gravesite of President and Mrs. Kennedy, and that was a beautiful area of the cemetery - his brothers, Robert and Edward Kennedy are buried very near to President Kennedy. The cemetery is just beautiful and a must see for anyone coming to DC. The "changing of the guards", which occurs every 30 minutes of every day, every month, every hour, every year, was so awesome to see in person. These guards are protecting the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier", and I was amazed.
We went and saw many beautiful embassy headquarters today and then on to Georgetown and the campus of Georgetown University - it is simply gorgeous in the area.
Visiting the Capitol tomorrow, maybe the Archives and then we'll head our of DC, headed to Baltimore, Maryland and then onto Philadelphia tomorrow night. It was another good day with my kid.......We'll post pics soon.
Headed to bed.....so, so tired! Hope all is well in Minden.
Jenny
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