D.C. Part 2

April 18th day 63

A funny side note...I totally missed my flight going to D.C. because it left at 6:50 a.m. and I was all "who travels at 6:50 a.m.?" So when I arrive about 45 minutes before my flight leaves, I was a little taken back by the security line a hundred deep. Apparently, a lot of people travel at the crack of dawn. Ooops! Luckily there was another flight right behind it that they let me on.

Fast forward three days to our flight home. So, I had the earliest flight leaving D.C. at 3 p.m. We were running around on the metro doing some last minute things. I was dreaming about this tomato soup we had a few days earlier. We were just down the street from La Madeline's that makes this oh so delicious tomato soup. A little devil on my shoulder was all "you totally have enough time to run down to the cafe, eat amazing soup, run back to catch the metro, then catch the bus to the airport, and then catch the plane." I convince the skeptical ladies to follow this plan. None of us realized, however, that it is an hour metro ride, and that put us to the bus stop about 1 minute and 27 seconds too late to catch the bus. The bus that only comes every 45 minutes. This would put me, and only me, to the airport without enough time to catch my plane. So one expensive cab ride later, I made it to the airport. Am I seriously that ridiculous? Oh, but that soup was delectable!

April 17th day 62

We started off the day at the Holocaust Museum. I didn't take any photographs, but it was sobering to say the least. I thought I had heard everything there was to hear about the holocaust, but I was wrong. It is crazy that these things still exist to some degree. I never heard about this, but just a few years ago an African American guard at the museum was shot and killed by an anti-Semite. Crazy people!

The American Museum of Natural History would not normally be my kind of thing, but apparently when you are the Smithsonian, you get the super cool stuff like real dinosaurs. Sawyer would have been happy as a pig in slop in this place.

The Hope Diamond. Apparently a little old lady did not throw it in to the ocean when it was found in the Titanic. Oh wait, it wasn't even found in the Titanic. Stupid Hollywood!

What I would look like as a neanderthal. Hot!!

There was an amazing butterfly exhibit where you go in this really humid room that is filled to the brim with butterflies.

By the end of day 3 we were pretty pooped. We had probably walked close to a marathon at this point. We rented bikes for a few hours to squeeze in the last few things. Well worth the $5 an hour!

We met these sweet kids while eating lunch on the river. They were handing out these little origami birds and asking that in return people donate to the victims of the Tsunami in Japan. They said that each of these little birds takes 5 minutes to make. Now look at this bucket full of them, and this was not their first excursion with a bucket full. Doing their part from a half a world away!!

April 16th day 61

Gettysburg, Pa.

So I didn't shoot much in Gettysburg because it was raining so hard that, at times, I thought we were going to be picked up by a newly formed river and taken away. It was the perfect day to stay in the car and listen to an audio tour, which guided us through the most important places and events in the battle at Gettysburg. Very enlightening! Did you know that over 51,000 people died in this one battle alone! These were all Americans fighting...brothers against brothers...friends against friends. Until the battle at Gettysburg, the Union was not winning the war. Can you imagine if they had not fought this hard won battle and slavery had never been abolished? They were truly fighting for a higher purpose.