The National Mall- Our Day Trips

Finally- The photos that you have all been waiting for... We have spent part of several days at the National Mall sights and Smithsonian Museums. On Saturday, it was warm and sunny, so we spent most of the time outside. Sunday was another story all together and with all of the rain we tried to stay dry by visiting the Air and Space Museum and the National Archives. (and on Sunday, Caleb's friend from high school, Joe, joined us.) The National Archives only lets in a certain number of people at a time, so we ended up buying a couple of umbrellas from a street vendor and waiting outside for about 30 minutes in the rain. It was worth it, as there are some super cool things to see there, like the originals of the Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights, as well as the Emancipation Proclamation, just to name a few.

By the time we left the National Archives, and we were still wet, the rain had stopped for the day, so we walked to the White House and to the Vietnam Memorial. Gavin somehow had a lot of energy after all of that walking, and kept making us run around with him. By the end of the day we were all pretty tired, and Lauritz and Michelle brought the van to pick us up. Right by the National Academy of Sciences there was a super cool and huge statue of Albert Einstein. By far one of the best huge statues that I have ever seen. (Loved it.)

It has been amazing to go to so many sites of our national heritage, and also a bit overwhelming. There are just so many things that we would love to see and do. It is probably lucky for us that our kids can't handle it all, or we would be more busy than we have already been.

Tonight we are headed back to see the monuments at night, as well as trying to squeeze in a few more museums.

The NSA and Annapolis

On Friday, we did some exploring around town during the day and then went to the National Security Agency (NSA) to see the Cryptological Museum and to pick up Lauritz after work. We arrived a little earlier than we wanted for the museum, but we spotted this nice little park with 3 airplanes and decided to get the boys out to run around. While we were there, I took this shot...

Within about a second of my camera taking the photo, we see an NSA police officer headed right towards us at a quick pace (he had been sitting in his truck nearby). Caleb thought maybe he was coming to tell us not to be on the grass or something, but we had been running around there for a good 10 minutes in front of him at that point. So he comes straight up to me and asks to see the picture that I took and then proceeds to tell us that we aren't allowed to take any photos while I am facing in the direction of the NSA buildings. As you can see, my picture doesn't have the building in it, so he told us one more time and then went back to his truck and drove off. Before too long, we are hanging out by the other airplane (facing away from any buildings) and another NSA police officer pulls up and comes walking over. He tells me that he has heard that we had taken a picture in the wrong direction and that he needs to see all of pictures on my camera... there were about 80 at this point. Kind of funny. Especially since we take a lot of pictures of our kids and sometimes 2 or 3 in a row to try and get the right shot. After that I decided that there was nothing that my kids could do that was cute enough to warrant taking pictures within 10 miles of the NSA.

Friday night, we headed to Annapolis. The quaint little town that was once the nations capitol for a brief time, and also is the home of the Naval Academy. Really cool little place right on the water with a beautiful harbor. Unfortunately, it was super windy, so we didn't hang out on the docks for too long, but we really enjoyed ourselves.

Michelle and Lauritz Peterson with some really cute kids.

Alexandria, VA- and a visit with all of the Cousins

My Dad's first cousin, Janice, and her husband David live in Alexandria, Virginia. Janice and David also have two beautiful daughters, Katie and Alice. We had always gotten to see a lot of them growing up in Iowa, but it had been a long time since we were able to get together... So long in fact that Caleb hadn't ever met them. So we made plans to visit with them when we came into town. When Janice got it touch with me, it also turned out that our trip was going to be overlapping a visit of my first cousin, John and his wife Ann Marie and their son Johnny. Are you still with me here? I know... kind of confusing how we are related to everyone... I think Caleb finally has it figured out after putting some names with faces. Anyway, instead of trying to explain the family tree to Gavin we just told him that we were visiting "all of the cousins." He was happy with that explanation so we should all be. Right?

David and Janice hosted a dinner for us at their house. It was a beautiful day and evening, so we were able to sit outside to eat. Very nice. And Janice is a great cook (like her mother) so I got some new ideas from her as well, a nice bonus for me.

It was great to see Katie and Alice, though unfortunately, I wasn't on the ball enough and didn't get a picture of Alice. :-( Hopefully we won't go as long between visits again. Ann Marie is expecting a girl and due in the middle of July. She looked great and seemed to be getting around really well. (This picture is for you Dad.)

Henry really liked hanging out with everyone and all of the attention that he got. He was laughing hysterically playing ball with Janice, and just had a great time being outside wandering around.

We enjoyed everything about the visit and it was great to catch up, but Gavin had a few favorite things about "seeing cousins". One being the trampoline, though what he liked best about it was jumping with Johnny and wrestling with John. He followed John around like he was his fan club and is still going on this morning about all the fun things they did together.
Gavin and Johnny also seemed to enjoy just having fun and chatting together. Here they are racing across Janice's back lawn. Then after dinner they sat and had lime popsicles together in the new reclining chairs. We aren't sure what they were discussing as the lounged together, but they were talking rapidly the whole time. We made some speculations since we will probably never know the truth.

A cute group shot.

John, Johnny, Ann Marie, Gavin, Caleb, Henry, Marci

Great Falls- The Maryland Side

Our first stop on our trip was not actually a historic site, but a place on the Potomac River called Great Falls. We heard about this from the Newlands and decided to check it out on our way to Virginia yesterday. It was a nice river walk that then lead to a series of boardwalk and bridge on a small island in the middle of the large river. With all of the rain and storm that they have been getting out here, the river was bursting and the falls were very fast and loud. We had a really nice walk to check out so many smaller falls and then to see the largest... or Great Falls at the end. Pretty cool.

In a effort to save you from all of the really cool pictures, I just picked out a few of the prettiest ones. So the actually great falls isn't here, since it is mostly just wide and slopes quite slowly. Maybe I will post more of it later.

There was also a lot of debris washing down the river as a result of the storm, both natural debris and also the really gross kind... trash and tires and what not. So a little public service announcement- Its always better not to litter.