A place everyone should visit.....

This isn't going to be about birds or butterflies....it is about my trip to Washington DC.  I had always wanted to visit and my sister and I just took off and spent two days walking everywhere....I got the blisters to prove it!

 Our hotel was close walking distance to the Metro.  We went everywhere using it.  Sometimes the escalator didn't work and that was a bummer, but I tried to tell myself this was good for me...might lose some weight!!!!!  Ha Ha...

Our first stop was the Capitol building.  Was very interesting, I was a little disappointed that we couldn't see the House of Representatives and the Senate as they were in session working hard to take their August vacation!

 Very impressive and beautiful and big.  Unless you are there you can't get the feel of how big the building is.

Inside we took the tour, was very good. Beautiful tile and chandeliers and columns.

 The ceiling was beautiful.....

 This is just a creative picture of the windows that circle the dome, looking outside.

The Library of Congress was breathtaking when you walk inside and see the room.

This is the stair case.

These pictures just don't show the beauty and the colors.

This is Martin Luther King Memorial.  It was very impressive.

We then walked over to FDR's Memorial.  There are four rooms, one for each of his terms.

I added this picture with me in it to show you the scale of the monument. It was one of my favorite.

                                                          Washington Monument

                                                              Vietnam Monument

 The Korean Monument.
As we were walking to it, it was such a weird feeling to see through the trees the soldiers, like we had gone through a time tunnel.





The picture below was like a wall of ghosts.
I liked this picture I took because it shows the soldiers and us and the faces of the ghosts. Very moving.

                                              World War II Monument, Pacific side.

This was another one of my favorites.  This was the war my Dad fought in and I donated to help it get built and was so pleased to finally get to see it.

You can see the Lincoln Monument and from the other way the Washington Monument.

We had some rain and we took the rickshaw thingy!!!!!  He had a huge umbrella that we huddled under as he cycled through the traffic to the Lincoln Memorial.  This was quite exciting...cars whizzing by and rain pouring.....our thrill for the day!!!!  HAHA....

                                       
                                                        Lincoln Memorial

When the rain quit and the sun came out we left. Lucky for us that was the only rain we had while there..although it was very hot....
                     The Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

                                                           Marie Lousie Diadem

 This was beautiful, my favorite. All the jewelry was amazing.

 The Rotunda with the Elephant was impressive and the tiger below was so realist...

                                                    Bones of birds

                                               Can you see the leaf insect? He was alive and
                                               really neat to see along with other unusual bugs.
                                               I guess I was wrong in the beginning...Here is a bug.

                                          There was a live Butterfly exhibit going on too.

We just didn't have enough time to really see everything and there is so much to see.
We then went to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.....

                                                                Michele Obama's dress
It was very pretty and the exhibit had other first lady's dress they wore for the inaugural balls.
There is so much here to...somethings you can't take pictures and some of the pictures I took weren't that good because of the low lighting.  We even saw Dorothy's ruby shoes from the Wizard of Oz.

                                          Apolo Ohno's speed skates from 2002

                                        This sculpture was outside the Smithsonian American History.

                     Don't know what this was for but it was so pretty I just took it picture and  kept walking.                              

We only had two days and the last day we went to the White House......this is the front.  We walked around to the back.

I think the back is prettier than the front.

This is the garden and the bee hive.

And then I saw this on the gate!!!!

I pushed it and guess what!!!!!!!

In my dreams!!!!!!  LOL.......

                              We had a wonderful visit to Washington DC and recommend everyone should visit.
We then got in our car and drove to Virginia Beach for recovery.....

Promise my next post will be about Birds, Bugs, and Butterflies!!!!!!