7-21-12

{First Day in Washington DC}

We drove all night and made it to Virginia by morning. Then, we stopped at Panera Bread for breakfast which made Riley a very happy girl...

When we got to DC, we found our hotel which was a great Hampton Inn right on the Potomac River in Old Town Alexandria. We got cleaned up, did a load of laundry, and we took off to explore the Capitol area. Because it was Saturday, we easily found a parking spot just a short walk from the US Capitol. Tours are offered every few minutes so we walked right in and started our tour. I'm not sure why I didn't take many pictures from the tour, but suffice it to say that the Capitol is beautiful, and we all found the tour to be informative and fun. And just so that we remember this funny little story... Our tour guide was this very "sweet" man who liked to sing alot and quote Broadway plays. Well, he took a liking to Brant, who he thought was named "Brad". He kept calling him "tough guy" and "Bad Brad". Yes, it was a little creepy...
Gavin was so excited to find this statue of Brigham Young and the big boys read every plaque and studied every statue about the Founding Fathers...

Next, we walked down to the National Air and Space Museum. Before we left Utah this summer, Trent went online, researched all of the museums in DC, and made a list of all the places that we needed to go. This museum was at the very top of his list. It is a pretty incredible place. I think we could spend a week in this museum alone and not see everything there is to see. But, we did our best, and after spending a few hours here, we were excited about what we saw...
Lance and the Wright Brothers' plane...
Here they are in the main part with historical airplanes suspended overhead. Don't you love the janitor's cart on the side? nice...

After the Air and Space Museum, we took a driving tour around the area to scope out where we will go tomorrow. Our favorite spots were the Library of Congress, the Pentagon, Arlington National Cemetery, and we loved how beautiful the Washington and Lincoln Memorials were in the setting sun.

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