Washington DC Day 5

Mom was so excited to go inside the White House!

We were off early again this morning so we could get to our White House Tour. We were parked, lined up, and ready to go at 9 o'clock. The tour was a free walking tour through the lower level of the White House, and we got to see the Red Room, Green Room, Blue Room, East Room, and the State Dining Room. The boys loved naming the Presidents they saw in portraits on the walls. They are really good at it from the set of playing cards they have, but they struggled with the First Ladies. The tour wasn't too long, but it was fun to look at the Madisons' candlesticks and the Adams' tea set. It was also fun to be right inside the place Lincoln and Roosevelt walked.

Seth was fascinated by the secret service that were patrolling the grounds.

We entered the east wing and walked through the ground floor..

There were dishes from almost all of the Presidents. Our favorite set was Lincoln's china.

Dax wanted his picture with the Washington portrait Dolly Madison famously saved from a fire.

They rolled out the red carpet for Mark.

These candlesticks were used by James Madison, and the urn by John Adams. 

The Red Room may have been the most striking.

The State Dining Room was really beautiful!

We got a picture with the Presidential Seal at the back door.

This is Dad's third favorite President behind Lincoln and Roosevelt.

The back steps of the White House were even worth a picture.

Seth wanted to ask a question, so we asked one of the first people we saw when the Secret Service was founded. He wasn't sure. So we asked a nice Secret Service agent in the Blue Room, and she told Seth that William McKinley organized the Secret Service (which is ironic since he was assassinated) and his picture was hanging up in the East Room, so we went to check it out. Seth loved asking questions and learning on this vacation.

There's McKinley in the portrait with Seth.

Next we walked to Ford's Theater. The boys sat right in the street and finished their Junior Ranger booklets. The museum under the theater is really amazing. We laughed at Lincoln's funny anecdotes and were amazed at how he pulled people together and inspired them. There were artifacts like the contents of Booth's pockets (including five pictures of female admirers) and pieces of each rope used to hang the conspirators. Finally they took us into the theater and a park ranger spoke about the events of the evening. The boys were really good and listened closely. They seemed to enjoy the presentation as much as Mom and Dad did. After the theater we crossed the street to where Lincoln died. We passed by the bed where the President took his last breaths. They also had a really cool tower of 15,000 books that have been written about Lincoln.

Seth was so excited to see all of these pictures of Tad after reading about him in the Magic Tree House book.

Dad and Seth read a book about Lincoln and the assassination before going to Washington, DC.
Seth was pretty angry when he saw Booth's pistol. 

The theater was stripped shortly after Lincoln's death. It has since been restored.
Now it houses plays again, and you can go to a show most nights.

Dax kept staring at the President's Box.
Hopefully he was seeing history in his head.

We had fun looking at the book tower dedicated to Lincoln.

It was lunch time after the theater, and Hard Rock Cafe was right next door. The boys enjoyed walking around this "museum" while waiting for their food. The artifacts were from all the great bands: The Who, Black Sabbath, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, and all our other favorites. We even ate right under a base guitar owned by Robert Plant. The food was really good, too.

That's Robert Plant's base guitar. He mostly sang, though.

Dax liked the guitar flag at Hard Rock Cafe.

Most of the rest of the day was for the Smithsonian Museums. The Museum of Natural History was our first stop. As soon as we got inside we made a beeline for the giant squid. Then we made our way to rocks and gems to see the Hope Diamond. We really enjoyed the precious stones, but Dad started wearing out in the rock section. There were still a million animals to see, and the boys enjoyed Africa, the ocean, and animals of the Americas. Mark even took us to the basement to see the Birds of DC exhibit. We spent a few good hours seeing all the things in the museum.

Dax was not impressed with the giant squid.

He did really like the hippo, though.

This massive elephant sits in the center of the theater.

There is a huge section on skeletons and bones.

The rocks are really rare and beautiful. 

We were probably the only people to visit the basement and the birds of DC.
But Mark wouldn't miss it for the world!

Then we went next door to the Museum of American History. Now Dad was happier, but the boys were less interested. Still, they enjoyed seeing the Nauvoo Temple Sunstone, Willie Mays hat, glove, and cleats, and a baseball signed by the '37 Nationals. There was also a pretty good exhibit on the Presidents we spent a lot of time exploring. The best part was Abe Lincoln's hat that he wore to Ford's Theater on that fateful night.

Bill Clinton's saxophone and Obama's basketball were surrounded by Presidential artifacts.

Lincoln's hat left us in awe. It is almost as iconic as the Liberty Bell.

Mark recognized the old ticket booths from baseball history.

The Sunstone used to be more impressive, but since they've rebuilt the temple in Nauvoo, it's a little less interesting.

The boys were getting pretty worn out, but we don't stop or slow down!

Our boys read famous speeches like they were American Presidents. 

"Ask not what your country can do for you..."

Seth wanted Mr. Gorbachev to bring down that wall.

They were drawn like magnets to the baseball paraphernalia. Can you see Randy?

What in the name of...? Mark had no idea what this was, and Mom and Dad remembered playing Oregon Trail on this Apple IIe many years ago!

We hustled back to the car because we still wanted to see the National Cathedral and the Washington DC Temple. It's about thirty minutes out there, but we found that in rush hour traffic it is more like an hour and thirty minutes. We even saw the President drive by in his large motorcade, which accounted for some of the traffic. We finally made it and there was a service being held in the cathedral. That didn't stop us from walking around a bit, though we couldn't go all the way to the front and see the back wall of the cathedral. The boys mostly wanted to go because they didn't feel comfortable interrupting someone else's church.

The National Cathedral is gorgeous. George HW Bush lay in State here a few months after we visited.
We made sure the boys made that connection. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside because the service was going on.

The temple was much more to our liking. Though it is closed for renovation, it is still lit so that pilots can see which way to turn to the airport. There is also a huge Visitor Center that is open late. The boys enjoyed exploring the interactive exhibits and Mom and Dad talked to the head missionary for quite a while about the work being done. It was really late by the time we took pictures and decided to leave.

The DC Temple is huge compared to most LDS temples.

After a quick stop at Panda Express in the mall, we finally got back to Falls Church. We let the cousins play for a bit before we rounded up the boys to say goodbye. Jessica and Aaron were so good to let us use their home, eat their food, and recommend so many things in the city. We hope they can come stay with us someday so we can pay them back a little.

Six months ago we didn't even know these cousins.
Now we love them as much as any other.

It was a short night as the flight home left early. But we jumped through all the hoops and made it on the plane. The boys were excited that there was a screen in every seat and they could watch movies. We got home by about 3 pm. It was another great Ockey Family Adventure!

The boys packed their school headphones just in case.

The wait at the airport in Denver was a short one.