dc the second

On Tuesday, Lynn and Laurel took us downtown again, this time on the Metro--so they could show us how it worked. I really liked the way the metro stations looked. They are all the same and feel very 1984 to me.
We walked by the White House...
...and actually saw one of the guards on the roof! I think they are supposed to remain unobserved, but we found one! You can see his head popping up to the left of the flag pole.
And, cruising in front of the White House, we saw another Segway gang! I really think they are organized and getting ready to take over the world. We see those Segway gang members on all our trips.
After we saw the White House, we headed down Pennsylvania Ave toward the Old Post Office. On the way, we cut through an old hotel (that I can't remember the name of) where all the politicians and famous people would stay when they came to Washington. People wanting the ear of some politician would wait in the lobby of this hotel for them to come out of their rooms, and that is how the term "lobbyist" came about.

You can see the tower of the post office behind Brett, and then the Capitol Building farther away.
We went to the top of the tower and saw the bells and the view. I think my favorite skyline is DC's skyline. I love how all the buildings are relatively low, so that the monuments remain above everything else.

After the Post Office, we went to the Natural History Museum, which was awesome. I love museums.

On Wednesday, Laurel drove us to the Arlington Cemetery. She has a pass, since she was a Captain in the Navy (at least I think that's why), so we could drive into the cemetery. Typically, visitors have to park at the bottom and walk all around the huge cemetery, so it was very nice that we had a ride. The cemetery is beautiful and stunning.

We saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I enjoyed that, and took tons of pictures, but they really all ended up looking the same, since they mostly just walk back and forth in a line.
Here's a nice picture of the Pentagon that I got from Arlington Cemetery.
And the beautiful DC skyline from the front porch of the Lee House, which is inside the cemetery.
Once we finished walking around and seeing the cemetery, we headed to Mt. Vernon. On our way, we were looking for lunch and saw a Five Guys! Brett's cousins used to take him to Five Guys when he came out to visit before, and he really liked it. Also, they just built a Five Guys in Salt Lake. Lunch was very good, and I would recommend anyone that likes burgers and fries to try the one nearest to them. I even liked the burger and I don't typically do hamburgers. Just a warning, though, one order of fries is plenty for at least 2 people. Some of you could probably stretch it to 4 people. They pretty much just give you a brown lunch bag full of fries.
After lunch we made it to Mt. Vernon. Brett and I have always thought we wanted a smallish house, just enough to suit our needs. When we were looking at the Lee House, I decided I needed a house at least as big as the Lee House. And then once we got to Mt. Vernon, I changed my mind again and now I won't settle for anything less than Mt. Vernon (grounds included).
Most of my tree pictures from my earlier post were taken on Mt. Vernon grounds. Beautiful.

We went to the Mt. Vernon museum as well, and saw many interesting things, including wax figures of George Washington at various ages in his life. They figured out what he looked like based on his clothes and dentures and all kinds of other interesting evidence like that.

They even had Washington's dentures (not made of wood) on display, along with this lovely sign that I got a huge kick out of.
On our way back, we drove through Alexandria and by Washington's old town home. Very neat.
On Thursday, Brett and I went off on our own to see Gallaudet University, which is a Deaf Liberal Arts University.
Here's Brett with the statue of Gallaudet and Alice.
We got to the Visitor's Center just in time to join a walking tour of the campus. It was all signed, so I interpreted for Brett. Brett is taking a beginning ASL class right now at school, and he said he understood a lot of what was said (which is so cool to me!). That weekend ended up being Homecoming, so there was a big group of alumni on the tour as well. They all graduated from Gallaudet in 1958. It was fun to watch them chatting about how things used to be when they lived on campus. The guy in the blue shirt was our guide. He was very nice. Gallaudet campus is beautiful as well; we enjoyed wandering and seeing all the old buildings. These rocks are built in the shape of a big "G". Brett is showing the ASL handshape for "G" as well.
After Gallaudet, we went to find a little hole in the wall Guitar shop. Just because we always have to see the guitar shops.

Once we had our fill at the shop, we walked down to the Portrait Gallery and saw all the portraits of the US presidents and a bunch of other famous people (Ben Franklin, Joseph Smith, Queen Elizabeth I, etc.).

In the middle of the Portrait Gallery, they have a beautiful covered courtyard. They had a jazz trio playing music for people that wanted to stop in, either for the museum or for the cafe.
On Friday, we went to the Holocaust Museum, which was impressive and educational and sad.

We then went to the Air and Space museum, where Brett walked around looking at all the planes and spaceships, etc and I walked around looking for the nearest bench to sit on. I was tired and mostly ready to go home to Salt Lake by then.

After we left the Air and Space museum, we walked (a very short way) toward the Capitol to take a last picture. It got cold on Friday, but Brett left his jacket home and was very cold all day. You can tell by his cold face in this picture.

Our trip to DC was super awesome and fun. I've always wanted to live in DC, and so I was visiting to see how well we'd like living there as well. I like DC as well as Chicago, but I'm still liking Salt Lake quite a bit right now. We've still got three years of school left, so we'll be here at least that long, but who knows what we'll do after that! Probably move to Chile.