more from Washington!

Day 3 and 4;

This was another BIG day! We got to go to the White House!

First of all, there were FOUR check points, to get in! I guess it didn't really surprise, but it surprised me? You really get to see a lot of it.

This is the Vermeil room.

This is the East room. The bodies of President Lincoln and President Kennedy lay is state here, after their assassinations.

This is the green room. That's real taffeta on the walls!

This is the blue room. I LOVE that in every single room, there are fresh flowers. It's lovely.

...and the red room.

This is the family dining room - until a couple years ago. Now the First Family eats upstairs. 

 This is the state dining room 

 Photo op in the grand entrance room!!! Pretty cool :-)

 We walked down the same halls that presidents have! Neat.

Our next big stop was the US Capitol. And just let me say it again, unless you've been there, you really can't imagine how BIG it is! 
We got lucky too. The rotunda was open, after a 2 year closure! Just imagine all the history in that building! It really was incredible. We got to see the "crypt". So named because it's where they WOULD HAVE buried George Washington, if the Capitol had been completed when he died.
We also got to go into the original Supreme Court, the Statuary room, which was the original House Chambers and the original Senate Chamber. And of course, the Rotunda - SPECTACULAR.

 The ceiling in the rotunda

My MAN! Thomas Jefferson :-)

The Statuary Room

 After the Capitol, on to the Library of Congress - the most beautiful building I've ever been in!

That was it for the day. It was plenty. Mom is tough cookie! Seriously! We walked between 7 and 10 miles every day. Indoors, outdoors, heat, you name it and she cooked right along. She's awesome!!

Day 4 was a pretty easy day. We didn't get to see Ford's Theater because there was a performance going on. That was a bummer. But we did make it down to the National Law Enforcement Memorial.

I'm sorry to say that we have our own L.E.O. on the wall;

 It's a nice memorial, but far too many names are on the walls.

Oh, and here's the Friendship Arch - largest in the world. A gift from Beijing. It would make a lot more sense if there were a Chinese population to appreciate it!

All in all, it was a most awesome trip. If you've never gone, you must.