Up up and away!

I have to finish this blog before The Office comes on or I will be way to distracted. Kate is taking the night off. For all you political junkies, you won't miss much. Our schedule today was just sight-seeing. We didn't go to any hearings or speeches.
I shouldn't say JUST sight-seeing.
The White house was our first stop. Not a whole lot to say about that. We couldn't get too close.
Next stop was the White House Visitor Center. It was quite interesting how the progress of initial construction went. The TOTAL gutting of the White House, starting in 1948, must have been a huge project. Only the shell of the building remained and they added 2 additional basement levels when they had all the "guts" out.
We walked from the WH to the WWII monument. Not called a memorial because it is to honor ALL those who had anything to do with WWII, including those back home. So if they died serving, or are living yet today, the monument is to honor them.
Next door to the WWII monument is The Washington Monument. Also not a memorial, because the planning and purchase of land took place before Washington's death.
This photo below is a shot from the top of the monument toward the White House Property. Below that is a shot toward the Lincoln Memorial. We took the tour including a 70 second elevator ride to the 500 foot level of the 555 feet 5 and one quarter inch structure. The views from the top were nice for sure!The last Washington Monument photo is of the floor just in front of the elevator. Random, I know. Also here's Kate not heeding the slippery sign.
Our next stop was scheduled to be the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Our timing was not so good and instead of wait we opted to jump to lunch time and our final stop The Smithsonian Museum of American History.
The museum covered lots of time and events. I didn't take a lot of pictures because of the poor lighting. Kate and I agreed that it was almost too much to comprehend that what we were looking at was not a prop from a movie or play. We saw things that were IN the civil war, Kermit the Frog, THE flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner, the lunch counter from the Greensboro sit in, Lincoln's top hat, Washington's sword, Dorothy's ruby slippers, Bill Clinton's sax. One of my favorites that my brothers will appreciate,
"You want a pickle? I'll give you a pickle!"
Again, being there and seeing so much history and the weight of it has still not fully set in. Although blogging about it I sit here and think, "WOW".
The tourists (because we aren't anymore) are still pretty thick around here and I think that distracted us from getting fully absorbed in the museum. Dodging people and silly high-schoolers distracts from the experience. All in all the day was good. I know I'm blogging tonight, but here is the lady of the blog at work last night. :-)
Now for the bonus material...
Here is a $4.34 cupcake.
Here is a picture for KRK.
And finally... A shot from the top of the Washington Monument toward the Capitol. I inserted an arrow to show our spot on the Mall where we gathered for the Inauguration. From where we were, there was about a mile of people behind us. 1.8 million in attendance was the latest number.