Washington D.C. Trip

April 31st

While I was in Washington D.C. I went to see the Capital Building. My Grandma was able to get us a private tour of the building. The Capital just finished building the new visitor center. Before we could go to the visitor center we had to have an ID card that was visible. We also had to put our bags through security. On the way to the tour we walked through a hall with tons of pictures hanging on the wall. Some of the pictures where amazing to look at.



I saw the ceiling of one of the rooms and it had a mural painted on it. Maggie, our tour guide, told me that once the congressmen climbed up a flight of stairs and stood on the mural.







Maggie was also telling me how each state has at least two statues, they have donated, spread out around the Capital. I found one of Oregon's statues.

In the Capital Dome there is a place you can stand, and listen to other people standing at another spot. It sounds as thought there is a speaker attached somewhere.

Once we had arrived back from the tour I took a picture of Congressman Kurt Schrader's office. Then the secretary let me sit in his chair I felt like royalty.









This was my favorite part of the trip; getting to visit the Capital Building.

-Madeleine

Photographs

Here is a photograph of Abraham Lincoln at his memorial site.

-Madeleine

Washington D.C. Trip-Gettysburg Battlefield

Today we went to visit the Gettysburg Battle Field. It was raining really hard so we didn't get out of the car at many of the sites. The Battle Field museum was very interesting. There was this 45 pound bag you could try to lift and that bag was what the soldiers had to carry around. I couldn't lift it with one hand, and I could barely lift it with two hands. There were a few short shows we watched and on long show we watched. After the show we got to look at this painting called a cyclorama with sound effects and lights to make it look like we were on the real battle field. In three days, 6,000 men died on the battle field. I found this one of the most exciting things I did in Pennsylvania. I will add a bit of family history.

The Herr family farm was located just a few miles from Gettysburg. When the soldiers came through, they took horses from the farm. One of my ancestors, a very young boy, was hidden in a hay stack so he would not be taken by the army.


- Madeleine

Washington D.C. Trip

May 2nd

Today we went down to the Union Station and looked at some of the items in the gift shops. It is a huge building where thousands of people pass through every day as they travel by train.

We also went to the Washington National Cathedral where there was a flower festival going on. We had a really hard time finding parking. There was an amazing stained glass window in the Cathedral. It had many different colors. It was a great enjoyment. To get an understanding of the size of the Cathedral, the Washington Monument could fit in it lying on its side.


After we had gone to the Cathedral we drove down to Pennsylvania. We went to the hotel to unload the car and then we went to dinner. We are back at the hotel and I am going swimming.

-Madeleine

Washington D.C. Trip

Madeleine’s Washington D.C. trip

Attractions

Baltimore Inner Harbor: Lost in Baltimore

Arlington Cemetery: The Tomb of the Unknowns and the John F. Kennedy Grave Site. While we were at The Tomb of the Unknowns we saw a guard change. People where doing little acts with the gun, inspecting each other to make sure they looked professional. It was interesting, at first I didn’t want to go, but my Grandpa talked me into it.

The Lincoln Memorial: The Lincoln Statue has a change to the face; on one side Lincoln is smiling and on the other he is frowning. The Lincoln Memorial had a great view of the mall, but it was cloudy so the pictures didn’t turn out well.

The Vietnam Memorial: the Vietnam Memorial was very sad. The war was not called for; many innocent people died for no reason. I made a rubbing of the names Willard and Wideman, both family names. This was really fun to get to see people who have the same last name.


Korean War Memorial: Men were all spread out looking as though they didn’t know what was going on. All of the men in the scene looked like they thought there was enemy behind every bush.

Roosevelt Memorial: The Roosevelt Memorial had many things and memories for me to look at. I feel very safe and protected here. This was my favorite memorial; I copied the pose of Eleanor Roosevelt.

The National Air and Space Museum: The Space Museum was very interesting; I had a lot of fun. While we were here I bought Alec an airplane. I hope he likes it. There where lots of different planes to see, I got to go in to a few of the them. Their layout was amazing. All of the controls the pilot use look very complicated.

The Jefferson Memorial: the Jefferson Memorial was very nice; we went there during the early night so it was all lit up. The Memorial has a great view of the Washington Monument. My favorite part was posing on the big square post in front of the memorial.

-Madeleine