At the beginning of June, my Dad, Mom, Brian and I went on vacation to Washington DC. My dad had to give a talk there for his work, so we tagged along. We stayed at this really cool hotel that was right on the bank of the Potomac river. The hotel had a HUGE window in the back (you can see in the picture) that faced the river. It was a really nice view.
This is the view of the river from the back of the hotel window. I wish it was the view from our room, but at least it was just down the hall.. right? Anyway the river was really big, and I kinda wanted to swim in it, but I don't think it was allowed. :P
For the first few days while we were there, we just hung out around the hotel. Our hotel was about a 25 minute drive away from Washington DC, and we didn't have a rental car. It cost about 45 bucks to take a taxi to the city one way, so we couldn't go out to the city as much as we wanted to. But luckily, there was a shopping mall with shops, and places to eat just outside our hotel. I might regret having this picture on here, but I thought it was funny, and its not everyday that you get to sit on a cow bench. HAHA..
We also walked the docs of the river that were outside our hotel. We wanted to take a boat out and ride up and down the river, but they only did it on the weekends, and it was a bunch of money.. that we didn't have. But it was still cool to sit on the dock. The river was really pretty, the best was during the sunset!
We finally got away from the hotel, and went and saw a Washington Nationals baseball game. It was really fun. I love going to the ball park. This is my family and I in front of the ball park getting ready for the game.
So, funny story. As my family and I were watching the game, something came on the big jumbo tron TV thing. It was a BUNCH of LDS missionaries! There must have been about 150-200 missionaries at the game, and they were all sitting together. I have a friend, Cody Neumeyer, who is serving a mission in Virginia, so I thought I would go check if he was up there, since I didn't know if he was close to Washington DC or not... who knows, maybe he could be there, why not check. So I searched the bleachers, and finally found where the missionaries were sitting. I looked and looked for my friend who was serving but I couldn't find him. But I didn't find two other missionaries that I went to High School with and I knew, Sheldon Vaterlaus and Austin Jelitto. It was really cool to see them, and it looked like they were having a great time, and they were happy. Small world. :)
After the game, we walked up to the Washington DC mall. Which I thought was going to be an actual mall with shops and stuff... but its just what they call the strip where all the buildings and stuff are. HAHA..
Anyway, it was about a 1 1/2 mile walk, and it was freaking hot! My dad says it was not as hot as it usually is, but all I know... it was super hot, and we were all sweating like pigs.
We fist saw the Capital. It was really cool to see it.
Then we walked down to the Washington monument. This one was super cool to see. I took this awesome picture of the monument. I'm pretty proud of it. HAHA.. ;)
Next was the wall of fallen soldiers in Vietnam. This was really cool to see. Everyone was really quiet here, you couldn't here anything but birds cheeping. I was amazed to see all the names. I've seen this wall before on TV and movies, but it is so different in person. Really cool.
We then saw the Lincoln memorial. This is one of the sights I was really excited to see. It was really awesome actually being there in person.
Here is Lincoln himself. He was huge!
After we walked the mall, we walked up to the White House. We were all so tired, because we had been walking ALL day, and it was so HOT! We must have walked about 8 or more miles that day. So we didn't stay at the White House that long, because we all wanted to catch a taxi, and get back to the hotel. But it was really neat to see the White House.
The next day, my Mom, Brian and I went back to the mall and visited some of the cool museums. But the bad thing is, they were all PACKED. Like literally shoulder to shoulder, plus the heat didn't help. The funny thing is, it was packed with little girls scouts. All the Girl Scouts of America were there for a field trip/vacation thing. THEY WERE EVERYWHERE! It even was on the national news. So we just went back to the hotel after awhile. But the museums that I did see were super awesome. I wish I could have spent more time there.
All in all, it was a great trip! I love being able to travel with my Dad on these trips. It was super fun to see all the Capital buildings and monuments!
