Day 27: Washington DC

We started the day at Union station.  This place is huge, but not to scary :)  We were going to take a tour but then some one had told Tina that you could take the circulater which is a bus that goes around the mall for only one dollar.  So we checked that out first thing but it wasn't running like that anymore so we went downstairs and got tickets for a tour on a trolley.  It drives all over the DC area and we could get on and off in lot's of places and not have to walk the whole thing.  Sounded good to me, I walk a lot but man my body is tired from all this traveling and stuff.

Capital Building

Smithsonian Castle

Washington Monument

Jefferson Memorial

Roosevelt Memorial

 I

Should a hydrant ever be out of service?  Glad this isn't in front of my house

Martin Luther King Memorial

World War II Memorial

Korean War Monument

Vietnam Wall Monument

I really don't know what to say about the monuments.  They speak for themselves.  No translation needed.  It was amazing and wonderful to walk and read and ponder.

Last we went to the Museum of American History.  We pretty much ran through this one, which is about what you have to do when there is so much to see.  We saw Dorothy's ruby slippers and dresses that the first ladies have worn and the flag that the star spangled banner was written about.  It was so big, I had no idea it was that big.  We saw so much on World War I and II.  The list just goes on and on.  Below is the Sun Stone from the Nauvoo temple.  I think they could have had more information on it there but it was cool to see it.  We took off after this and hurried home.  We were so tired.  Got back to Trudy's house and had dinner.  We visited for hours, it was so nice.

Day 26: Mechanicsville, Maryland

We made it Maryland!  We are staying with family while we are here.  It feels so good to be surrounded by familiar faces.  We love our family and miss them all dearly.  Makes me a little teary eyed typing this.  We ate lunch and visited and Grandma asked if there was anything we would like to do.  The kids didn't say anything so I said I would like to see an  Amish buggy.  So off we went to the farmers market and low and behold, Amish.

 It is a little weird to go from the mock world of colonial Williamsburg to the REAL world of Maryland but I still thought it was cool.   I wonder what it would be like to live an Amish life in the modern world.

 I would probably be like these boys.  Do you think they think we look as out of place as they do?

 I know for a fact I wouldn't want to have anything to do with driving farm machinery down a road with cars whizzing by me and my horses.  Yeah I think I will quit wondering about it and just let the Amish be Amish and I will be me.

Day 25: Williamsburg Virginia

Oh my goodness, where do I start....hopefully I can remember everything.  Williamsburg was a town I saw on the map when we were mapping out our trip that I knew was full of colonial history and so I told Hope we should stop for just one day.  Wow, you need to spend far more than one day here.  We had no idea how much there was to see and do here so we did the watered down version :)  If anyone reading this decides to go here some day, give yourself some time.

 The Governor's Palace was so impressive.  Beautiful and interesting, it was the home of seven Royal Governors and Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson.

First room in Palace.  The guns alone are worth 1.2 million dollars

 This man did an excellent job showing us through the palace.  He started us off my setting our tour as though we were in the 1775.  He stayed in character through the whole tour.  I liked it.  When someone would say Wow or something modern he would comment about how he has never heard that word before.

Chair Patrick Henry died in

 This is some fancy molding in the ballroom I do believe.  The thing I found fascinating in this room was the room color.  Long ago in order to get this color on the wall they went through quite a process with copper and in that process they got green paint or whatever to put on the walls.  I found that interesting.

 Beautiful gardens.  Everywhere we walked around the Palace it was just gorgeous.  Very well taken care of.

Emma in a hedge maze

 The kitchens at the Palace were full of food.  They were setting up and getting ready for a cooking show to come and film there the day we were there.  I guess Martha Stewart and Paula Dean and a few other celebrities have had there cooking shows filmed here.

 This is the lady that led us on a tour through the capitol building.  I love how everyone that worked there was in period costumes, even visitors can rent costumes and walk around all day dressed in colonial attire.

 This is a balcony in the court room, I didn't see a door up there so I was wondering how they used to get up there :)  Later in the evening while we were in Williamsburg we took a Ghost tour.  The man said that there was one lady in the history of the court system that had been tried as a witch.  She was not found to be a witch though and lived to a really old age....but she comes back to haunt the building.   In Williamsburg at certain times they put on mock witch trials and it is said that she sneers from the balcony at them when they are judging the "witches."

 This is the jail.  It at one time held some of Black Beards pirates.  How cool is that!

 There were four cells, two original and two added later.  This is one of the originals.

 This is a church that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson attended.  The baptismal font below they have dated to 1612.  I wish I could remember more, but that was pretty cool.

 We visited the first hospital dedicated to the mentally ill.  It was established in 1773.  Oh my goodness, I just can't fathom being chained to a wall and living like this.  Thankful for my mental state.

 In the evenings they put on this show behind the court house.  The troops line up and get ready to be inspected by George Washington.  It was interesting for sure.

What color was George Washington's white horse :)

 Love how rebellious Hope is no matter what :)  Where's the rotten veggies!

I followed this marching band for a good long time to get a picture so I am posting it because I worked the hardest for this one.  Williamsburg was awesome.  One of our stops that I can say if I ever get a chance to go here again I will take it.