Walking Washington

Wow - what a day we've had! I can hardly believe how much we crammed into 12 hours - just wait and see! We've taken so many pictures that I've really had to temper what I'm posting.

The weather today was absolutely gorgeous again. We started our Sunday morning out with Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.


The Basilica is beautiful, and I especially enjoyed touring the crypt church. One of the side altars was Our Lady of Hope, donated by Bob Hope. It's one of my favorites.
After Mass and touring the church, we decided to have lunch in the Basilica cafeteria before heading downtown. Tony chose our table strategically. Play "Where's Waldo" again - whose head is behind my children?
If you guessed Newt Gingrich, you win! Tony spotted him and decided that we needed to sit close. When I took Andrew and Aidan to choose their lunches, Tony approached him and had a brief conversation. The former House speaker thinks my Sophie is pretty cute, apparently. Tony didn't want to bother him again for a picture when we returned, so I had to make due with the back of his head. Pretty exciting.

We left the Basilica and walked around the garden. There's a statue of Saint Theodora Guerin that was important for us Hoosiers to visit. Sophie loved it - she even 'talked' to "Dora".

We caught the Metro and decided to spend the beautiful day outside. Our first stop was Arlington. It wasn't on the original agenda, but when we discovered the Metro went there we decided to try it. Here's a picture from Kennedy's gravesite back toward town. Pay attention to the bridge - I'll mention it again soon.
We really only had one purpose for visiting Arlington - letting the boys see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. So, we hiked up the hill, watched the ceremony, and headed right back out again. While watching, we almost had a catastrophe. I was trying to hold Aidan up to see when Sophie sneaked right past and tripped, falling under the railing and into the middle of the ceremony. Luckily, I have quick hands and yanked her back before she cried or the guards came to yell at me. I also had visions of her running out into the middle of the guards.

Looking at the map showed us that it was much closer to walk to the Lincoln Memorial than to ride the Metro and double back around. Remember the bridge picture earlier? That's right - we crossed the Potomac on foot. That's okay, though, because we went under it on the Metro to get there. So we headed from Virginia back into DC. Here are the boys on the bridge.
Aidan was really looking forward to the Lincoln Memorial. In fact, when we walked in, his reaction was, "Whoa. It's really big!"
Yesterday, Sophie slept through the Washington Monument. Today, she slept through all the monuments. It became a running joke for me to take pictures anyway. I figure I'll need proof that she was actually with us.
One of the stories Aidan's kindergarten teacher read him was about MLK's famous speech. They talked about where he stood and she told Aidan to find the exact spot and stand there. Aidan was so impressed!
Taking a break on the steps - which we climbed down carrying sleeping Sophie, stroller and all. (We took the elevator up)

Next stop, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial.

The Korean War Memorial:
And, the World War Two Memorial. This one could be a new favorite for me - it wasn't there the last time I was in DC. We found that someone had entered my grandpa's name into the Veteran's registry.
Here are the kids in front of the Indiana monument - honoring their Pappy and Papaw.
I just couldn't get over how pretty this newer memorial was.

We left the World War Two memorial and started some more hiking. We were meeting Fr. Paul for dinner at Union Station, and decided that it was too pretty to ride the Metro. So, we walked. A long way. We stopped at the National Archives on the way. We went all the way through town. Here's the capitol:
We finally made it back to Union Station, not quite unscathed. We walked all day - and Tony did the math today - for a grand total of over 10 miles again. Check it out on the map - we walked from Arlington National Cemetery to Union Station. Not to mention the walking to and around the Basilica and inside the cemetery. Aidan was crying the last mile or so, telling us his feet were falling off and he needed to go home.

Dinner made everyone feel better. We ate at the Capitol City Brewing Company. Yummy!


Tomorrow we're expecting rain. Our plan is to head to Ford's Theater and then start working our way through the kid-friendly parts of the Smithsonian.