Life of Sophia: Washington DC

This weekend we drove up to Washington DC. Mommy has visited before but I have only been on business trips and have never had a chance to look at all the memorials. Since it is the capital of the United States they have lots of memorial dedicated to special moments in the history of the country. And it's where the president lives. This is his house, called surprisingly, the White House.

Even though we got up early there were lots of tourists snapping cameras.

Then we walked around to the back. That's a nice porch he has huh?

And it was a good spot to put on some sunscreen. It was a very warm day with no clouds and very few areas with shade.

Our next stop was the Washington Memorial dedicated to George Washington. That's his memorial behind us, the tall tower.

Neither of you were too excited about it though once we made it up there.

It's quite tall. You can even go to the top but we had so much to see and so little time (1.5 days) that we didn't go up.

From the Washington Memorial looking west you can see the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial at the very end of the Mall.

You can see how far away it is. We had to haul both of you down there and back and then some more walking after that. We were both exhausted at the end of the day.

As we made our way down we happened to pass behind the tower just as the sun was rising over the top. You can see the long shadow it cast.

Next up before the Reflecting Pool was the new World War II Memorial. It was a circular area with columns around a central fountain. Both of you love fountains.

Caden unfortunately was asleep but we do have proof he was there.

You stopped to say hello to a duck in the pond. Much more interesting than a memorial.

Then we headed to the Reflecting Pool. It was a little murky.

Action shot!

And here's the Lincoln Memorial dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.

Here's a shot looking back at the Pool and the Washington Memorial.

Inside one of Abraham Lincoln's famous speeches was on the wall. You're reading well now but this was still a little tough.

And a huge statue of Abraham Lincoln.

It was quite nice and cool inside. A short reprieve from the heat and sun.

Even though it was early in the season there were lots of tourists around and we had to fight our way through some of the memorials.

You both had more fun with the chain link meant to keep kids out.

Then we headed over to the Vietnam War Memorial dedicated to the soldiers who died in the Vietnam war. It was smaller than I expected and a little crowded since you could only walk along a linear path past the wall.

On the wall are the names of all the people who died in the war.

Many people who visited had left mementos and flowers near the names of people they knew.

There was also a smaller memorial next to it dedicated to the medics who helped the wounded.

Next we visited the Korean War Memorial. You are half Korean so when you are older you should read about what that war was about. There were two parts. The first part was an area that had American soldiers walking through a field and another part behind this photo with a wall like the Vietnam War Memorial. I liked this one more.

After that we took a break from the heat again in the shade. You had some berries and mommy fed Caden some apple sauce.

Then we made our way all the way back up past the Washington Memorial to a section between the Washington Memorial and the Capitol that is mainly museums. We were really hot at this point so we stopped off for refreshments. You cooled down with a popsicle.

The main museum complex is centered around the Smithsonian. The founder, James Smithson, oddly never visited the US but he did bequeath a small fortune to start the research institute named after him. There are quite a few buildings around the "Smithsonian Castle" (below) that house various museums like the Natural History museum and the African Art museum.

I'm not sure what you two are looking at here.

First we went to the Natural History museum which had dinosaur bones and replicas of different animals.

After that we headed to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The building itself was beautiful. A sort of cylinder with a middle open up to the sky. In the center was a large fountain that both of you ran around as we took a break. Of particular interest was a leaking section.

You must have been thirsty because you sneaked some sips of fountain water. Yuck.

Here's a wide shot of you guys with Mommy.

Next was the National Air and Space Museum. Lots of rocket ships and airplanes. Maybe Caden will be a pilot or a spaceman when he's older.

Here I am showing you the lunar landing module from the Apollo missions that landed on the moon.

This is an interesting aircraft. It is an M2-F2. This was an early prototype of the Space Shuttle. I remember it from the opening sequence to a TV show called the 6 Million Dollar Man which was about an astronaut who crashed in the aircraft and was rebuilt as a cyborg. The crash footage is real and the astronaut, Bruce Peterson, actually survived the crash.

We then headed across the mall past the Capitol in the background.

We found another cool spot to cool down. You were very interested in the boy with the mohawk behind you.

After that we tried to go to the National Archives but there was a wait. So we packed it in and headed back to the hotel. We had a nice dinner at Jaleo Tapas. You just ate bread but Caden tried all sorts of things at the restaurant. You used to be the adventuresome eater.

The next morning we started early again and had a lovely breakfast at Hotel Sofitel.

You loved the chocolate croissants.

Then you assisted me with some map reading.

Caden was a little too tired to help out.

And after finding where we were, we headed over to the National Archives to see The Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. Unfortunately it was very dark in there so no photos came out well. I can vouch that you both were there.