Moral of the Story: I NEED a Segway

Our third full day in D.C. was chock full and was so amazing! We began our day getting up early and adventuring to Mount Vernon. We took a beautiful back route and really enjoyed the Potomac's view. Unfortunately we arrived bright and early with a bagillion 5th grade safety patrol kids. It seemed to be a astern throughout our trip there.

Mount Vernon covers a lot of area so we figured we would go the opposite way around the property in hopes of running into fewer noisy hoards of children. A short hike later we met up with two bulls. I proceeded to woo one to the fence and convince it to allow me to pet it. I think it was beneficial to the both of us.

After our encounter with our new friend we found the pioneer house and farm! Walking into the field that held these buildings we saw the sixteen sided barn that you can see in the picture below. It is two stories and was used to separate the wheat from the stalk. Apparently this was inefficient and costed more than it saved.

It didn't take me long to figure out there were a few fenced in areas that held lambs and kids (baby goats not the safety patrol students). I used my animal whispering skills yet again lured them to me. I stayed in this area of the property for a little while =]

I got caught up in petting all of the adorable baby animals that we almost missed George Washington's ceremonial wreathing of his new tomb. We jogged up a very long steep hill and pushed our way through a throng of children to watch the ceremony. It had just started and it only lasted a few minutes. We said the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the Star Spangled Banner. They do this ceremony twice a day and 365 days a year.

After the ceremony we went and saw lots of the gardens, the smoke house, slave quarters, the mansion, and a sweet blacksmith's forge. We saw the blacksmith make a spiral J-hook. It was very very cool, I think one day I will try my hand at  working metal.

The entire time we were in D.C. I had wanted to visit Jefferson's memorial. So we drove in circles until we found free parking. We walked around to the front of the memorial and the hike it took to get there was totally worth it. I was thoroughly impressed, it was gigantic.

The inside of the memorial had a large representation of Jefferson. It was made out of metal instead of marble because it was cheaper to do it this way. Jefferson was against having a large memorial or rather any memorial of any sort. Oh well I guess...

After viewing Jefferson's memorial we were absolutely starving! So I had wanted to eat Afghan food and w had not found the right time to do it. But we ended up finding one not too far from our next destination.

Walking inside the aroma immediately causes us to salivate. The little restaurant was bustling with locals and my eyes jumped to the menu. Sean found what we were looking for first, Sabzi. I asked the man behind the counter if the Sabzi had any lamb in it, he replied no and inquired how I was familiar with the dish. After a short conversation, the man realized he knew the Najem family (my family!).

He ended up giving us soup and bread. He recommended a lamb dish with Sabzi and rice. When we got our plates the rice was covered in carrots and raisins, MY FAVORITE!

 Let's just say the food didn't last long... I was so full and it was so good.

When we finished eating we got back on the road to journey to our afternoon activities. There was a lot of traffic but that's ok, we were on embassy row! (On a side note i forgot to mention that I may or may not have acquired a rock from Indonesian soil on the way to Afghan lunch...) Traffic finally backed up enough that we came to a dead stop and looking left we saw, da da da dah, THE KOREAN EMBASSY!

After negotiating some back roads we finally made it to the National Cathedral, absolutely phenomenal. It was just overwhelmingly big and beautiful. It took me a couple minutes to just take it in.

Upon entering the cathedral you immediately notice the stained glass windows. But it is not until you are walking around do you realize just how many of the gorgeous windows there are. Instead of sharing with you the forty pictures I have of stained glass windows I wanted to share this one. This window in particular represents the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. It actually has a piece of moon rock in it! If you look closely at the largest circle closest to the top you can see a lighter itty bitty circle with a black center, that's the moon rock!!!

The cathedral has many chapels, towers, and it has crypts. We of course went up the West tower to view the surrounding areas. From the top of the cathedral you can see Lincoln, Washington and Jefferson's memorials.

I think my favorite was the wrought iron gates. I have included a picture of me enjoying them for you.

Shown below are our souvenirs from the cathedral. My stone is "Trust" and his is "Courage", we will take these little rocks with us on our journeys to make sure we hang on to these two important traits. For me Trust in myself, my abilities, and my spirit are going to be very important for me to maintain. Not only trusting myself but my family and my friends.

We had a heck of an adventure scheduled for the evening but one of the things still on our list to see was the Supreme Court. We drove right into D.C., overpaid for parking, sprinted to the metro, sprinted uphill to the Supreme Court, and found that it was closed for the day -___- Unacceptable.

We took some pictures anyway. It was very hot with the late afternoon sun baking me against the marble oven of the Supreme Court. We had to be back by 6:00pm so we sped back to the metro and eventually  found where we needed to be...

 Segways!!!!!! We went on a three hour segway tour of the National Mall, it was indescribably amazing! We had a quick run down on how to use them and I am not going to lie, it was bit strange at first. You use your toes and your heels to control how fast you go. I quickly decided that I most definitely needed one.

I was just so smitten with the segway experience. I could not stop smiling and making funny noises as we passed people on the roads. I waved to everyone, gloating in my good fortune to finally be the one on the segway instead of the one walking. I want one so bad.

We went to a lot of the same places we had already visited during our stay but it was a different experience visiting them on a Segway. The walks that took us days to complete were done in a matter of three hours. We visited the Smithsonian castle, the White House, the WWII memorial, Lincoln, Vietnam and Korean memorial, and a few other places. I really enjoyed myself.

Afterwards we had a quick bite to eat in China town. We both ordered the duck specials and unfortunately could barely make a dent in our large plates.

We were in bait of a rush because we had to get up early the next morning but we really wanted to see some of the monuments at night. I am glad we took the time to do so! Below is Lincoln at night, we could find zero parking near him so we stuck with just an outside shot.

We saw Jefferson's from a distance and then went to find FDR's real memorial and MLK Jr.'s memorial. FDR's was poorly lit and was much larger than expected. I had not realized he had been in office for as long as he had so maybe the giant memorial was not surprising?

A few of the statues inside struck our interest but again a lot of it was hard to see at night. We do know that a statue of him at the beginning of the memorials path depicts him as normal sized where in the last partition his statue is larger than life. I did like the statue of his dog though.

On the other hand MLK's memorial was beautiful. It was cheerful and calming even at night. It was well lit and clean cut. The big piece of "mountain" that has MLK carved into it, is pure white and almost glows at night.

We loved the statue and that the whole memorial was well done. Including the well picked out quotes.

The design does a good job of showing you the impact this man made on us. We are very small in comparison (as you can see below) but because of the ay the monument is lit, when you stand in front of him you do not stand in his shadow.

Next stop NYC. Thank you D.C. for such an awesome experience!