Southern Trip Part 1

At the end of July, first part of August Brett and I took a trip to the South. We had decided that when we moved out to the East Coast a few years ago that when we travel home we would go the Southern way and visit the South, particularly Atlanta, Georgia where Brett served an LDS Mission for two years. Since the news of a baby joining our family and the uncertainty of not know where we will be in 6 months from now, we decided we better ‘just do it’. So we did. We spent 16 days total traveling and saw lots and lots and lots of awesome country and lots and lots and lots of history.

Route of our trip 

We started on Saturday, July 27, 2013 and made our way down to Washington DC, which is about 5 ½ to 6 hours away from Connecticut. We arrived at Mount Vernon that afternoon at around 230 pm and toured the great George Washington’s homestead for about 3 hours before venturing into the Nation’s Capitol. We stayed at a Hilton one block from the White House. We walked to the White House after resting at the hotel for little bit at about 10 pm that night. There were still lots of people milling around out front and we could even see the shadows of some guards standing on the rooftop.

Mount Vernon

The White House

Brett and the White House

Sunday: We started out with a bus tour through Georgetown, followed by a harbor tour of downtown. We saw the Lincoln Memorial and Korean War Memorial in the day but didn’t want to spend too much time there because we wanted to do all of the monuments at night when they are all lit up all pretty. So we headed across the river to Arlington and saw Robert E Lee’s home, the changing of the guards, JFK’s headstone/memorial, the Pentagon and Air Force Memorial. We ventured to the “the castle” to get some information on the different Smithsonian’s and decided to check out the museum of Natural History. We headed back to our hotel around 8 or 830 that night and we were pooped!

A little more on the changing of the guard: it is so meticulous and it’s very humbling to think that this has been done for nearly 100 years, starting in the year 1921 the EXACT same way. It’s the one thing that has been constant in our nation’s history and is today, performed the exact same way that it would have been in 1921. And for those of you who haven’t seen this it is incredible. Such a peaceful feeling resides there and as I said a meticulous way and order to how things are done. Everything is done by the count of 21, the solider taking 21 steps from one end to the other, turning one way for 21 seconds, then the other for 21 seconds and then places the fun between the crowd/amphitheater and the tomb representing guarding against any possible threats.

Natural History Museum

Changing of the Guard

Monday: We started with a tour of the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress. We caught the bus up to the Ford Theater. The tour for the theater lasted about an hour and Brett decided he didn’t really care to see it, so I stayed and did the tour and Brett went to the American Indian Museum. We both enjoyed what we saw. The theater is very beautiful and still operates as a theater today. We met back at the National Archives and were able to see the originals of the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and Declaration of Independence. We visited the American History Museum until it closed and made our way back to the hotel, stopping along the way at a hole in the way pub for some grub. When we got back to the hotel we grabbed the car and were off again to visit the monuments at night, visiting the Jefferson, FDR, WWII, and Iwo Jima monuments. Getting to the Iwo Jima memorial was very interesting and we had a few tense moments but luckily there were very few cars out and about and everything worked out in the end.

Ford's Theater

Iwo Jima

Jefferson Memorial

FDR Memorial (just part of it)

Tuesday: We toured the Udvar-Hazy Center, which is the giant airplane hanger that is in movie the Transformers. It houses all sorts of aircraft and space stuff. It was amazing the amount of planes that were in one place and it was very cool to be able to see the space shuttle right up close. It’s not as ‘put together’ as they appear to be on TV. That afternoon we split up again and I headed to the holocaust museum and Brett spent the afternoon wondering around the Air and Space Museum. When we rejoined each other we headed back to the hotel. We took a little break until dark and then headed back out to visit the rest of the monuments that we didn’t get to see the night before. The Washington Monument had scaffolding surrounding it due to the repairs they are making since the earthquake in Aug 2011 did some structural damage. Unfortunately, it made it look a little weird but it was still cool. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, Washington Monument, and The Capitol Building. We hit the hay earlier that night so we could rest up for our long drive ahead of us the next day.