Washington D.C.

This past weekend, Andrew had a 4-day weekend and so we decided to venture up to the D.C. area and enjoy our nation's Capitol. During the summer of 2006, we stayed in D.C. for 2 nights on our drive from Ft. Benning, GA to Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD. On our first trip there we did all of major highlights and saw nearly every important monument/building/landmark and the American History museum. This visit we were a little more poignant about what we wanted to see and do. Ideally, we had hoped to visit and tour the Pentagon and the 9/11 memorial there. Unfortunately in order to visit the Pentagon it is required that you turn in your information 15 days prior to your visit so they can perform a background check. We didn't exactly plan this trip as I had hoped....aka, I couldn't a get direct answer from my husband as to whether we were for sure planning to go or not until Friday and we went on Sunday! I generally prefer to have an organized plan, but I am not anal about that and can still "wing it" and go with the flow. So on Saturday, we came up with a narrowed itinerary of events:

Iwo Jima - We didn't see this amazing memorial last time we were in D.C. and I will probably never go back without stopping by. It truly is one of the most awe inspiring monuments I have seen. Not only is the massive size and amazing grounds impressive, but the inspiring moment that is depicted is awesome. It was our first stop of the day, so the sun was still rising (we got an early start to the day) and I was able to capture some really good photos.
Thomas Jefferson's Monument was our next stop. T.J. is not my favorite founding father, but his memorial is definitely beautiful. The view overlooking the Potomac River and onto the National Mall is dazzling. I supposed I didn't expect the monument to be so gigantic! They even have a museum of artifacts underneath the monument.....T.J. might just be starting to grow on me a bit.

National Air and Space Museum - This Smithsonian contains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world; including the 1903 Wright Brothers plane and the Spirit of St. Louis (the first airplane to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, by Charles Lindbergh), as well as many artifacts from NASAs journey to the moon. There was a great deal of displays that interested me in this gallery, but overall I believe it to be more of a man's museum.
The National Portrait Gallery - This Smithsonian which is not located directly on the National Mall as many of the others are, tells the story of our nations history through photographs, paintings and other artistic artifacts. Of particular interest was the "America's President's" exhibit which is the only complete collection of American Presidential portraits outside of the White House. Included in the collection was a display of American Presidential dinnerware including plates that both G. Washington and Abraham Lincoln used in the White House. I don't believe that my husband was very excited about my enthusiasm toward visiting this Smithsonian, but afterward even he agreed that the museum was incredibly interesting and had hoards of interesting American artwork.
And finally, after sightseeing all day and driving around D.C. in search of our hotel amidst the crowds of GLBT protesters covered in pink shirts and rainbow buttons carrying "peace, love and gays" signs we voyaged on a 4 hour dinner cruise around the beltway on the Potomac. Could you think of anything more romantic than cruising around our nation's capitol while eating a 5 course meal and viewing our country's finest sights????