Adventure to the East: Day 3

Day 3: Sunday, June 4

 

Our day began with Breakfast at the Marriott hotel where we were staying, then a shuttle ride to the Americana Inn (I switched us to a cheap hotel because the Marriott went way up in price.) Quite the experience, that hotel was. Their theme was "retro" if you know what I mean. It was clean and had comfy beds.Everything else about the place was pretty bad. What we do to save a buck or two. :) 

So glad we made the effort to go to church. The only LDS ward that meets in the Crystal City area where we were staying, is a Young Singles ward. We loved this testimony meeting. We were blown away by the strength of these young students and professionals from the area.

 

Cool story: When we were on our way into the building where the branch meets, all of a sudden, we heard, "Jeremy Fillmore!" Jeremy recognized the voice right away. It was an old high school friend! She's been living in the DC area for 8 years or so, working as a financial consultant. What a fun surprise that was. We had to take a picture.

 

After church, we went back to the hotel to change into our casual clothes, then Sadie and I rode to the Foggy Bottom area of DC to meet up with a Reece's Rainbow friend, Kelly Dirks and her family. We had a yummy lunch at Whole Foods near the George Washington University Campus. It was so fun meeting little Charlotte in person for the first time! She was adopted from the Moscow area. We forgot to take a picture. Darn!

 

When we finished lunch, Sadie and I walked about a mile to the Whitehouse to meet up with the boys. We were a bit disappointed to see how secluded the Whitehouse was to visitors.

This was it, folks. Bummer deal. Understandable, though.

 

Next stop: The Museum of American History.

This one was our favorite.

 

We saw real locomotives, Julia Child's original kitchen, really cool cars and boats,  

Michelle Obama's inaugural gown, and other first ladies' gowns (Sadie's favorite part,) the original Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz...the list went on and on.

We loved this place!

By the time we were done with this museum, our feet were about to fall off. But we still had so much to see! So we took a walk further down the mall to see all the war memorials, the Lincoln Memorial and the reflection pond.

 

First stop: The WWII Memorial.

Beautiful!

 Next, we walked down a gorgeous path to the reflection pond. It made me think of the movie, Forest Gump.

 

We loved standing in the spot where Martin Luther King gave his famous speech, and thought of all of the important people who also stood there at various times throughout history.  

 

What a place, especially when it's lit up in the evening!

The Korean War Memorial had a reverent feel to it.

 

 

And the Vietnam Memorial Wall. I had no idea that so many people died in that war.

The names went on and on and on. So sobering.

 

 

This night turned out to be one of the favorites of the week. The cooler weather brought happy moods. We were overcome with gratitude for all the many people who have served our country. I hope our children remember these places forever.

We have so much because so many people paid the ultimate price.

 

What a day!