April 12, 2012

Got up at 6.....yikes!  2^nd to last day in DC....Pam and I left to get tour tickets to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving for 7 pm, we were so excited!! We met up with the kids and Dave at the Metro and headed for Arlington....we took the bus tour and it was wonderful....stopped at JFK and RFK burial sites.....pretty and very serene.......there is a sense of solemnity and respect as you enter the gates and visit each site....

 Our tour bus dropped us off at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where we got to see the changing of the guard, the patrol, and 2 wreath ceremonies...impressive, awe inspiring and sobering......

This whole place is reminding us the impending service for Tim’s dad....we saw a horse drawn caisson with a riderless horse following it, we heard a full marine band, and taps being played....the kids and I withdrew to a quiet place under the trees to pray and remember Grandpa and thank God for him....this is the perfect place to be......He would have loved the pomp and circumstance of the military service and the ceremonies.....I imagined him standing next to us at the changing of the guard ceremony, he would have gotten teared up.....

We visited the Challenger memorial and this was especially poignant to me as I remember the day it happened when I was a young adult.....I was at work at Papa Vito’s pizza and as we were setting up for the day, we all stopped to watch the launch....the entire group of us stood in stunned silence and tears as we saw the explosion and listened to the news coverage....it was one of those moments that I will never forget.....

Next we visited Arlington house at the top of the hill and, yes, got more NPS stamps in our books.....The house was built as a memorial to George Washington by his grandson and was later lived in by his great granddaughter when she married Robert E. Lee.....Just  prior to the Civil War starting, the house and property was confiscated by the Union when Lee resigned his US Army post to fight with Virginia.....some from the North viewed his resignation as an act of treason against the United States but he viewed it as an act of honor to the state of his birth......(an example of how one act can be thought to  be loyalty and treason depending on the point of view you look at it by), consequently it became a burial ground for civil war dead, some of which were buried in Mrs. Lee’s rose garden near the house....the house was never lived in by a Washington relative again.....after the Civil War, the family sued the Federal Government for illegal seizure of property and they won!!  They were paid $150,000.00 for the entire property and they did not return any of the items of President Washington’s that they had confiscated . 

Back into DC to visit the memorial to Thomas Jefferson and yes get another stamp in our book......I think that Pam and I are having second thoughts about the NPS passport books, hahahahaha!!  We walked past the area known for the cherry blossoms and to our disappointment, the blossoms had all fallen off of the trees last week, because of warm weather and rain....drat! 

Back to the Air and Space Museum, this is apparently the one that we will visit most often. 

 Then over to bureau of printing and engraving for a great tour......they are making $367 billion dollars this year for the FED....Wow and we got to see about 1 million of it being made!!!  We walked along a 2^nd floor wing area and the tour guide explained each step of the process, fascinating!  I have never before been in the same room (sort of) with millions of dollars!!!  Did you know that there used to be a $10,000.00 bill? And how about a $!,000.00 bill and the $500.00 bill?  Well, all three are out of circulation now and no longer even printed.  We even bought some shredded bills that never went into circulation.....mistakes, if you were.....

Dave at this point is so hungry he is beside himself....so we got back on the Metro and headed for camp.......I think that we are all lucky to make it home with all of our limbs intact, I thought he might try to eat one of our arms or legs off........finally got home and got dinner together and everyone into bed.....my feet and legs hurt so bad.....tomorrow is going to be painful.....