DC- Day 3

I am a sucker for donuts.
For some reason anytime I travel, I must find local donuts!
Usually you can see me hauling a dozen or 3 through airport security to

share with people at home!

The reviews for Astro donuts looked great.

Plus they had breakfast sandwiches, which always helps 

thin out the sugar early in the morning:)

Our goal was to finish the National Mall, or as much as we could!

First stop, the National Archives. 

Bummer, no Nicolas Cage.

And no pictures allowed.

It was neat to see the Declaration of Independence in person.

As I was staring at the signatures, I wondered if these men even knew

how much they would change the world when they signed this.

I'm sure they knew of it's dire importance.
Did they imagine 247 years later it would be locked in a glass box with a security guard named Dave 

watching your every move like you were a criminal getting ready to heist it in one swift move?
(makes you never want to go to prison).
 Surreal experience, along with seeing the Constitution and Bill of Rights. 

Next was the National Museum of American History.

Usually museums aren't my jam. 

But there were some iconic pieces in there I was excited to see!

We walked in to see 3 different levels, with 3 different wings branching off.
Overwhelming to say the least. 

We picked what was closest and off we were, chipping away at the NUMEROUS exhibits. 

Grammy loves trains because her dad worked on the railroads when she was a child. 

This was the transportation and innovation section.

"America on the Move and Lightening a Revolution". 

Kind of cool to see the beginnings of technology and how it has evolved to todays world. 

Chicago L train. 

More trains!

Julia Childs kitchen!

Not even a replica, the actual one she used on her television shows!

I did not prepare my boys well.

They had no idea what the ruby red slippers were all about!

Don't worry, Grammy and I gave them a run down of the whole movie
right then and there!

They have since seen the movie, and get why the are such a bid deal, ha!

But they sure found something they could relate to!

We saw the Star Spangled Banner (couldn't take pictures). 
It was massive! Wasn't expecting that. 

And why don't I have pictures of Abraham Lincolns hat??

We scratched the surface. 

Later I found out Kermit the Frog is in there.

As well as George Washington's uniform, the presidential "football" for Clinton,

Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves, the Batmobile...

I guess with over 3 million artifacts we were bound to miss a few!

The Holocaust Memorial  Museum, just WOW!

It is raw and heavy, but a MUST do.

It traces the history of the beginnings, persecution, and genocide of six million Jews

by the Nazi regime. 

So many artifacts, pictures, video footage, documents... I can only imagine the terror these

poor people felt while being ripped away from their families and being tortured until their death.

 

Replicas of the freight cars used to transport prisoners to concentration camps.

 We know this happened.
 We learned about in history class.

We have seen documentaries.

This museum did such an amazing job to make it feel like you were
personally witnessing the horror unfold. 

I couldn't even stomach taking pictures (of pictures) of the skin and bone women, children, and men.

Naked. Literally walking to their death at the gas chambers.
Piles of hair (2 tons worth) on the floor that were shaven off beforehand. 

Murdered bodies and skeletons in pits and dismembered corpses.

Audio of the pleading and death screams. 
Film of experimenting on and mutilating prisoners by the Nazis.
Utter evilness. 

History fascinates me.
 I couldn't shake a sense of guilt that I was so engrossed in these peoples stories.
How did this happen??
Not that long ago.
This quote struck me to the core.

"It happened. Therefore it can happen again. And it can happen everywhere".

Terrifying.   

Right when you think it is over and your heart can't take anymore,
you turn a corner to see mountains of ACTUAL SHOES stolen from the Jews. 

I wanted to sit and examine each one!
What was their story?
What were they feeling?

So many lives lost over hate by one man.  

We needed something to lighten the mood.

Food trucks will definitely do that!!

I was a bit nervous because the day we flew out, the Supreme Court decided

to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Who knew what kind of protesting would be going on at the U.S. Capitol.
It was closed to the public anyway, and luckily the back side was pretty calm!

The other side however had lots of protesting and shouting.

So much so, that they had garbage trucks blocking off the road.

Ain't no way I was going into that mess! 

We decided to give the White House another try!
Bingo, much closer, minus the weird barricade wall behind the gated wall.

I guess it's non-scalable and they put it up after the killing of George Floyd?
Not sure how that offers up more protection, since it's only in that one section.
  The government likes to do silly things that don't make much sense sometimes. 

It is a way smaller in person than on tv.

Of course every hot tourist attraction needs street entertainers!

I cannot for the life of me remember when we went to the

White House visitor center.

But we did, and it was interesting to see artifacts and furniture pieces from

past presidents on display.

Time for some shopping!
The souvenir shop had a deal that if you spent $50 you could

get your pictures taken in the Oval Office!
Well, a replica. 

Give me a harder challenge, ha. 

How could you not try We, The Pizza while in DC?!

Hit the spot!

And ice cream for dessert that reminded me of Jeni's Ice Cream back East.

 

Even though we only made it to half of the National Mall, I was

pleased with what we were able to see. 

We will just have to go back!