washington d.c. day 5.

on day 5 we decided to take a tour bus throughout the city. it was really interesting getting to see the city from a vehicle, since we'd been walking and taking the metro everywhere the first few days. 

I asked my dad what the line is on the middle of the washington monument. he said that it is the former 'water line' of d.c. and thought that was pretty funny. the color difference is just the difference in the stone between the first phase of construction and the second phase (25 years later).

the reflection pool was undergoing construction while we were here which was a real shame!

although the WWII memorial has mixed reviews, jon and i really liked it. it was amazing to see the 4,048 gold stars lined up…each representing 100 american military deaths. it was very humbling.

the korean war monument is one of our absolute favorites. the military men are all dressed differently to represent their specific branches. the faces are so detailed and show pain and determination. when you get close to the men, it really feels like you are among them, on your way through a war zone.

Lincoln Memorial, opened in 1922.

Vietnam Veterans Memorial. There are more than 58,000 names on the wall. it was constructed in 1982.

there were two protests going on right outside of the white house when we got there. they were standing across the street from each other yelling!

we enjoyed the view anyway! was president obama in there? who knows…..

The Three Soldiers bronze statue (or Three Servicemen since the middle man is a Marine!) it commemorates the Vietnam War in a more traditional way than the wall does. It was built in 1984.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial, opened in 1943.

so beautiful!!!

Second Division Memorial (flaming sword)

the capitol from the bus.

all in all, it was a good tour. i like going on guided tours because they give you so much information that you would not get if you were walking around by yourself. it was also much faster to see all the sites:)

art

that evening we met up with lizzie for dinner...

and dessert at frozenyo! we love us some froyo.

(how cute is jon in this??)

people kept telling us that we needed to go to some of the monuments at night, so we did. it was nice because there was no one around. it was serene and the monuments really did seem different in the moonlight. it was beautiful.

i'll finish off with this photo. it was soooo hot!!! gary kept putting his hat like this and reminded me of dr. ew!

wk 49.

hello!!! we are in DC, my favorite city!!!!

washington d.c. day 4.

bolling inn had overbooked their rooms. 

so, as a courtesy, they put us up in the general's house, free of charge. I was soo bummed out that we had to sleep there instead of in our original $45 room. (not! hello!) they gave us keys and directions, and lizzie, jon, and i went to check out the house. it. was. so. nice. we dropped off our belongings, and went to pick up gary and mei from the airport! it's okay that their flight was so delayed, we didn't have to get up early (sarcasm). we just listened to tunes and chatted until they landed.

this is the house the next morning. not bad, right?? i wish i had gotten photos of the bedrooms and bathrooms, but i didn't think to do that. i love the covered back porches that houses in the east/south seem to all have. Jon flipped through the guest book and saw that only ONE other enlisted family has stayed there before us. and that enlisted person was a lot higher ranking than jon is. all the rest of the family's were officers. we thought that was pretty funny, and even funnier when jon signed it "CORPORAL Jon Hagerman and family"

we only stayed one night, it was fun while it lasted!

like i said previously, a perk of having my dad travel to DC with us was having his knowledge of the city and options to do really fun things. he contacted utah's senator? to get us a private tour of the U.S. capitol! it was so awesome. our tour guide was cute, and she told us lots of fun facts about the capitol. this is us with the statue of freedom, who sits on top of the capitol. she faces the east, because "the sun doesn't set on freedom". she is 19'6" tall and no other statue in washington D.C. can be taller than she is.

this is the very center of washington d.c.'s grid. 

there are two statues for every state represented in the capitol. Philo T. Farnsworth, the 'father of television' and the other was Brigham Young, the second prophet of the LDS church.

the dome of the capitol.
it was difficult getting everything in a picture. it is huge and very beautiful. 

after the tour of the capitol, we went to the library of congress. i didn't get any pictures, but it was so cool! the architecture was amazing.

lizzie had to go to work straight from the library of congress, so the rest of us tried to see as much as we could. this is one of my favorite pictures from the trip, jon and i in front of the capitol with the washington monument behind us.

gary&mei.

we went to: the united states botanical garden.

funny photo combination.

the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum:

we ate a hearty meal, that only cost around $10. yep.

 we watched a 3D vid about the hubble telescope.

the video was so amazing! stars in 3d are so worth it.

and we explored.

we explored some more outside of the museum. walked around dc, looked at beautiful statues and architecture, and even shared messages with people who have big doors.

(as jon's punishment for making horrible faces, those photos are not going to be hidden)

after allll that walking, we decided to call it a night and head home. 

i wore my sensible shoes the entire time, and my feet STILL hurt. 

jon on the other hand....