Graduation Trip to Washington D.C

My grandparents have a tradition that when someone graduates from high school, they get to go on a trip. My sister went to Hawaii, my brother went to San Francisco, and I choose Washington DC, our nations Capitol. I find history interesting and DC definitely has its share of that. We left on July 26th and spent a week there before returning on August 2nd. As you know, the time difference between here and there is 3 hours so by the time we arrived the first day was shot. We did have a nice sunset on the plane as you can see. The next morning we got up early and headed to the Metro, the underground transit for the city, which we took from our hotel in Crystal City, to the Downtown DC itself. We began our day viewing the art Freer Art Gallery which contained hundreds of ancient art from all around the world. Then, we continued walking down the "mall" and visited the amazing Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. This museum contained the Wright Brothers plane many missiles from Soviet Russia and the U.S, ans well as many other planes such as the Spirit of St. Louis and other space artifacts. We spent a good amount of time there due to a thunderstorm that rolled in dumping a ton of rain. After a quick stop for lunch we headed across the street to the Museum of Natural History which is home to the world famous "Hope Diamond", as well as many other crystals and precious gems. After spending an hour there, we headed back to the hotel for the day and relaxed. On Tuesday, we decided to take the Arlington Cemetery tour and visit some of the monuments in the area. The tour took us around the cemetery visiting Kennedy's grave site, the house of Uylesses S. Grant, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. We also got to view the changing of the guard ceremony at the tomb. After the cemetery tour, we then went to one of the most recognized monuments in DC, the Lincoln Memorial. It's only fitting that Lincoln, who was a big man and did so much for our country, would have one of the biggest monuments. As you walk up the stairs and see Lincoln sitting in the chair, you get an amazing feeling. On either side wall from Lincoln sit his Four Scores speech and his Second Inaugural Address engraved into the stone walls. After the Lincoln Monument, we kept walking and viewed the Vietnam War Memorial, a very emotional site. There are thousands upon thousands of names on this wall from all the soldiers who were killed in the war. It's actually somewhat overwhelming to stand there and see all the names. We then kept walking along the reflecting pool and stopped by the World War II Monument, which sits on the opposite side of the reflecting pool from the Lincoln Memorial and in the shadows of the Washington Monument. This monument is fairly new and consists of a large fountain in the middle, surrounded by the pillars with the names of all the states and famous quotes from the Presidents about the war. After, we hopped back on the tour bus and took a loop around the city and got some great pictures of the Washington Monument, and the surrounding buildings. We also walked to the White House for a quick photo before returning to the bus and heading back to the hotel. The next day we had a Capitol Building Tour planned in the afternoon, so we walked around the city for a while and visited the Library of Congress. It's not a typical "library" with books, although it has some. It contains some of the original drafts from the Declaration of Independence, Constitutions, and Bill of rights, as well as the Gutenberg Bible. The inside of the building had a marvelous painting on the roof and beautiful tile work and marble pillars every where you looked. After the Library visit we headed down to the Congress office buildings and ate lunch at the cafeteria. If you didn't know, I am related to a Congressman by the name of Howard "Buck" McKeon, who serves in California. We knew he was still in town so we had the privilege of going into his office and meeting him. He was a big help in getting us the tours for the Capitol and the White House. After a few minutes of mingling, it was time for the capitol tour, which i was very excited for. The building is just amazing from the large dome to all the fine details and statues inside. We walked by Nanci Pelosi's office( House Speaker) and also got to view the Gallery, which is where the Senate does business. Although there were not too many people present at the time, they were still in the process of trying to pass a bill. The dome of the Capitol Building is just amazing, but wasn't how we see it today. The current dome atop the Capitol Building was constructed in 1861 out of cast-iron. Underneath the dome sits the Rotunda, and one of the neatest painting called "The Apotheosis of Washington" by Constantino Brumidi. The Rotunda is usually home to funerals of Presidents and other well know figures in America. The final day in Washington DC we visited the National Archives Building, home to all the official and original American Documents and the Magna Carta. It was very cool to have just a pane of glass between me and the founding documents of our country. Of course, the highlight of the day was definitely the White House Tour. it is VERY hard to get tickets and thanks to Congressmen McKeon we had the privilege to do it. the White House is spectacular from its landscaping outside to the paintings, architecture and everything else inside. The tour took us through the East Room, the largest in the White House, which serves for receptions, conferences and other special events. Then, we walked through the Green Room, Blue Room, where the President usually meets his guests, and the Red Room before the last room, the State Dining Room. The tour was short but very sweet. After the tour we left the city and headed out to Mount Vernon, George Washington's house. we took the tour of his house and the surrounding area. The house sits in the Potomac River in Virginia surrounded by a sea of trees. It was interesting to see how George Washington lived. The house is pretty large even to today's standards and the amount of land its on is huge. The house sits on acres of farm land and has a great view of the surrounding hills and the river. After the tour, we went to our hotel in Virginia, where we stayed 2 nights. The final day of the trip, we traveled to the new and much larger Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which was built to house larger planes and even a space shuttle. The museum is huge. It is built of a full sized hangar and additional buildings around it. Inside it there are planes from World War II, the Concord Jet, the Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic Bomb and hundreds of other aircraft. There are planes hanging from the roof, propped up on the ground and almost anywhere they could fit one. After viewing the planes, we went up in th mock control tower. It was quite the experience. The museum sits a little over 100 yards from the runway at Washington Dulles Inernational Airport, so when the planes come in, you are almost level with them. It is very interesting, and kind of scary when the big Airbus planes flew in. You also got a great view of the surrounding scenery which was mostly trees and the airport. It was a great way to end the trip. The next morning it was time to go home. It was a great trip and a lot of fun. The flight back went by a lot quicker and we also got a great view of the Grand Canyon as we flew over. The flight was very smooth which is always good. Just one recommendation...If you want to go to anywhere in on the east coast, go when its cooler.