East coast wonders~

Over Memorial Day week we went on a really great trip to the East coast!  We visited our new baby niece (super super cute) and saw the sites around the area.  Man, it’s so easy getting around the East coast, things are so close together!

We got in pretty late the Saturday before Memorial Day, so there was just chatting and getting ready to go to bed.  Moomers is a very well behaved baby!  She’s very good natured and not too fussy!

Sunday it was up bright and early for the baby blessing.  It was really nice and Moomers was very well behaved!  After church we had a family lunch as Monkey’s house with her in-laws and all.  After lunch Dad and Mom took Jon and I to Washington DC, which is about an hour away from where Monkey an Dragon live.  Jon and I are still to young to rent a car without a big fee on top of it so Dad drove us around to all the sites that are hard to reach via foot.  We first went to Arlington cemetery, which was very striking especially during Memorial Day weekend.  There were lots of veterans visiting the area to pay respects to their friends that had died during various wars.  At Arlington we saw the Changing of The Guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier.  It was really respectful and it really reminded me of how we should treat those who have sacrificed so much for our freedoms and liberty.  After that, we went to see the Iwo Jima Memorial, which was interesting since we recently watched the movie, Flag of Our Fathers, which I recommend.  So, we had some historical background about the memorial etc.  After that we headed out towards the Pentagon.  We drove by the new Air Force Memorial they have and stopped at the Pentagon’s 9/11 Memorial.  The Memorial is really well thought out There are curved structures that come out of the ground and they’re placed in a straight line by year of birth of the victims who died.  The ones pointing toward the Pentagon are the memorial plaques of those who died on the plane that hit the building, the plaques pointing away are commemorating those who died within the building.  On the plaques dedicated to the plane victims they also wrote the names of those they were traveling with.  It was really striking that the youngest victim was this little 3 year-old, it was just really thought provoking about what a real tragedy 9/11 really was.   After that we hit things a little closer to the mall, Lincoln Memorial, WWI Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, and the WWII Memorial.  After that, we headed to the Jefferson Memorial and we were off.  Dad took us to the Washington DC temple which is one of the prettiest temples I’ve seen!

Monday was Memorial Day and it was the last day in town for Mom, Dad, Bo and Buff.  We ate lunch at a buffet in the Inner Harbor.  They gave each of us these huge pitchers of water, Jon really liked that.  Buffie had to head out right after lunch 🙁 so, we took her to the airport and saw her off.  Dad took Jon and I back to DC and we saw the big Air and Space Museum near the Dulles Airport.  The main attractions there are a Concord jet and a real space shuttle!  Jon really enjoys plane museums, so we had a really good time.  Dad took us by the White House and we were off back to Baltimore so Dad could fly out with the rest of the gang.  We enjoyed the rest of the evening with Moomers, Monkey and Dragon.  Moomers is so cute!  I liked just sitting and watching her.

The next morning, Dragon drove us to the train station and we took the train to DC.  It was our first time riding a train in the US and it was an interesting experience.  It was a commuter train, so it was mostly full of business people.  We arrived at Union Station, then walked to the Capital to get tickets for the tour.  The tour was a lot shorter than I remember it being…we got tickets right away.  Probably because tourist season wasn’t up and going yet.  After that we took the underground tunnel to the Library of Congress.  Then, we walked to the Supreme Court.  It was the day that they announced President Obama’s nomination for the new justice so there was a lot of hustle bustle.  After that we headed to the Smithsonian.  First place we visited was the botany gardens.  Then we went to the main Air and Space museum there.  We went over to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, then walked over to the International Spy Museum, which was $18 so we didn’t go in.  But that museum is near the Navy Memorial, Ford’s Theater and the place where Lincoln died, so we got to see those things too.  We went and checked out the Natural History Museum and we stayed there for a long long time.  We headed back to the Air and Space Museum until it was time to head home.

The next few days we just hung out with the Moomers and had fun with her!  Moomers we miss you!

Friday, morning we set out for New Jersey with Dragon’s brother.  He took us by Princeton University and we saw their campus, then took the train from Princeton Junction to Penn Station in NY.  We met up with some of our Provo friends at the World Trade Center site.  The museum they have there is pretty striking.  I can’t wait for the new memorial to be up at ground zero, I think it’ll be a great area for growth and remembrance.  We went all around Manhattan, we walked down to see the Statue of Liberty and Wall Street.  We went to have a really good sushi dinner over by NYU, then headed to Times Square.  That night we trained back to NJ where we met up with my uncle and aunt.

The next day, my uncle and aunt took us to Philadelphia where we saw the Liberty Bell, Town Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the site where George Washington’s house used to be.  We also had a really good Vietnamese lunch!  The train station there was really nice!  We trained back to Maryland and had our last night with Moomers, Monkey and Dragon.

Thanks for hosting us, Monkey and Dragon!  We had a really good time and we’ll be sure to visit again sometime soon!

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