Rachael and Sarah Go To Washington - Day Three

This morning, Sarah and I woke early and headed back to the Capitol to pick up tickets. As we neared the Capitol, though, it became very obvious that we had not woken early enough. The line for tickets would have taken us at least an hour. We decided that we'd really rather see Monticello. So...we hit the road towards Charlottesville. We got stuck in some traffic for the UVA/USC game, but we weren't in any real hurry.

I'd never been to Monticello before, and I loved it. James Madison once said that there were few houses that exhibited their owner's personality so well as Monticello did Thomas Jefferson's. The house has many elements hinting at the time that Jefferson spent in France, as well as his love for science, books, gardening and architecture. Monticello is situated on a mountaintop near Charlottesville. The views are most likely the reason that Jefferson chose the location. In one direction, there is a magnificent view of the Blue Ridge mountains and in the opposite, the University of Virginia (which Jefferson founded in his retirement) can be seen.
After we finished the tour, we headed back to Washington, intending to stop at the Jefferson Memorial. We got back to DC at ten, though, already tired. When we discovered that we would have to walk a half-mile from our parking spot to the memorial, we decided to nix that plan for tonight.

So, tomorrow's plan is to visit Mount Vernon, Arlington Cemetery and the Jefferson Memorial. I'm very excited for all of this. I love Mount Vernon and I've never visited either of the other destinations. Should be another fun day!

The monuments are whispering your name

That's a line from a song by Matt Wertz, one of my favorite artists. The song is "Capitol City" and I've been humming it a lot the past two days. I've also been picturing lots of clips from "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"!

The last two days have been jam-packed. Yesterday we started out the day intending to go to the Capitol, the Library of Congress, Union Station, the National Archives and all the memorials. We started the day by walking to first the Washington Monument and then the Capitol to get tickets. We then headed towards Union Station for breakfast, but encountered some pretty heavy rain. We ducked into this little straw-bale house at the Botanical Gardens to wait it out. Here was our view of the Capitol...

While waiting it out, we decided to change our plan, due to the weather and opted to walk over to the National Gallery of Art.

We've still only seen the East building of the Art Museum. If time allows, we'll go back to see the West building. Jackson Pollock is all well and good, but I want to see some Monets.

From the Art Museum, we walked over to the Holocaust Museum. We fully intended to go to the Washington Monument afterwards, but we spent three hours in the Holocaust Museum and missed our ticket time. It was worth it, though - the Holocaust Museum was incredibly moving and thought-provoking. There was no photography allowed, though, so I have no pictures.

Day Two - The rain let up a little bit today, so we decided to follow through on our original plan for yesterday. That meant a LOT of walking. According to Google Maps, we walked about 12.9 miles today, and that's not even counting the walking we did inside buildings.

We overslept a little this morning and missed the window of opportunity for Capitol tickets. That's okay...tomorrow is another day! We did manage to see the Library of Congress...

...the Supreme Court...

...Union Station for lunch...

...the National Archives...

...the Washington Monument...

...the World War II Memorial...

...and the Lincoln Memorial.

It's been a long day and our feet are aching, but we'll be back at it again tomorrow. The plan is to go to the Capitol first thing in the morning and then drive to Charlottseville to visit Monticello. Drive...yay. That means a little rest for the weary feet!

If you're looking for a few more pictures, check out my Facebook albums. They're at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53678&l=e6d07&id=778399337 and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53749&l=5ff9e&id=778399337.

I'm Back!!!

After a very long hiatus, I've rejoined the blogging world. Just a note on the last post, though...Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is now out on DVD. So...if you didn't heed my advice to see it when it was in theatres, rent it...tonight!

Last Thursday, Mel and Gina and I went together to a free(!) Dave Barnes concert at FBC Dallas and thoroughly enjoyed it! Mel and I both got to hear our favorite songs...On a Night Like This and Greyhound.


This week, I'm in Washington, DC with Sarah. We've got a full day of sightseeing planned for tomorrow, so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. We've already established, though, that Rach does not handle driving in a new place very well. After hearing "recalculating" about twenty-five times from our GPS (whose name is Shaniqua) and hearing from Sarah multiple times that I was way too stressed, I reached a decision...I will not be driving the remainder of this trip! Nope, Sarah gets that pleasure...Shaniqua and I are strictly navigators.