My wife and I recently went to Washington D.C. for a little weekend trip. She had never been; I hadn’t been in several years, and we live within about ten hours. Yeah, it is a LONG drive, but it was well worth it. Granted, it was a LONG drive, but we really enjoyed ourselves. Oh, and this is also where I made what may become a life-changing decision. I’m going to share some photos of our beautiful capital as I slowly weave our way closer to the big reveal.

I’m always amazed by the sheer majesty and beauty of the various monuments in Washington, D.C. The first monument we saw was the Washington Monument, because, of course, you can see it as you drive near the city.

As we were walking to the National Mall, we passed by the White House. We snapped this photo and, as chance would have it, happened to catch a jogger in the photo.

There were runners everywhere! Tina and I did a lot of walking this weekend. It was really nice seeing so many people out and active, and it was a definite reminder that we need to value our health and get thin so we can enjoy an athletic, fit, healthy life.

The first thing we did was go to the Holocaust Museum.

I don’t have many photos of that, because it was just too somber a place to take photos in. Being in that place with all of the information and actual artifacts of the Holocaust made me so grateful to live in a time and place where I can worship as I choose. People may bad mouth our country, but this is one thing we definitely have right. Regardless of what you believe, so long as it doesn’t harm others, you are welcome to believe and worship that way. Thank God for that.

Following the Holocaust Museum, we made our way to the American History Museum.

The picture below is of a very unique sculpture out in front of the museum. Nothing significant here. I just think this is a cool photo.

My patriotism was in full force once inside. We were greeted by this metallic reproduction of the flag.

There were so many exhibits we were not allowed to take photos of, so let me just share a few of the random photo we were allowed to take.

This lunch counter is significant as it is the actual lunch counter from Greensboro, North Carolina, where some black students held a non-violent sit-in to demand equal rights. This took place in 1960. Is it amazing to anyone else that just fifty-one years ago, you could be treated vastly, horribly different based upon nothing more than the color of your skin?

Something a bit more frivolous, here. These, of course, are some of the actual slippers worn in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz. Due to the effects of Technicolor technology, these are significantly darker than you would think. (If they had been the actual color they appeared on screen, they would have looked orange.)

I’ll be honest – we were dead tired at this point, as we had not been in bed since Thursday morning. This was Friday afternoon. We took a photo of ourselves. If this isn’t the definition of a hot mess, I don’t know what is.

The next morning, after we died at the hotel, we woke up nice and refreshed for a full day of sightseeing in D.C. again. We parked near the Jefferson Memorial and set off on a LONG day of sightseeing and walking.

We wanted to go here but they were closed on Saturday. Whoops. Should have visisted the day before.

The Natural History Museum! This is one of my favorite museums at the Smithsonian!

Can you tell I like dinosaurs? Can you imagine how exciting it must be to unearth a skeleton from rock and realize you are the first human to have EVER seen the bones before you?

The Hope Diamond was a BIG disappointment. It is currently in a setting by Harry Winston instead of the classic. Why mess with a… well, classic?

Know what else I like? Space.

After that, we went to the Museum of Art. I’ll be honest – I think the Frist in Nashville is better. I did enjoy this metal tree, though, in the Sculpture Garden.

Oh, and the animals in D.C. are crazy tame. This little squirrel was eating a Cheeto. I guess he doesn’t know they’re bad for you.

After the art, we went to my favorite museum in all of the Smithsonian. The Air and Space Museum!

How scary must it have been to fall to Earth and land in the ocean in one of those?

And of course, I can’t be near a planetarium without seeing a show, so we saw two shows, back to back. Very cool.

I should mention at this point it was about five p.m., and we hadn’t eaten since we had left the hotel. We found a little pizza place and each got a slice. After all of our walking, I think we were okay to do so.

We went to check on the car (yay! They don’t enforce three hour parking on Saturday!) and, since the museums were closed, made one last visit to some of the monuments we could visit.

That pretty much sums up our short weekend trip to D.C. Yeah, I realize this doesn’t seem like I’m getting closer to telling you what happened, but I promise, I am, and it will make sense when it’s all over and done.

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