The Events of Friday, December 10, 2010

          Marathon through the Mall and museums - ready, set, go! Wait, there’s something wrong with that. We probably didn’t go 26.2 miles and we definitely didn’t run. (But I LOVE alliterations!) But we did go around the National Mall and we toured a couple of museums today. Our day started pretty normally for any Washington D.C. day. Waking up early, showering, eating, and dressing quickly, we met our shuttle driver, Nick, at 9:00. We then took the blue Metro line from Largo Town Center to the stop closest to the National Mall. We rode the escalators up to the street level, looked up in the sky, located the square pyramid on top of a large, skinny building, and headed its way. Of course this large skinny building is the famous Washington Monument. Stopping by the nearby ticket booth to pick up six 11 o’clock tickets to the top of the tower, some of us used the restrooms while others headed inside the small building. They found that the building was only a gift shop, no exhibits, but they waited for the rest of us inside the warm gift shop. We were soon reunited and decided that we would visit the WWII Memorial while waiting for 11 o’clock to come around.

          We walked down the middle of the Mall and soon arrived at the Memorial. In the middle of the Memorial there was a large pool, with a circle of fountains in the middle of the pool. On either side of the pool were two larger fountains. As you looked to the right, there was a pavilion that said “Pacific”, and on the left, a pavilion that said “Atlantic”. These represent the two theaters of WWII that America engaged in. Around the pavilions were little pools with a couple of fountains in them and on either side of the pavilion were columns with two wreaths, one on the front side of the column, one on the back. Each column represents a state or territory of the United States that helped to fight in the Second World War. As you enter the Memorial, there was a rounded wall with reliefs representing different scenes and stages of the war. On the far side of the large pool was a concrete block covered in gold stars. The gold stars represent those who died in the WWII. In front of it were many beautiful bouquets and wreaths, left over from the Pearl Harbor Day Remembrance ceremony a few days earlier. We wandered around this Memorial for a while, noticing many details, including that most fountains had ice in them. Yes, it was that cold‼

          Soon it was 11 o’clock, so we headed back to the Washington Monument, only to find that the elevator had just recently broken down. We were extremely disappointed that we were not able to go up the Monument, but one ranger did give us a phone number to call to check to see when the elevators were fixed and it was open again. Knowing this, we headed over to the Ellipse. In case you don’t know, the Ellipse is an elliptical shaped park that is between the White House and the Washington Monument. We walked around it for a while and ended up by the National Christmas Tree, which was ceremoniously lit yesterday.

          As we walked around the Ellipse, ending by the Christmas tree, it started to lightly snow and then began to snow harder. SNOW‼ I LOVE snow‼ I started dancing around like the crazy California kid that I am. All the kids love snow, and we wished that it would stick. However we found our parents don’t really want it to snow. In fact, they’ve planned our trip to avoid snow. You see, we’ve spun out on icy and snowy roads enough in tiny cars and our van that they don’t want to risk spinning out in this big RV. So, while Mom and Dad prayed that it would stop, I jumped up and down catching snowflakes on my tongue.

          Around the large National Christmas Tree, were smaller trees, each one representing a state or territory in the U.S. Each of these trees had been decorated by school kids from that particular state or territory. When we found the California tree, we found that the tree had been decorated by students from the Language Academy in Sacramento. As we checked out the trees we noticed that some of the ornaments were plain, but others quite elaborate. While Dad was trying to get a family picture in front of the National Christmas tree, we noticed a pair of men, one with a large camera filming Daddy taking a picture of us. When Daddy finally took our family shot, these men approached Caitlin. The man with the microphone asked her how she liked the tree this year, while the other guy filmed away. She responded that it was very pretty, but a little misshapen on the far side. (Really Caitlin?) Then they asked her how long she has been in Washington D.C., if she came here just to see the National Christmas Tree and if she’d been here before, and where she was from. She responded to the rest of the questions very reasonably. It turned out that they were from Russia.

          An inside joke of our family is that one of Caitlin’s eccentricities is that things need to line up and be even and she likes to have everything in perfect order. Even when she was little, she would go around straightening rugs all over Grandma’s house. Well now this little eccentricity of hers, as she criticized America’s National Christmas Tree, has been broadcast all over Russia, on Russian TV! Way to make a statement for her country‼

          After viewing the National Christmas tree and quaint trains beneath it on all sides and checking out as many of the state trees as we could, we headed over to see the White House. You can’t get very close without an official invitation. But we were able to go up to the fence on Pennsylvania Avenue. As you might remember, in November we visited the Kings, an Amish family in Pennsylvania that ran an iron foundry. There we learned that people used to break the finials, the fancy design on top of fences, off of the White House fence, and take them home as souvenirs. So, Mr. King was contacted to make replacement finials made of iron and therefore stronger and harder to steal. As we approached the White House, we noticed the finials and took a few pictures of them to send to the Kings.

          Also as we approached the White House, I found an envelope marked “Confidential, to be opened by addressee only!” We gave this to a nearby policeman, who opened it and found a check. He thanked us for finding it and put it in his bag, saying that he would take care of it. Mom asked if we should leave our address in case there was a reward, but he said he didn’t think that would be necessary. Oh, well. We hung out by the White House fence for a while, taking pictures and reading informational signs. Unfortunately, while we were enjoying nice views of the White House, the snow stopped falling and it hadn’t even started to stick.
          Daddy called to check if the Washington Monument elevator was fixed, but found that they had not even started to work on it. So we changed our plans again and headed to the White House Visitor Center. We finished the movie about the White House that we had started during our visit last week. When the movie was over, we walked through some exhibits, reading what interested us along the way. The kids’ favorite exhibit was an exhibit about the Presidents’ kids. A wall was covered with black and white photos from all First families, pictures of their kids and little stories to go along with it. One of our favorites was about little John John Kennedy, who followed his father everywhere. Once he followed his father into a Cabinet meeting. To begin the meeting, President Kennedy asked, “What have we got this morning?” John John piped up and said, “I got a glass of water.” One of our other favorites was about Theodore Roosevelt’s family. The Roosevelt family loved animals. When their pet, Peter Rabbit, died, they placed the little black coffin on a wagon, and dragged it along. Mrs. Roosevelt was the chief mourner. I finished the exhibits and, while waiting for everybody else, drew and colored a very nice picture. Again we checked if the elevator was fixed and, finding that they had started working on it but had not fixed it yet, headed to the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center building for lunch.

          As we entered the building, we went through security for the umpteenth time on our D.C. trip. We are getting this drill down pretty well by now. Then we went down to the food court, scored some tables and ate a delicious lunch. Next, we hiked over to Ford’s Theatre and picked up our free tickets for the 3:00 admission to the museum and ranger tour of the theatre. While waiting, we went to the National Portrait Gallery. Since we only had 10 minutes, we saw just enough to really peak our interest. We went back to Ford’s Theatre and walked through the museum. In the museum, we learned that Lincoln had a premonition in the form of a dream that the President would be assassinated. This occurred on April 11. He quickly put it out of his mind. The war had just ended with Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox and he now he just wanted to relax. In the morning on April 15, he met with some old Illinois friends and led a leisurely day. In the evening, he planned to take his wife to a play. His bodyguard, Crook, would not go with him that night. Usually Lincoln would say ‘Goodnight, Crook’, but on April 15, he said ‘Goodbye Crook’. This scared the young bodyguard.

          It was another bodyguard’s job to make sure that President and Mrs. Lincoln got safely to the theatre and when his job was done, he headed to the bar. John Wilkes Booth, a well known actor that secretly hated the President, had easy access to the theatre. The show, The American Cousin, was a comedy, and, as the funniest line of the show came around, John Wilkes Booth casually made his way to the President’s box. He gave his calling card to the guard outside and was allowed to enter the President’s Box. Once in, he bolted the door with a piece of wood he had hidden earlier that day and shot the President through the head at point blank range. Abraham Lincoln had just reached over to hold his wife Mary’s hand. Mary had asked Abraham what young Clara would think. Clara and a Major in the army were the Lincolns’ guests. Lincoln’s response was “She won’t think anything about it.” These were his last words. Booth jumped to the stage shouting a line from the Shakespearean play Julius Caesar: Thus ever to tyrants! and ran to his waiting horse. Lincoln was taken out of the theater and across the street to Peterson’s Boarding house, where he died the next morning.

          After going through the museum, we went into the actual theatre, saw the box where Lincoln was shot, and sat down to listen to a ranger talk. He pretty much went through everything we had just learned and then we were on our way. Seeing that we had more time, we went back to the National Portrait Gallery and spent the last of our time there. My favorite picture was a painting of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. She started the Special Olympics and changed the way the world looked at intellectually disabled people. In the picture, she stood on the beach with about five other people who had participated in the Special Olympics. In the background was a sunset. It was a really pretty painting.

          Next, we walked over to the closest Metro stop and, carefully staying together, went back to Largo Town Center. There we caught the shuttle back home, our last shuttle from D.C. We thanked Nick and headed inside the RV for a delicious dinner of leftovers and a yummy dessert of either apple crisp and ice cream, or ice cream with chocolate. After dinner we checked our fluid levels and found that we needed to dump, but our plumbing was frozen. I don’t need to say much about this, but I can say we tried everything from pouring hot water down the toilet to fishing out our barbecue tools and breaking up the frozen waste so it would go down the pipe. Finally, we headed to bed. At the end of this cold but fun day I was looking forward to a warm bed and a chance to sleep in.