We started the 7th day of our trip at the Washington Monument. After going up to the top you get a fantastic view of the city and surrounding areas. The Monument is 554 feet tall! For as being as tall as it is, the elevator moves pretty fast. After our Bunker Hill hike on day 2, nobody was complaining about taking the elevator!
Good Morning!
Washington Monument
Looking out the top
Fighting for window space
White House
Lincoln Memorial
Hello!
Looking South
Hanging out in a tree
We then took a quick walk down the Mall to the World War II Memorial. The World War II Memorial is a fairly new one that opened in 2004. A unique aspect of this memorial is that people that the memorial is for, get to see their own memorial. We lucked out and happened to be there when a bunch were visiting. Honor Flights are when a bunch of veterans get flown in and see their memorial and a little bit more of the city for one day. We were there when an honor flight was arriving and got to meet veterans. This seemed to be the theme for the day as we saw many veterans at our stops. The kids did an amazing job of talking to and just saying thank you to the different veterans.
Hawai'i at the WWII Memorial
WWII
Nicole saying thanks
Boys saying thanks
Namaka helping make this veterans day
WWII Memorial
The veterans giving a salute
Talking to more veterans
After WWII Memorial we walked over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. Again, lots of veterans and again, lots of thank you's and introductions. The Korea and Vietnam Wall's seem a little similar. The main difference is the Vietnam Wall has the names of every single person that was either killed, or missing in action from the war. Korea has faces engraved in the wall. No names. We were at the Memorial when it started to dump on us. Lucky us though we were almost out when it happened and were able to wait it out under some trees.
At the Vietnam Wall
Reading the names
After departing the Vietnam Wall, we came across the Albert Einstein statue outside the National Academy of Sciences. Seems to make sense that is where it is.
Einstein Statue
We then got to go to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts. It is a huge center that has multiple theaters. They have a free performance every day of the week! You can either go and watch it, or they stream it online everyday. It is a massive building!
Before dinner we went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The kids got a lot of hands on experience with flight. We also got to watch a 3d Imax movie about D-Day. Seemed to fit in with all the war memorials and veterans we talked to that day. After the movie, the kids were super excited to do another flight simulator. Some had a blast while others wished they had the one they did the day before!
Imax 3d D-Day movie
Dinner!
After dinner it was time to go see the Air Force Memorial. It is a massive structure. It is designed to look like when three planes blast away from each other. Pretty cool.
Air Force Memorial
We then went to the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. A very touching memorial that has a bench for each victim of that day. If you look at the name on the bench and you then see the Pentagon, it means that person was a victim inside the Pentagon. If you look at the name of the victim and then see the sky, they were in the plane. The benches are also arranged by age. The youngest being 3. If they had family members that also died that day, there is a marker at the base of the bench that says the family members names. The kids did a great job of being respectful and taking it in. Great job kids!
Pentagon 9/11 Memorial
Seeing name looking at Pentagon means this person died in the Pentagon
Our last one of the day was the Iwo Jima Memorial. This statue shows the soldiers in World War II raising the flag over the island of Iwo Jima. It came from the famous photograph depicting this during the war. As you drive around the memorial, it is an illusion that the soldiers are actually raising the flag.
Iwo Jima Memorial
Sadly enough, it was our final night with our bus driver Jamal. We thought he was a great driver. He got us places faster than most other drivers.......Thank you Jamal!
Saying bye to our great driver Jamal
The kids did such a great job that we had almost an entire hour to burn off more energy by swimming. The kids deserved it after their amazing behavior today. Again, great job kids. We are now down to our final day of touring. Hard to believe we are almost done. See you tomorrow!
After such a great day they deserved a fun evening of swimming
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