After starting our day off with breakfast hotel, off we went for an entire full day of touring in one city. Our nationʻs capital, Washington, DC. We lucked out with weather today, it worked out perfectly. Sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s.
We started our day at the Peopleʻs House. AKA, the White House. Home of the President of the United States. Fun fact, only one President didnʻt live in the White House. The first one, George Washington. We were one of the first groups in and got a leisure tour of the house. But first, we had to go through multiple security check points. One chaperone, Aunty Lanre, got to spend 10 minutes in "White House Jail." So named by our guide, Aaron. Ha, not a problem, it was because she signed up for the trip later than most and had to do her background check on site. She was released to the Kualapuʻu population and in we went.
After a quick break to purchase DC souvenirs, off to the National Archives we went. The National Archives hold the United Stateʻs actual Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Even though the Declaration of Independence is very faded and hard to read, you can still see most of it and some signatures are still very clear, like the famous John Hancock signature. Keauonui did a great job of reading to me what he could see clear enough. Even in the old, fancy cursive!
Now last night we were rained out due a major thunderstorm in DC. So we made up for lost time as we were cruising with time. Iʻm knocking on wood as we speak, but today, we crushed it with times and no crowds. We went through the White House and National Archives with ease. So we went down to the memorials we missed out on last night.
We did a quick visit with Albert Einstein next.
We started off at the Vietnam Wall. The Wall is sunk into the ground and is in two halves. We learned that if you stretched it our from end to end straight, it would be as tall as the Washington Monument that is nearby. It doesnʻt look that long from afar, until you walk the Wall itself. The wall has the names of every soldier that was killed in action or is still missing in action. 58, 281 names in all. Quite sombering.
Now today was a special one there for us as a Honor Flight group was there. Honor Flights bring veterans from World War II, Korea, and Vietnams Wars to their memorials. They all have a chaperone as they are up there in age. Our kids and chaperones got to meet and shake the hands of many of them and say "Thank you for your service." The kids were amazing. The veterans were great and you could see the true apprecitation in their eyes as the kids were genuine when they shook their hands and said thank you to them and werenʻt shy. Was really neat to see.
Then, off to one of the most recognizable and famous memorials, the Lincoln Memorial. When we got up to the memorial I heard a few kids say out loud, "ho, heʻs huge!" After spending some time with ol Abe we went down to the Korean War Memorial.
Korea was fought not long after World War II and is sometimes thought of as "The Forgotten War." It is often overshadowed by World War II that was right before it and the Vietnam War the was not long after the Korean War. None the less, it was an awful war. The names of 43,808 individuals that died in the war. 36,634 Americans and 7,174 Koreans. Besides the names there is a wall with over 2,400 faces engraved in the wall of actual soldiers. Along with that there are 19 soldiers walking. Any time you are walking along the memorial there is a soldier that is looking at you. The soldiers reflection in the wall creates 38 soldiers. That has multiple meanings as the war was 36 months and the North and South Korean border is the 38th parallel. Pretty cool memorial.
Next was off to lunch. We went to a cool place for lunch called Western Market. Tons of options and not the normal fast food stuff. The only real named chain in there was Chipotle. Everything else unique. Sorry, no pics of lunch as we were all over the place and hungry and eating. A rundown though. Many people got chicken katsu and shrimp tempura at a place. I got some giant chicken asian noodle bowl. Of course, a handful of giant slices of pizza.
After a great lunch off we went again. Now to the United States Capitol Building. On our way this is when the Canadian Prime Minister went by us. Awesome.
Again, got right in, avoided major crowds and had our tour. But before our tour we start at ours and many others favorite statue right there in the Visitor Center Lobby, King Kamehameha. We then went and did our tour of the Capitol Building. We got to see three rooms; The Crypt, Rotunda, and Statuary Hall.
For just the second time ever on our trips, we walked through a tunnel under the streets and ended up in the Library of Congress. Pretty cool to see it in person. Along with the well known reading room. There is a section that has Thomas Jeffersonʻs personal library that he donated to the Library. Neat to see these as they are over 250 year old.
Then off to another somber memorial, The Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. As weʻve studied 9/11 pretty decently prior to the trip, many kids were looking forward and curious about this stop. Before we went in, Aaron has us off to the side and gave a good history of terrorism, Osama Bin Laden, and the attacks on September 11th.
We then went over to the memorial and Aaron explained more about the design of the memorial. There is a bench for each victim of that dayʻs attack at the Pentagon. The bench takes off but never sets down as it represent a plane taking off but not landing. The names of the victims are on the part that isnʻt down. When you look at the name, if you see the Pentagon while seeing their name, they were victims from inside the Pentagon. If you see the name and donʻt see the Pentagon but sky, they were victims from American Airlines flight 77.
I always bring up respect and places to be uber respectful. This is one of the uber respectful places. And I have to say, our kids did outstanding. Everybody took it quite seriously and paid respects. Many great questions were asked. I couldnʻt be more proud of them for their "professionalism" at a place like this. Great job kids!
Off to dinner we went. We went to a place called Basic Burger. Was pretty good. Many ate outside in a nice plaza as the weather was still nice out even with the sun getting lower in the sky. Right there next to where we ate was a fancy ice cream shop. Many got ice cream after dinner. We got to celebrate Aaliyahʻs birthday a little more proper than yesterday as the rain and travel werenʻt as fun. I also bought Chelin ice cream as she was the first to find a certain license plate earlier and tell me she found it and showed me. Great job, Chelin!
Finally we made one more stop before heading back to the hotel. We ended our night at the World War II Memorial. We came at a beautiful time of evening to see this. The memorial has pillars of all the states, territories at the time, and the District of Columbia. There also is a wall with 400 stars. Each star represents 100 American deaths in the war. Aaron asked from some math and Zairah came up quick that it is 400,000 American deaths. Wow. A very peaceful memorial with water.
Then it was time to head back to the hotel for a hopeful night of rest. Back at it tomorrow as breakfast starts at 6:45 and we are leaving the hotel at 7:30 for a trip to Arlington National Cemetery. Great job today everybody! Iʻm so proud of you.
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