We enjoyed all of the memorials but this one was a favorite…probably because it was the first day that we were here and we had fun sharing the day with my cousin Elaina and her family.
I’ve decided that I’m just going to skip the states that I have not stayed caught up on and maybe I’ll have a chance to catch up on them later…I won’t be able to skip over Washington DC however because it is that place that actually gave me nightmares! I’m not sure if it’s because this area has only recently re-opened after the government shut-down and everyone is super stressed over lost work and/or wages or if it’s because this is the first city that we actually used a bus as transport, which was always late. But, this is the first city that we have visited that does NOT make me want to come back. Yes, there are 100’s of great museums full of all sorts of interesting things, and yes, many of them are even free to get into to…but, researching on the internet is also free and can be done without waiting in long lines and being yelled at by angry security guards…let me explain.
Playing Queen of the Mountain with Danica…although she’s convinced that Kings have a higher level of authority and power and assured me that she will be a King when she is in power, and you know what? I actually believed her!
We spent several days enjoying the Mall and all of its different war monuments, enjoyed the Smithsonian Museum of American History and Museum of Natural History, and the Holocaust Museum…each place was truly amazing and they each took the better part of a day and we thoroughly enjoyed being able to take our time and brouse…but we were at the end of our week and we still hadn’t had a chance to go through the Air and Space Museam so that meant we had to come back on a Saturday and face the crowds, which for the most part weren’t to bad and we were enjoying the interactive displays. We decided to end our day by purchasing tickets to an IMAX movie on the HUBBLE Telescope, not knowing that this movie would get out after 5:30…which was the closing time for the building. Now this is when things started to get ugly! From the minute that the doors opened to let us out of the theater we were greeted by a small army of angry security guards who were each yelling at the top of their lungs telling us that we needed to vacate the building imediately…it was an extremely awkward moment the feeling of being part of an unknown herd of people is not something that I ever want to experience again.
Scott’s dreaming of the time he walked on the moon…this was a great display with the back-up rover that was never used so now can go on display for the rest of us to be able to see.
So why did this give me nightmares? There was a kid who was about 10 years old who was waiting for his mom outside of the women’s restroom and a security guard was yelling at him to leave the building immediately and the kid was saying that his mom had told him to wait for her to get out of the restroom, I told the kid that he needed to wait there because that was what his mom had asked him to do but the guard was still yelling for the kid to leave…I didn’t get involved…I left the building…but I wish that I would have tried to intervene on the kids behalf instead of leaving him to stand up to the bully of a guard that was not listening to him. It made me feel unheard and invisible like I was a kid again…such a hopeless feeling…making me sware to never come back again!
Another fun find, this rock is from Bunker Hill Mine in Kellogg…there were so many beautiful rocks in all shapes and colors. It almost motivated me to start digging.
So now what?? I pray for the kid, I pray for the angry security guards and worry that there might be a true emergency one day, hopefully they will continue to grow and learn how to carry authory in a way that earns respect. I also pray that I would learn how to respectfully stand in the midst of chaos…I need to learn how to do that without powering up and getting all high and mighty myself. I pray for our country and the crisis of leadership that we are in, and I look to the future and try to see what part I’m supposed to be playing…but mostly I just pray.
Our Joyride! 
Sadly Valley that seems to be the norm in DC. Every time I go there to experience the museums, monuments and the architecture of the city it is clouded over by the rudeness/hatefullness of the residents of the District or lets just expand and say the entire metro area. The benefit of living here is to experience the history. How sad that our Nations capitol is like this. We went to MT Vernon last week and experienced the same. The honking, yelling, fighting, murders…..on and on. It definitely isn’t Paradise and can use many prayers.