Once we got off the the Metro, it was a short walk to the Air & Space Museum.
We met our sweet friend Claire (Stroup) Walton there with her two children, Tierney and Holden. Her and her husband moved to DC about 3 years ago. It has been a little over 5 years since we've seen Claire. It was so good to catch up and meet her babies! As you can tell, the kids all got along great!
Once we said goodbye to our friends, which James was sad to do...we took a walk on the National Mall. The first thing we stumbled upon was a garden. It was a raised rotating garden right there on the edge of the National Mall. There were two people working in the garden so we started asking them what it was for. It's actually an organic garden built by the USDA to demonstrate gardening and to teach about food. The man even let Jack plant some seeds in the garden he was working in. And the lady let James pull a carrot from the garden! Of course, then Jack got to pull a beet! We were glad we happened to be walking passed that area.
Next, we walked over to view the Washington Monument. Jack was excited to see it up closer. We had read about it prior to the trip. One interesting fact...if you look closely, the bottom 1/3 of the monument is a bit of a different shade than the rest of the monument. It's because they stopped building about 1/3 of the way for over 20 years before starting again because of funding. But once they resumed building, they couldn't get the same marble they started with. Jack was so proud to know that fact!
Leaving the Washington Monument, heading over to the Lincoln Memorial, you walk pass the Vietnam Memorial Wall. Jason warned Jack and James to walk pass the wall quietly and respectfully. I think even Jack was taken back by ALL of the names inscribed on the wall. It truly puts it into perspective when you see that LONG black wall with names upon names. It's my 3rd time to see the wall...and seeing this time still felt like the first time. It's that stunning!
Next we saw the Lincoln Memorial. Jack was also looking forward to seeing this, because we discussed Abraham Lincoln before the trip.
After all of that walking, our legs were super tired. Soooo, we decided to take a bicycle taxi to the closest Metro station! Talk about EVERY mode of transportation on this trip! Too bad we couldn't squeeze in a boat ride!
After such an action packed day, we headed back to the hotel to rest up for the next day...our White House and Capitol tours!!
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