Day Seventeen

(On the Metro)

After enjoying our free hotel breakfast and free shuttle to the metro, we rode into D.C.  Harvey had purchased tickets in advance for the Washington Monument (only $1 each guarantees you a spot and a shorter wait--totally worth the money in our opinion :).  We were glad we had tickets because by the time we arrived 11:20am) they had sold out of tickets for the day!

(My people waiting for the Washington Monument tour to start)

(The periscope Jonathan used)

The views from the Monument were beautiful. Some windows had steps and some did not (those without were easy to push Jonathan up to).  The cool thing is that a park ranger loaned him a periscope while we were in there for him to be able to see out of the windows since they are up a little high!  How cool!

(The stone given by the state of New York. There is a stone given by each state in the Monument and some can be seen through the elevator as it is descending. I would have liked to have seen NC, of course, but also the newest one which is Alaska. Apparently, it is made of jade!)

Next, we had to hurry to our Capitol tour a good distance away.  We once again took the Metro and actually made it to the tour EARLY!  Yeah!  We had time for a quick water and restroom break. We had arranged a tour through NC Congressman Mark Meadows' office.  They were very helpful, although sadly they could not get us into any other tours that we applied for.  Our tour guide was a former homeschooler herself, with family back home in SC.  She is a student at Bob Jones University, has a sister who goes to Clemson, and two younger brothers at home still being homeschooled.  She was great with our younger kids!  She told us a lot of facts about the building.  It was nice to have a guide and not be stuck with a large group.  It was completely worth the little bit of extra time it took to set up the tour! 

(One of my favorite statues I've always liked- King Kamehameha of Hawaii) 

After the tour, since it was past lunchtime, we decided to eat in the Capitol cafeteria.  MISTAKE. GROSS.  Oh well.  Then it was time to head to our last tour of the day at the Department of Archives.  Again, nice to have advance tickets.  We learned a lot of interesting facts.

From there, we endured the most crowded metro ride ever.  After one man entered and planted his arm in front of my face while I was trying to hold on to Benjamin and Elizabeth, it was so nice when another man offered his seat to us (after many unloaded at several stops).  It was great for Benjamin to see a stranger being a gentleman to us, and I reminded him again of the gentleman I want him to grow up to be (like his daddy :).

We headed back to our hotel, eagerly anticipating going home tomorrow!