[Day 1 - Travel Day]Portland to Minneapolis. The only snow we saw all winter.

And we were snowed in for two extra hours while they de-iced, plowed runways, etc.

[Day 2 - Seeing some sights!]First view of the Washington Monument

Arlington Cemetery. JFK's memorial there.

At the corner of JFK and Unknown Soldier

It's amazing to see so many tombstones and think where they came from

And we only saw a very small portion and number of them

The changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The Master Sargeant inspects the replacement guard

This guy seemed like he could chew nails and spit out thumbtacks

Having passed inspection, they approach to relieve the current guard

And the changing of the guard

The guard walks the same path for an hour. Slowly. Methodically. With great precision. It's considered an honor posting.

General Robert E Lee, general of the southern forces during the Civil War, had a house that overlooked Washington DC from Arlington. The government was not happy with this so while he was away at war, they performed a government taking on the house and surrounding lands and started burying soldiers there.

The juxtaposition between the precision of the guards, the military regimen and this young lady's hair was striking.

The mast of the Maine ("Remember the Maine!") The sinking of the Maine was part of the cause for the US entering the Spanish American War as it was thought that the ship had been sunk by enemy forces.

Unfortunately, it later became clear that it had been due to a fire on the ship having nothing to do with any enemy forces. Ooops.

A memorial to the Challenger astronauts.

Laurel at Arlington

Brian with a great smile

Some guy, looking tired.

The Iwo Jima memorial

The inscription reads "Uncommon Valor Was A Common Virtue" and below that "Semper Fidelis"

[Day 3 - Raleigh NC]My friend Mike came up from Beaufort SC to meet me and we hung out for the previous evening and morning.

He's a Navy PA (Physician's Assistant) and recently became a naval officer. I'm very proud of him.

And I don't resent his success in any way (Really)

Proof that I was in North Carolina, a state I never thought I'd have reason to go to. But my favorite town to pass through was "Zebulon". Which sounded biblical so I looked it up and it means ... "town". Yes, I passed through a towned named Town.

(Cue evil music)Phillip Morris, home of death, destruction and tobacco magnates.

[Day 4 - Monday, Museum Day #1]Laurel and Brian in Washington DC with the monument in the background

When siblings get along, you really need to take pictures to remember the event.

The kids, reflecting on the stone in front of the museum. (Get it? Reflecting?)

Neat reflections

More monument (probably the single most photographed thing on this trip)

The very keen Museum of American History

A giant flag in the lobby

George Washington as a greek statue, just as I always imagined him... And mighty buff, I might add, for the father of a 225 year old country.

A beautiful young lady and a gun

Mein Hut hat drei Ecken (My hat it has three corners...)

Brian is has got the guitar love...

And this piano was in the White House in 1903. Nice piano...

Brian and the really big flag

Which one has only two dimensions?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Brian's got three of the four covered...

A keen sculpture

that rotated on a big plate

Brian doing impressions

And Laurel looks solemn

Again with the getting along...

Now it's nearing sundown in DC

and you can see the fading light on the windows of the Capitol Building

The kids and I have just enough time to hit the sculpture gallery outside the Hirshorn Gallery

Keen sculptures

The inspiration for the Death Star

The front of the Hirshorn. The piece in front is "Brushstroke" by Roy Lichtenstein.

Another outside sculpture. The V-bit in the front was twisting in the wind on a cable

Historic buildings on the National Mall

More historic buildings whose name I forgot to note.

[Day 5 - Tuesday, Monuments and Buildings]On the path leading up to the Vietnam Memorial

It is as impressive as we're told

And a bit overwhelming in the shear number of names. Which, I'm sure, is part of the intent.

Quite a line to view, too.

Another, more conventional, Vietnam memorial.

This is the view from the Lincoln Memorial back towards the Washington Monument. Where's the water in the reflecting pool!

The picture on the left is what I actually saw. The one on the right is what I *wanted* see. One of the benefits of a good imagination and good tools is that I can make it look like it was supposed to!

Some guy outside the memorial to one of his childhood heroes.

More view from the steps back towards the Washington Monument

The Great Emancipator. I used to imagine climbing up there and sitting on his lap.

And the ticket for doing it was worth every dime...

The Gettysburg Address. The guy before Lincoln spoke for two hours and didn't move a soul. Lincoln spoke for mere minutes and moved the entire crowd. I can still deliver the first third of this as a result of a ninth grade social studies assignment. Thanks Mr. Fries! (That's pronounced "Freeze"! seven*TEEN*)

The Korean War Memorial

Closeups

The (reasonably) new WWII memorial. Two arches, the one on the north says Atlantic. Each post has the name of a state or territory that participated

A wall of gold stars, though I didn't go down and see what they represented

And to the south was the arch for the Pacific theater.

The White House. Not easy to get on the lawn to take an unobstructed picture

In fact, kind of impossible.

Brian in front of the Capitol Building (Laurel stayed home this day to recoup)

The view from the Capitol steps towards the Washington Monument. I wasn't kidding, that thing gets in middle of *all* of the pictures...

Brian eating a granola bar and resting after some long hiking

The top of the Supreme Court building. (Just for posterity, Brian pooped in the Supreme Court Building. Okay, I did too.)

Brian in front of the Supreme Court

Some guy in front of the Library of Congress.

And not a book to be found!

[Day 6 - Museum Day #2 - The Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum]Baby dinosaur bones

A prehistoric, four foot tall chicken

Scrat from Ice Age

A giant sloth

Them are some mighty tusks!

Brian makes love to the camera. Laurel tries to figure out if she is really related to him.

A really impressive orchid display

Orchids (Pophiopedilum Corsair)

A whole bunch of orchids!

Did I mention that there were a few orchids?

And lots of colors

A keen display of hematite

Laurel's heat signature. She had complained all day that her hands were cold. She wasn't kidding, they showed up black!

The kids and the lunar lander module

Lots of big rockets!

Though I have to say the french vision of what flight would be like was awfully impressive and had a certain grandeur that isn't matched by the reality of being shoved in a too-small seat in cattle class.

Brian and Laurel rest after a long day

Space Capsule!

Moon buggy!

Pyramid of block thingies

Poorly stacked chairs sculpture

[Day 6 - Museum Day #3 - The Art Museum]Most of a day spent in the Art Museum (mostly portraits that got old) and Brian finally found something he really liked. At least there was something!