Monday, February 23, 2015

Our trip to Washington DC Part 3: Mount Vernon and Gettysburg

 Hi all! This is Libby. So, here we go again on the seemingly unending stream of posts. Ugh. I can't wait until we can post about other things again. Well, I best start. So, early in the morning, we drove to Mount Vernon. This is the outside. Mom commented that she thought it would be bigger. We took a tour of the house first, but  they didn't allow pictures on the inside.
 Next we went to see Washington's tomb.
 We passed by this ewe on the trail. It was enclosed, don't worry.
 Marie-Grace, Jewel and I walking along the trail. I commented to Marie-Grace that Jewel's outfit didn't look like the outfit of a super shy person. 
 This was one of the slave cabins. In this picture you can see how gorgeous the fall colors were then.
Next, we went to the cool gardens.
 Marie-Grace loved taking pictures of the flowers in the gardens.
 This is the smithy. When the guy pounded the plate-thing with that little hammer, it was SOOOOOO loud! We all covered our ears, even Jewel, who had so far been acting far to shy to do anything!

 The next day, we left Washington DC and traveled to Gettysburg. First we watched the cyclorama, telling about the battle of Gettysburg. You can look HERE to find out more about that.
 Then we looked around the museum. This was an interment something like a trumpet, but the horn part would go back over your shoulder so the soldiers marching behind you could hear the music you were playing.
 As you can see, here is the Gettysburg address embedded in a rock.
 In the gift shop, we bought a CD that guided us to different sites of the battlefield, telling us the history of the different sites as we got there.
This was one of the sites were there was a little tower. We stopped and played there for a pretty long while. Well, I better be going. 
Have you ever been to Gettysburg or Mont Vernon?

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

More of our time in Washington DC


Good day, pleasant readers! This is Marie-Grace. As promised, I am here to tell you more about our Washington DC trip beginning on October 29.

 That rainy day we went to the Federal Mint and the National Museum of Natural History. At the Federal Mint they did not allow pictures, but at the Museum we took a great many pictures! Here are some of them. 1: The famous stuffed elephant named Henry. 2: The famous Hope Diamond. 3: A diamond necklace. 4: A great lump of rose quartz. 5: Stuffed Spider monkey mother and baby. 6: An actual Egyptian mummy. Libby was quite impressed. 7: A stuffed ghost crab. 8: Pieces of a meteorite that fell on Arizona. 9: A stuffed Grizzly bear.
 The next day we left early for our tour of the Capitol. 1: The Capitol. They needed to do some repairs on the dome. They informed us that they should be done in time for the next inauguration. 2:The inside of the dome. 3:A beautiful chandelier inside. 4: the lovely tiled floor. 5:The original Wright Flyer at the Air and Space museum. 6: Another model at the Air and Space museum ( I don't remember what of). 7; Libby rushing past paintings at the art museum across from the Air and Space museum. 8: Myself lingering a long while at the same paintings. 9: Many famous paintings were there, this painting of George Washington being one of them. 10: One of my favorite paintings there by Frederic Edwin Church called El Rio de Loz (The river of Light). 11: Libby looking at the famous "Little Dancer"  statue. She didn't think much of it. 12: The impressive-looking outside of the art museum. 13:People inside the art gallery in the Capitol.
 On Halloween Day, we 1:first shared our lunch with an inquisitive squirrel. 2: Went to see  the outside of the White House, being that we were unable to obtain tickets to the inside. 3: Went to the international spy museum. This is the inside of the elevator. 4: The History of spies. 5; The secret identity I chose while there. If you want to learn more about the Spy Museum, click HERE. 6: Next we went to Ford's Theater. 7: I don't think she found it as interesting as I did. 8: Next we went across the street to the house Lincoln died in. This is part of a huge pile of books that were all written about Lincoln.
Then we rushed home because we were meeting Jewel and her former foster parents. We were quite excited. She came, and Libby immediately plopped down with her two dogs, Cookie dough and Jackson. I held out my hand. "Hello, Jewel. I'm Marie-Grace. What a lovely outfit." Jewel looked at down at her feet and fingered her scarf. "Um, hi. she said, then rushed over to say good bye to her former foster parents. Standing up, Libby whispered: "What was that? Her other foster parents never mentioned extra extreme shyness." I laughed. "She'll probably get used to us in a couple of days." I whispered back.
Have you ever had a foster child?