Washington D.C.

My family and I went to visit Washington D.C. on August 12th. If that date sounds familiar, it might be because August 12th is my birthday! That's right, I had the fortune to celebrate my 20th in the United States capital. My favorite description of America's Washington D.C. was best said by a British actor.

"We're in the middle of the most powerful city in the most powerful country on Earth." -Matt Smith's Doctor

So I had an unconventional birthday. But I had delicious food and we even got to see 30 Minutes or Less, which was surprisingly funny.

Bryan Turning 20

The Cropper family did a lot of visiting in D.C., so I've broken up our conquests into three parts. I'll start with what I call The Big Four, and then move onto the memorials, monuments, and finally museums. So let's start!

The Big Four: The Capitol, Supreme Court, White House, and National Archives

The very first building in D.C. that we saw was our nation's capitol, where the Senate and the House of Representatives create all the laws we hate today.

The U.S. Capitol

At least our legislative branch operates separately from our other branches of government. Speaking of other branches, I learned that the Supreme Court (judicial branch!) used to work in the basement of the Capitol. Fortunately, in 1933, the Supreme Court finally got their own building. At the Supreme Court Building we had a pleasant lecture about how the Supreme Court operates. For instance, did you know the Supreme Court only takes only 1% of the cases that apply to be reviewed?

The Supreme Court

Finally, no trip to D.C. is complete without viewing the White House. When we arrived, the lawn in front of the White House was closed to the public for an hour or so. But when they let us in, Nicholas and I went running!

Get to the White House!

We then struck our cool poses.

We Rock the White House

Lastly, we visited the National Archives, which holds our nation's most important documents. What kind of documents? I don't know, just the BILL OF RIGHTS, the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, and the UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.

The National Archives

That's right, in the Rotunda Room of the National Archives we got to see the three most important papers in the United States. What surprised me was how large the documents were. I always imagined these documents were slightly larger than printer paper, but the parchments were actually about two feet wide and two and a half feet long. Also, the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence were very faded, since they were held previously in picture frames. Our Constitution however, being four pages long, was not displayed and therefore the ink held up very well.

The Rotunda Room

Next I'll talk about the many memorials and monuments the Croppers visited in D.C.

Memorials & Monuments

The most identifiable monument we visited was the one featured on all of our pennies. That's right, we visited the Lincoln Memorial!

Lincoln Memorial

We actually found the memorial to be a bit closed off and very crowded. Despite that, we still managed to get our photo o Lincoln sitting.

Lincoln Statue

To give you a scale of how big the statue is, you can use mom for comparison.

Mom Looking at Lincoln

For me, what was more interesting than the Lincoln statue was the view from the Lincoln Memorial. Behold, the world-famous reflecting pool!

Washington's Majestic Reflecting Ditch.

Apparently the reflecting pool had a leak, so they are re-digging and re-cementing it. The project should be completed by summer 2012. But we did get to enjoy the other structure in the picture. Yes, we visited was the world's tallest free-standing stone structure, the Washington monument!

Washington Monument

Dad actually purchased tickets, so we got to see the view from the very top! The Washington Monument provided an excellent view of nearly every important building in D.C, so it was a real treat.

We're at the Top!

Our last memorial was the Jefferson memorial . It turned out to be a surprising favorite. As you can see below, this memorial is open at all four sides.

Circumnavigating the Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Also, inside there is a cool statue of Jefferson standing up, surrounded with some of his awesomer quotes, such as

"I have sworn, upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" -Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson Statue

Man, our founding fathers didn't tolerate any nonsense. Makes me proud to be American.
Lastly, I'll mention briefly some of the many, many Museums we visited while we were in the area.

Museums, Museums, and Museums

The very first thing museum we visited was actually in Chantilly, outside of our Capital. Here we saw the Air and Space Museum.

Air and Space Museum in Chantilly

My favorite part of this museum was being able to see NASA's Enterprise shuttle model. It was pretty neat being so close to the first reusable space craft ever built.

Space Shuttle Enterprise

We also visited several art museums, but there was one piece of art that truly stood out. Below is a modern-art piece called Ghost Clock. What do you think about it? Do you understand the underlying message about our society and time?

Ghost Clock at the Renwick Museum

Just kidding. The real beauty of the Ghost Clock is that it is carved from a single piece of laminated Mahogany. The white sheet and string are actually just bleached parts of the single, carved piece of wood. When we told Nick, his eyes bulged.

Nick's Impressed

Lastly, we visited the Museum of Natural History, where I had my mind blown! Do you know about the mysterious Easter Island Statues? I always thought that they were very narrow since they were always photographed from the side. But here I learned that the statues are actually very wide, and not at all what I was expecting.

An Easter Island Moai

To end this post on a sweet/creepy note, here's a picture of a man and his dog that was on display in the museum.

Dr. Grover Krantz and Clyde

So that concludes our adventures in Washington in the District of Columbia. I can now say that I've been to the prime centers of each branch of our government, seen the documents that laid the foundations of our nation, and also got to appreciate new artistic and scientific curiosities. Overall, I'd say it was a success. Next up, I'll (really) talk about wonderful, wooded, West Virginia!