Friday, August 29, 2008

Washington DC Day 2

Today we started our day at the Library of Congress. We saw the Gutenberg Bible and the first map in the world to have the word "America" on it. Our country purchased the map for 10 million dollars from a family in Germany. It is our country's most expensive historical purchase. Thomas Jefferson's personal library is also in the building and is about 6400 books large.
Here I am in the rotunda.....the Gutenberg Bible is located on the 1st floor to my left.
The Supreme Court building was next to the Library so we headed there next. Unfortunately the courtroom was closed today so we just toured the building.
Next was the National Archives. It has many important documents including the Declaration of Independence (see below), the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta, and the Emancipation Proclamation.
It was time for lunch so we headed to Union Station for a bite to eat. We decided on a diner called Johnny Rockets.
Here I am eating a chili-cheese fry......my very first one.
Outside Union Station....this is a replica of the Liberty Bell.
Due to the rain yesterday we had to see the Washington Monument today.

Then it was on to the Lincoln Monument.
Here we are on the steps of the Lincoln Monument with the Washington Monument behind us.




Thursday, August 28, 2008

Washington DC

Rachael and I are in Washington DC and are having a great time. Here is what we did today......

We got up early this morning to get tickets for the Washington Monument.



We then proceeded to walk down the mall to the Capitol building while it started to rain.


It started to rain so hard that we had to duck into a building outside of the US Botanic Garden. These are pictures taken from inside the building.




Due to all the rain we decided to forgo all the monuments today and do the museums. We went to the Smithsonian and the Holocaust Museums.

Sorry this is not very much info but I am really tired! More tomorrow!