Peter getting started on the day:
I found a bunch of monkeys there:
I loved the butterfly house. Apparantly I have a few children who are creeped out by butterflies! I don't get it, however I am not going to force them to enjoy butterflies so my mother in law and I took our time looking while the scardy cats quickly escaped:
They have some beautiful tigers and a lion there also! My favorite.
Then we got back on the metro and went to the National Archives:
Exciting place to be, espcially for National Treasure fans like our kids. We watched the intro movie that tells about the thousands of things you can see there. Honestly, we just wanted to see the Declaration of Independance, The Bill of Rights and some other historically amazing documents. We waited in line for awhile. They are SUPER strict about flash photography in this part of the archives, so I didn't even attempt pictures. The lighting is very dim and guards stand on either side of the cases. It was another one of those indescribable moments for me. Standing there reading those original documents brought home the reality to me of the blessings of living in this country formed by men who were lead by the Spirit at a time in the world's history when things were ripe for the gospel to be brought back to the earth. Sadly the ink is so faded it's almost impossible to read the signatures.
Then we went to the visitors center for the white house, not at all close to the white house, but still pretty cool. We got there about 15 minutes before it closed. Another example of our lack of timing, which we found comical every time. We walked to the back (or is it actually the front?) of the white house:
Then we walked around for kids to shop at the tourist kiosks. It really was cold, but a beautiful fall day:
We headed back to the metro, all tired out, and went back for a warm dinner at the hotel. It was a good day!
