I am trying this from my phone so it may not be great but here goes!

Today is the last day here and we are sitting on the mall right now bathed in sunshine!  It is a wonderful day and I wish that the whole trip could have been like this but over all t was retry great anyway.

Today we are going to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving.  Gonna see how that money is really made Taking a quick stop at the restrooms in front of the Washington Monument where we just got done taking a bunch of photos in the nice light.  Alright – off to see the money!!!

The tour of the Bureau of Printing and Engraving was pretty cool.  It was actually short and sweet, but the machines and the process that you could see was interesting.  It did have an overwhelming smell of money though and after just a bit of time it was bad.  They sold all kinds of stuff there, shredded money and uncut money sheets and stuff, but I just got an magnet.

We just finished up lunch at the USDA.  They have a cafeteria that is open to the public that some security guard said was pretty good.  It was good, but I am not sure that it is like special food or anything.  It was pretty cool that they are huge into recycling and stuff.

Now we are just taking our time headed back to the hotel so that we can catch a bus to the airport and head home.  I think 4 days was a bit much, but it was nice that today was by far the best day weather wise that we have had.  yesterday would have been good, but Saturday we walked so much that I was just exhausted and I think Paul was a little worn out as well.

I will probably take some time in a couple days to write again about the trip when everything has had a little bit of time to sink in.  I will also try to post the pictures while we are in the airport and I am trying to put descriptions on everything so it will be easy to know what it is

Today I am going to try to blog during the day rather then coming back to the hotel and doing it at night.  I was going to try to do that yesterday, but the weather just would not allow it.  I think that today we are going to focus on museums as we did most of the monuments yesterday.  I do want to go to Union Station just to see it today at some point.  Anyway, check back if you are watching for updates!!

Well we started off by trying to go to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving but it was closed today so we are going to get there tomorrow.  Then we walked over to the National Museum of Natural History and saw several of the exhibits.  But then all the exhaustion hit me like a ton of bricks.  I just couldn’t do anymore so we headed back to the hotel.  Paul and Carlos went to get some food and now we are all just relaxing in the room for a bit.  Not sure if we will get back out again today – most stuff closes early today and it is already 14:00.  Going to try to see about a night tour, but I am betting those don’t happen on Sunday night.

Luckily we were able to get a tour tonight!!  It was really awesome, the only problem was how COLD it was!!!!  All of the monuments we went to were really pretty nice lit all up, especially the Lincoln Memorial.  We got a lot of good pictures, but I don’t have most of them.  The pics with the regular phone wasn’t that great with all the lights, but I will try to post them anyway.  We also got to see Union Station as that was where the tour started and then the tour also went in front of the White House and that was good because we didn’t get to walk over there.

Well, it is very late now and we have had a very long day so I am going to finish up some other stuff and rest my tired bones!  Won’t post pictures until tomorrow, sorry

Today was another pretty good day trip wise, but still pretty poor weather wise.  It was very cold and very windy, but only a slight drizzle as opposed to the rain we saw yesterday.

We started today with some breakfast from Starbucks – well, coffee  Then we were on our way to the mall.  We got off the train a stop early because there was a delay and that put us out at Federal Triangle.  This brought us to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center which doesn’t sound very great, but Paul has this camera that takes amazing 360 degree pictures!!  So it actually make for some great pics.  We then crossed the street to Freedom Plaza which is like a map of the city and we took some more pics.

Then we were at the mall and the first thing we saw was the Washington Monument.  I am not sure why, but this is my favorite one.  There was some sort of special thing going on where it was like they were setting up for a concert or something.  But we were still able to have clear shots for pics, even if you couldn’t actually see that far away due to the weather.

We walked towards the WWII Memorial, which was pretty cool.  Very big and pretty.  We continued down along the Reflecting Pool to the Korean War Veterans Memorial.  This one is another of my favorites, it has soldiers walking through the brush like they would have during the war.  It also had a very nice wall with images like ghosted into it.  Paul got a good panorama of that.

Lincoln Memorial was next.  This is pretty amazing, it is so huge.  We walked all the way around it and then went inside.  Such an amazing scale and looking over the entire mall, it is a great thing.  Got some good pictures in there too.  After that we walked through the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  This is cool looking and such a nice concept.  We didn’t get to see anyone doing like a pencil rub due to the rain, but people were looking for the names of loved ones anyway and that was pretty nice to see.

After that we had to kill some time before we could go up in the Washington Monument so we just walked down the mall.  But then we were right back for the ride all the way to the top!!  This was very cool.  Got pics from up there although you couldn’t really see too well because there was rain on the glass and the visibility was poor.

For lunch we ate at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden Cafe.  This was where we had walked through the day before and I got the AMOR and spider pics.  The food was nothing spectacular but the seats were a very nice surprise!!!  We needed a break because we hadn’t stopped basically all day and it was like 14:00 before we even ate.

Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden was next.  This building is round like a doughnut.  So the middle was missing :).  I got a pic of a cool sculpture called Subcommittee.  I don’t know, I just liked it.  Next we were going to go the the Smithsonian Castle, but apparently it is closed for renovations so onwards we went to the National Air and Space Museum.  This was pretty cool, lots of planes obviously, but it was the end of the day and they were closing soon and we were all pretty tired.  So we left about 5 minutes before they closed and headed back to the hotel.

Well that about sums up the day.  Sorry if it was a bit long but that is what this is for after all  Hope you enjoyed and go to the picture gallery to see the cool shots!!!

So we finally are wrapping up day 1 of the Washington DC trip!!  We are exhausted  It was an early flight, very early and it has rained non stop since we landed!

First we went to the hotel and got all checked in and settled and then we went to eat lunch.  We found a place right around the corner called Chop’t.  It is a salad and warp shop.  Very interesting and it was actually very good.

Next we decided to go ahead and head over to the National Archives.  We got there in plenty of time to make the appointment I booked, except we didn’t need it since the weather was so bad – oh well, it was only $4.50.  We spend a good bit of time there looking at all kinds of interesting documents and then we saw the 3 big ones: Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and the Constitution.  They are housed all together in the rotunda which is a pretty amazing place.  It is very lowly lit to preserve them and it sure keeps people’s attention.  The documents are very hard to see, but pretty amazing none the less.

We decided to hit up the National Museum of American History Museum.  Mainly to get out of the rain, but I really did want to see it because that is where all the trains are and the Star Spangled Banner flag.  That is pretty amazing as well.  It is all tattered and torn but still so meaningful.  They also had an exhibit on money or currency along with the light bulb, electric motors, and steam powered motors.

After that, we were all pretty worn down, cold and still wet.  We decided to hit up Macy’s for some gear, I got a scarf and some gloves and Carlos got a new coat and is letting Paul use his other one because it has a hood.  After that we headed back towards the hotel to get some dinner and call it a night.  We hit up a place called Wiseguys New York Style Pizza.  It was pretty good stuff and then it was not  It was a lot and now we are sitting in the room about to fall asleep.  Well, Carlos is asleep and Paul and I are messing around.  Me doing this and he is watching TV.

Well, that about sums up the first day in DC.  Will post another blog tomorrow

Tomorrow I am headed to Washington DC with my brothers!!!

I am very excited, I am all packed and it is like 16:30 and I am ready to try to get some sleep since I need to be up at like 03:15 to make the flight.

Alright, wrapping it up to get some zzzzzzzzz