There and Back Again

I am finally getting around to posting pictures from our trip to Baltimore and Washington DC a few weeks ago. For those who don't know, my little brother Gordo moved his little family out to Baltimore last fall to work for the Navy. So in May we decided to go out there for a visit and to see the sights in DC. Mel was really excited because she's always wanted to go to our nation's capitol. We also went to Gettysburg, (another place Mel has always wanted to visit), the National Zoo, and Six Flags. Here are some pics:


This is Rylee and Dima standing in front of the Washington Monument while we waited to get our tickets to go up inside of it.



Here is the Washington Monument itself. The second picture is taken from the Lincoln Memorial. I really like this monument so I took a lot of pictures of it.















These are pictures from the Tomb of The Unknown Solider and Arlingotn Cemetery where my great-grandparents and great uncle are buried.



















Here are a few of the planes at the National Air & Space Museum.











In the Archives where they house the Constitution, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, along with other important papers from our history, you are not allowed to take flash photography because the light will damage the documents. So this is the best picture I could get of the Constitution.



These are a few pictures from Gettysburg. The battlefield is huge and is peppered with various statues and monuments to the various battalions and regiments from every state that fought in the battle.





This is the painting on the inside of the Capitol Building rotunda. It depicts George Washington surrounded by Lady Liberty, Lady Justice, and some ten or so other ladies with significant meaning that I can't remember. Personally I think it makes him look like kind of a Playa, hehe.


This is the Wall of Stars at the WWII Memorial. Each star on this wall represents 100 soldiers who died in the war. It's rather humbling to see just how many people gave their lives fighting against the tyranny of Hitler.



This is us with Bugs Bunny and Wyle E. Coyote at Six Flags. The second picture is Gordo, Al, Mel and I soaked to the bone after going on the log flume at Six Flags. It took us all day to dry off after that. Luckily, even thought it had been raining all week, the sun came out for the afternoon to assist in the drying.









And finally the DC temple. We were able to get babysitters on Wednesday night and go with Gordo and Sharee to do a session at the DC temple. This temple has one of the most beautiful Celestial Rooms I've ever seen. Well worth the trip.










That's all I'm going to post even though I have hundreds more. Needless to say it was a neat trip and it was good to spend some time with Gordo, Sharee and little Dima who is talking up a storm and just the cutest little guy.