Mr. Behrendt Goes To Washington: Trip of a Lifetime Part 1

Trip of a Lifetime
First off, I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! I know I did. Over the Memorial Day weekend I had a trip of a lifetime. I spent 4 solid days with my Mom, Grandma, and Grandpa in DC where we were always sightseeing.

Some of the sights we visited were sights I visited before and wrote about them on this blog. I will either not refer or refer briefly to such a sight for the purpose of reducing the amount I have to write and the amount my readers have to read.

Thursday, May 23rd
The travelers arrived in DC by car in the afternoon after driving all the way from Geneseo, IL over 2 days. First I opened the rest of my birthday gifts. I want to thank everyone who gave me a gift! It means a lot to me that people care enough about me to listen to me and spend their valuable time and money on me. Afterwards we finished our light day by eating at Al's Steakhouse and Dairy Godmother's in Del Ray in Alexandria.

Friday, May 24th
Today was the day we explored the National Mall by foot. We woke up bright and early at 6 :00 AM. We were at the National Mall by 8:00 AM. It was cold (about 60°F) and windy. It was similar to the weather when Mary and Gail visited me. We hit the Washington Monument, Korean War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Albert Einstein Statue, and Constitution Garden. The Einstein statue was new. There was a group of school children taking pictures of the statue. They were taking a long time. So we left without taking many picture of the statue and none with us in the pictures. Also at the Lincoln Memorial, I was put in charge of my Grandma's camera. This way she would get the best pictures, enjoy all the sites, and the group would be able to move quicker. Over the entire time of the trip, I took over about 350 pictures. She will have a fun time sorting through them. There are some funny pictures and many pictures to look through. Hopefully the person behind her in line to use the photo machine at Wal-Mart will not be too upset with her when she takes so much time at the photo machine. :-)

Then we went to the American History Museum, Art Sculpture Garden, Air and Space Museum, US Botanic Gardens, and Grant Statue in front of the reflecting pool by the Capital. At the American History Museum, we saw Old Glory (flag at Fort McHenry, which the US National Anthem inspired), Julia Child's kitchen, and First Lady's Inaugural Ball Gowns. At the Air and Space Museum, one of the highlights for me was seeing the drones including the predator drones the US military uses. Also we took a guided tour, which we were not able to finish because the guide went so far in depth and it was tough to just stand for so long after we had walked such great distances. The US Botanic Garden was nice and had a bunch of exotic and native plants.

Next we went to the Old Post Office Pavilion where on the 12th floor we were able to get a wonderful view of DC.

Saturday, May 25th
Today was our Trolley Day. We purchased all day passes for Old Town Trolleys to take us where we wanted to go. However we were still ended up walking 6.86 miles. Our first locations were on the Green Line: National Zoo, National Cathedral, Georgetown, and Embassy Row.

Before we got to our first stop, the National Zoo, we passed by the hotel where the attempted assassination of Reagan took place. Once we got to the Zoo we saw the most famous animal in the Zoo, the panda. We were lucky to arrive when we arrived. A zookeeper threw a stick a bamboo right in front us and the panda raced towards it to chow down. It sat there patiently right in front of us as we took great pictures. Some of the pictures can be seen below. Then we saw some elephants, seals, eagles, otters, farm animals, and orangutans. The Zoo is much better than I thought it would be after spending enough time to see all of the areas of the Zoo. I was able to get 4 rolls of toilet paper people were handing out.

Next we went to the National Cathedral. I learned it has a school where you can send your kid for only $60k per year. This is a massive cathedral in the 13th century Gothic style. It is built on the highest ground in the DC area. Some of the highlights of the building are the Rose window (over 10,000 individual pieces of glass, changes color throughout the day as the sun moves through the sky), space window (stained glass window with space scene and actual moon rock), Woodrow Wilson burial site in the church, pulpit where MLK gave his last sermon, and Darth Vader sculpted into the building. I have to say it was an interesting and eerie place. Some pictures can be seen below.

We rode the trolley back to our starting location to get to the Orange line Trolley through Embassy Row and Georgetown. In Georgetown you can buy a house for $9 million. There is also a 9 foot wide house in Georgetown. Embassy Row is cool. The bus driver went about 5 minutes straight without a break telling us which country an Embassy building belongs.

Once we arrived back to the starting point, we got on the Orange line to give ourselves a break. The orange line travels around the National Mall. So we were able to see some new buildings and building we saw the day before. After the loop and stop at Crumbs Bake Shop for a cupcake (not as good as Red Velvet, Georgetown Cupcakes, or Alexandria Cupcakes) we went to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. It had wax figures of all of the presidents and figures of entertainers and sports figures. Most of the figures looked really life like. This was true from a distance and up close. I got a picture with Ovy (Alex Ovechkin), the Caps star player. The last stop for us was the Hard Rock Cafe in DC. Then we went back to the hotel.