DC day two

After a quick breakfast at Starbucks and people asking us for money we headed out on our adventures for the day.

Let me just say this about the homeless. LOTS AND LOTS of homeless people in the Capitol Hill area panhandling. Shaking cups at you as you walk by or even coming up to you asking for money. Some are slumped over the newspaper stands in the morning sleeping on their feet. Some are living in BIG cardboard boxes on the sidewalk with sheets over the top of the box. Others wonder around talking to God knows who. Very sad and I am guessing the numbers will grow.

Ok, back to our events of the day. We went to moleville, the Metro, and headed to Ford's Theater. Very cool place but they did not even mention that this theater is not the "original" theater in their presentation. It is in the "original" spot but is a replica but still cool to see. The other thing I found interesting was that the National Park Service takes care of the property and tours. I guess they do more than just parks! The theater box in the picture is decorated the same as the night that Lincoln was assassinated. The ONLY ORIGINAL item in the box is a picture of George Washington in a gilded frame. Again, still cool to see.

We then headed to the Old Post Office Museum to go up in the clock tower tour. We passed all sorts of buildings on the way to this museum and one was the IRS building which we found humorous. The clock tower tour was a self guided tour with the highlight going up into the clock tower to see the views! Very cool. There was a National Parks Ranger up in the tower answering all the questions that were asked. The highlight while we were there was the Presidential helicopter take off from the White House. I guess there are always three helicopters that fly together so you never know which one the President is in once they are up in the air. We saw the other two join the one that took off from the "backyard" of the White House. This would be as close as we would get to seeing him. We later learned the First Family was headed to Camp David.

(The tower on this building is where the clock tower tour took place)

Arlington Cemetery was our next stop and of course we went to "moleville" first then under the Potomac River, yes, under the river..UGH! Anyway, we did the sightseeing bus there as it is a LOT of walking. Amazing place and very moving. From seeing the Kennedy's graves to the changing of the guards this is all very surreal to see. Why did they pick this place for the cemetery? There is a house at the top of the hill at Arlington called the Custis-Lee house. This is where Robert E Lee and his family lived. During the Civil War they needed a place to bury the dead and so it was decided to bury the hundreds of dead as close to the Lee plantation as possible so it was a constant reminder of the war. The Lee's never lived in the house after the war and later a Lee family member sued the government for taking their land to which the government paid $158,000 to the Lee family. The view from this hilltop is amazing.




We headed back to the hotel to freshen up before meeting up with one of Liz's, Kris's sisters, former students, Leo. Leo works in the Congressional budget office in DC. We ate outside on a patio at a little French place. I had the rabbit that was recommended by Leo and it was not to disappoint. Very good food. We parted ways with Leo, but would see him again at another tour during our stay, and headed to our next stop which was to see the Capitol Steps. They are a comedic, musical, group that poke fun at all the current events going on in the world. Very FUNNY!

It was then off to bed after a LONG day of site seeing!