Day 10: Washington DC, Gettysburg Battlefield

All of the other blogs have been updated with pictures! Go check them out! Now!


Today was a very long and exciting day! We were able to leave Gettysburg this morning and go to Washington DC with everyone in our super sweet matching orange shirts, and it was a blast! It started with meeting my new seat partner Kelsey from North Sevier. She has pins in her knee like I have pins in my wrist, and she even went to the Central Utah Health Clinic to get fixed, so we had a lot in common.

When we got to DC, they let us off at the National Mall next to the Air and Space Museum. We had almost 3 hours to do whatever we wanted before we had to meet back at the bus, and since I had already been to DC, I had an idea of where all the cool things were. I wanted to go to the National Archives, but the line was super long as you can see in the picture, so we decided not to go inside.
Instead we went to the National Garden of Art, and had fun by the pond before moving on to see a few more sculptures and deciding where to go next.



The Smithsonian Exhibit I enjoyed the most last time I was here was closed for renovation, so we headed to the Smithsonian Castle for some information on what the cool places to go were. On our way there Elysha was getting impatient because, understandably, she wanted to go see all of the cool places there were to see, but she kept pulling us around and changing her mind, so I stopped giving advice on where to go, and when we ended up in the Natural History Museum taking pictures of the elephant, we ran into Terrilyn and Anna, and the other Henry's, so Elysha decided to go off with them. After that, things went smoothly with Me, Cher, Al-Dawg, Cody, and Amanda.

We were able to go see the hope diamond and then walk through the Gems and Minerals exhibit. Since I had been there and seen the rocks 3 years ago, I decided it was time for some fun, random pictures because I had gotten all of the serious ones last time I was there. Alan made this happen, and we had an awesome day.
After the rock exhibit, we went to the *rawr* Dinosaur exhibit and had loads of fun. Alan held a Dinosaur and picked a Pteradactyl's nose, we all got eaten by a T-Rex head, and a little girl asked, "Why is everything here fake?!" which made me laugh pretty hard because we were at the Dinosaur, of all exhibits.
We finished up in the Natural History Museum and made our way back over to the Air and Space Museum to see R2D2 and CP30, who had sadly been moved last week to get ready in their new home, but we still had a party taking lots of random pictures, like Alan throwing rockets and acting like an astronaut. There was an actual astronaut suit we were able to touch, except for the visor, because its made of a thin layer of GOLD! Crazy stuff, but we got some cute astronaut pictures, but Alan has the one of mine because my batteries died, but I do have one of Cher.
I was able to find a street vendor and get a bunch of cool T-Shirts for my 2nd family, the Singletons. We jumped back on the buses and got dropped off at the Washington Memorial,
then walked up to the WWII Memorial,
and finally ended up at the Lincoln Memorial!
There were loads of us there, and we all looked like hunters in our sweet orange shirts.
We got back on the buses and headed back to Gettysburg to experience some wartime fun. An hour and a half and a much needed nap later, we were back in Gettysburg, and we were dropped off to get some dinner and see the town for fun and souveniers. The coolest thing was that we were able to see where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address.
While we were waiting for some other people, Alan showed me his hands. He biffed it hardcore yesterday morning when he was running back to the motel from the Sacred Grove. His left hand is all thrashed, and his right hand is really bruised, and you can see in this picture how his right pinky is way bigger than his left. I feel bad for the kid, but he says its worth it.
As we walked around Gettysburg, we came upon some interesting signs we couldn't pass up.
Then, looking through one gift shop, we found these sweet face mask headbands and had to take the photo opportunity.
Then, in the Visitors Center giftshop, another photo opportunity presented itself.
And another one (those binoculars are $130, I didn't dare touch).
While we were at dinner, yet another photo op literally drove past us. And we thought our tour was fun!
After dinner, they took us on a tour of the Battlefield, and when we were on the Union Side, Alan and Luke has to meditate on what had happened there.
Then, theres just a random picture of a bunch of my new friends from everywhere! Mostly Arizona though.
And, someone snapped this good lookin' picture of Me, Cher, and Taylor Brown from St. Johns.
As we were finally heading back to the motel, I was able to snap this picture of the authentic buildings.
So, all in all today was an intense day, but I loved it. As you can see, the pictures are finally back up and working, and thank goodness for that, because thats all I did today. DC is definitely one of my favorite places to visit, but I am so glad I was able to go there a few years ago and seriously have my Aunt Holly and cousins give me the deluxe tour over an entire week. It was way better than only having a few hours, so I don't feel like I missed out on much. Now I'm going to go update the last few blogs with more pictures, so don't be afraid to go check them out!!!