September 12, 2009 The Great Tea Party March on DC

(EDIT Picture has disappeared because it might not be from the 9-12 march. Oh the joys of internet info....)

We did it. We survived our trip to DC. Me, just barely and only with a small shred of sanity left. Why did I ever think taking all 4 kids by myself on such a journey would be a good thing?

We arrived in DC early Thurs afternoon. Checked into our hotel and headed out to visit the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and the White House. My kids being who they are did a "we came, we saw, we took a few pictures" type of tour. They did ask some questions about each place, but if they had had to sit and listen to a tour guide giving the history of each place we would've been in trouble. We saw the Presidential motorcade zip by, and ran into some feisty ladies who were there for Sat's events. By the end of the day, we were very tired, our legs and feet were aching, and we all fell asleep quite early.

Friday we spent the day at Mount Vernon, where the children were so awful to one another and me that I thought I would burst into tears on several occasions, and then headed Arlington Cemetery. We did get to experience the DC Metro and a taxi cab ride too. The boys were entranced by the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. Daniel still clicks his heels together imitating them. I decided a walk home across the bridge into DC would be fun. On the way we stopped at the Vietnam Wall. We feel into bed absolutely exhausted again that night with many complaints of why do we have to walk everywhere?

Saturday morning came. We had planned on getting out to Freedom Plaza at 8:30am, but were 1/2 hour late. By the time we got there it was already PACKED. There were already thousands and thousands of people there. The state of Florida and those representing FL actually got to lead the march. There were so many people that the march started 1 1/2 hours early. We headed down Pennsylvania Ave. towards Capitol Hill. The street was completely packed with people. It took about an hour to walk the distance. We sat and listened to the speakers for about an hour, then turned to head back. 3 hours after the march started, the street was still packed to capacity with people coming to Capitol Hill. The entire Capitol lawn, the mall, the street, side streets, Penn Ave and the area from Capitol Hill to the Washington Monument was packed full of people showing their dislike for what the fed's and White House have been doing.

Don't believe any report you hear that says "tens of thousands". It has been estimated by the park service and others that there were approximately 1.5 to 2 million people in attendance. It was historical. People from all walks, ages, and all 50 states of our great country were there. People from all cultures and races united in letting the gov't know enough is enough already.

We had a quick nap, had lunch, then headed to the Holocaust Museum. As we left the museum we saw Marine One (POTUS helicopter) landing at the White House. It took all of the restraint I had not to send a fine middle finger salute to the occupants.

Sunday morning we went to the National Aquarium (which we all agreed was the "lamest" aquarium we have been to) and then went to the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian. Finally something that the kids all enjoyed. The boys especially were enthralled by the bug exhibit. Jacob held a hissing cockroach, Dan a tobacco worm, and we all really enjoyed going into the butterfly exhibit. I had an extremely large owl butterfly land on the back of my leg. He didn't seem interested in leaving. Finally it was time to say good-bye to DC. We headed back to the hotel for our shuttle to the airport. Remind me to NEVER fly through Dulles again. Kyrie especially took to the Asian woman in line behind her who kept pushing and shoving with "no regards to personal space" as Kyrie put it. If you knew our friend Tracy Ford (BIG guy) who traveled to China frequently for work, and his stories about their issues with too much space in any line, you would know why I was laughing so much at her.

I know I keep saying I'll post pics from way back in June. Obviously I am a bit behind on that. I just hate having to load one at a time. I've tried to install smilebox but have an issue with my firewall allowing access. So, once I figure out a different slide show that I can add, I promise I'll get all of our pics from the summer loaded.