Washington DC and East Coast Vacay

Ben was upset he couldn't go inside the house to visit and wondered why the first family wouldn't come to the windows to wave at everyone. Then they were entertained by counting all the snipers on the White House roof and waving at them. 

There is truly no more perfectly patriotic place to be than here during the 4th of July weekend. So glad Chris planned this for us all. 

The Vietnam Memorial ... If you look on the far right you see the lady tracing the name of her loved one on the wall. 

German Restaurant in Hagerstown, VA

Walked on a trail in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Appotomax Courthouse where Lee surrendered and confederacy was no more. We learned more about the civil war in the 3 days than you could possibly learn. It was neat!  

Cannon at Fort Manasas 

Blue Ridge Mountains scenic drive 

The amazingly powerful WWII Memorial around Bedford, VA. Our tour guide had us all in tears. His dad survived D-Day and he gave a powerful account of his dad's memories of that fateful day. His dad never talked about the war and he never even knew his dad fought in D-Day until this memorial was built. He asked his dad how he survived d-day and his father said by burying himself in the sand and then hiding behind dead soldiers. This was why he never talked about it because he felt ashamed. Sad to think his father lived most of his life not knowing he was a hero. 

We really liked the mountains in Virginia... So beautiful! 

Learned a lot about President Woodrow Wilson in his presidential library in Staunton, Va. This town was so adorable! 

Inside a replica of a WWI trench 

Visited the University of Virginia 

Woodrow Wilson presidential library 

The first night Chris won by a large margin. The second night the boys wanted a rematch so they found another putt putt golf place and Ben only lost by one stroke 

Wow. We had no idea how enormous the Iwo Jima monument is. So wonderful to see. 

Arlington National Cementary 

Very symbolic statue at the entrance of Arlington National Cemetery 

Williamsburg, Va ... This was a town focused on the early American colonies. We had tickets for the reinactments at Gettysburg but they were canceled due to potential thunderstorms. 😐

I couldn't help but think of Tropic Thunder with this statue 😕😞

We also visited Thomas Jefferson's Monticello plantation.  it was beautiful! He truly felt compelled to bring the world's knowledge to all of those around him. 

We stopped by George Washington's home as well. I didn't realize the full extent of how selfless and what a true hero he was until now.