We left on Friday afternoon and drove to our hotel. The kids played in the pool and had a great time. After dinner Mike left for the temple (it was his turn). He left an hour and 15 minutes before the last session. It was suppose to be a 25 minute drive, so we doubled it, we know DC traffic (or we thought we did). What we didn't know was the construction schedule. At 8:15 (15 minutes before the last session) Mike was still 20 minutes from the temple so he turned around and came back. It seemed like a waste to be in DC and not get some time at the temple! We shook it off and went to bed. We were up early and arrived at the metro station to an almost full parking lot. Luckily we've done this before (see my 9/12 post from last year) and we knew it would be crazy. We had bought our metro tickets the day before. We avoided the half mile line to buy the tickets and jumped into the large crowd to get on an already overflowing train. We squeezed on and had a great trip into the city. I loved the metro trips. Everyone is going to the rally and it so fun to talk to everyone about where they are from and why they came. Someone always offers me a seat because of the kids and some kind stranger is holding at least one of my other children. We got off into a hot and crowed station. It took a half hour to get out! It was worth it though. We walked to the Lincoln memorial first and sat behind the stage for a wile, but couldn't hear. We went around the crowd and found a spot about halfway to the Washsington memorial and sat on the side and listened. I loved Sarah Palin's speech. After an hour we walked the rest of the way to the Washington Memorial to see the huge crowd and get a feel for the layout. It was awesome. We really enjoyed the rally and the best part is all the kind and good people gathered with you. It's so inspiring to see so many people who feel the way you do. I have to say that our first rally on 9/12 last year seemed more awe inspiring and I think had more people - but this one was good too. The most frustrating thing is that the reports on attendance our insultingly low. CBS news reports 87,000 people in attendance. If you count the buses that came alone that would be close to 500,000 and then there are those that drove and flew in...I think the park rangers estimate of 650,000 is more accurate. They did this to us last time too - reporting 30,000 people when there had to have been 800,000 or more. Anyway - it was such an amazing experience.
We ate our lunch and walked to the Smithsonian Natural History museum. We looked at mammals, the ocean, and dinosaurs (Calvin's favorite, he could name all the skeletons) and then realized that Mike had lost his very expensive phone with irretrievable data on it for work. It kind of sucked the fun out the museum. We could track the approximate location of his phone with my phone - but you can't really walk through a crowd of people and ask them all to empty their pockets. The phone eventually left DC and settled in Arlington, then the battery died. So sad. The drive home was good and the kids were well behaved. It was good a weekend, but disappointing to miss the temple and lose the phone.
We love being so close to DC and being able to go participate in these things. Mike goes several times a year on his own, but we feel it's important for our children to have this experience as well. Going and doing and being there is important - but oh it's a lot of work!
Behind the stage looking towards the Washington Memorial.
The view of the stage and the Lincoln Memorial behind it.
The kids - Lilah is actually smiling, not crying (click on the picture). Madeline was not in a good mood.
All of us
Mike took 'giant' pictures of the kids next to the Washington Monument (or in Calvin's case the George Washington Monument)
Anna Elise's 'giant' picture.
Lilah's 'giant' picture. She is 'roaring' at Mike.
Madeline was hiding behind this tree during lunch. She was poking her sandwich with a stick and then licking the peanut butter off the stick. Yes, it's gross, but she was quiet and happy while doing it!
Very cool dinosaur bones!
