The National Zoo

The National Zoo was a highlight for Katie. We all enjoyed seeing the animals, especially the pandas. We definitely got to thaw out that day as the temp was about 97 degrees with about 100% humidity.

Marine Band Concert

We attended the summer Friday night Marine Band concert. To our surprise, the special guest for the evening was President Obama! The marines and the audence were quite excited. Security was at its highest as there were guards on rooftops and a helicopter would fly over every little bit. As you can see it was hard to get a good photo of the president. The Marine band concert was one of Megan's favorite things that we did. You can see why as they gave her an escort in and she got a photo with the drum major. They even tried to recruit her after the concert.

Rayburn House Office Building

We visited Debra's cousin Lara Battles who works for Congressman Ike Skelton of Missouri and she is the press secretary for the Armed Services Committee. We visited them in the Rayburn building across the street from the Capitol. We got a special tour from Lara and got to visit a hearing room. I loved sitting in the "big chair" and using the gavel!

Supreme Court

After the Capitol, we went across the street to the Supreme Court. Washington DC is full of tall pillars and lots of marble!

The Capitol

Our first stop was the US Capitol. You enter the new visitor center from underneath the capitol. At the capitol, the tour takes you to see the beautiful rotunda or dome, the "old" senate chamber, and visitor center exhibits. We had gallery passes to see a senate session also but no cameras, phones, food or umbrellas are allowed in the gallery!

The Journey Begins

This summer (2009) I am taking a graduate class on blogs, wikis, and other new web tools, One of the requirements of the class is to create a blog. I decided to use this assignment as a way to share my family's visit to Washington DC in July with friends and family. As a library media specialist, I assign students to do research on landmarks around the world. Many of the places we visited are places that my students have researched. Hopefully this blog will not only share my experiences but will add to my students research and final projects.