Trip of a Lifetime: Day Two

Ok so Day #2. We stayed in Baltimore the first night then woke up early to drive to Arlington, Virgina.

Arlington is literally right across the Potomac River from D.C. 

Totally saw the National's ballpark. The day before we saw Orioles and Ravens, too.

Ok so this is when you are heading into the Arlington Cemetary, I'm sure many of you history buffs recognize this view. The house you see up there on top of the hill is the Arlington Mansion which I'll get to in a minute.

This place is so sacred and peaceful. People are respectful and quiet which is such a cool thing to be around especially when you just came from D.C. where everyone is loud and pushy. Everywhere you go there isn't an end to tombstones it seems, its definitely breathtaking to see.

These are the Kennedy graves. On the far left is their infant son who only lived two days, then President John F. Kennedy, Jaqueline Kennedy, then on the right is their stillborn daughter. You can see inside the circle above their graves is a small fire burning, it constantly burns in honor of him.

We then went up the Great Wall of China {or so it felt} and finally got to the top of the hill where the Arlington Mansion is. (Remember from the picture at the beginning) This piece of land was originally owned by George Washington Custis, who is the step-grandson of President George Washington.

He inherited Arlington and built the Arlington mansion in honor of the President. Only one of George Washington Custis' children lived, a daughter, who coincidently married the famous General, Robert E. Lee. Even though it is called the Arlington Mansion, this is technically the Lee home where they raised 6 kids. They have a room with his uniforms in it which is cool.

This is the front room. Unfortunately they just happened to be restoring a lot of the furniture so when you walked into rooms you just had to look at the pictures to see what the room looked like normally. But it seriously is a gorgeous house!! Also, because of the earthquake they had last summer they wouldn't let us into the upstairs...big bummer.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We timed it right so that we also got to watch the changing of the guard which was way neat. I can't even imagine having to pace for hours in that uniform in the hot summer sun. But it is such a neat place and you can tell they take it seriously and consider it an honor.

Something I never knew, they have schools come on fieldtrips and they have four students walk out with the Captain and place a new wreath on the grave. Below is the picture of one of the soldiers bringing down a new wreath.

The Tomb of the Unknown soldier is located right by the new Ampitheater that makes you feel like you are in Rome or something. It is like pure white stone and absolutely huge. The architecture is gorgeous, it really does make you feel Greek or from Rome or something, very cool.

These are the steps you stand on when watching the changing of the guard. You can see the soldier pacing on the black carpet.

After Arlington we went and got lunch in the beautiful city of Arlington and did a first for me....

..we ate at Cheesecake Factory!!!! Oh my goodness, it was heaven. Kind of funny I had to go all the way across the country to finally try it.

Then we went and finished visiting a couple of things in DC. After walking more than 20 blocks (these blocks are bigger than you think) we came across this....

EINSTEIN!!!

Archives of the United States which is the house of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Unfortunately you cannot take any pictures inside so this is me outside the building.

And finally we finished the day by visiting the Washington D.C. temple. It is so gorgeous, kinda reminds me of Provo mixed with Logan or something. It is set in the middle of thick trees so you literally just feel alone and clean from the outside suburbs of D.C.

This was an exhausting day. But it was absolute heaven to walk among  the places that our founding fathers once were. Memorials, museums, buildings that you learn about in textbooks and movies are sitting right in front of your face. It's insane, I am absolutely loving life right now. 

Tomorrow: Gettysburg.