Will’s Washington DC

Washington DC will be our longest stop on this trip by a solid margin, so I will write in daily increments to remember what all we did. On the first day in the city, it was pouring rain for all 8 hours that we were there. We started off by bolting down the street to get to our tour of the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. At any given time, there is $300 Million in bills being printed, cut, or packaged. The Bureau gets their “paper” (75% Cotton and 25% Linen) from only one company called Crane Currency based in Dalton, Massachusetts. The Bureau is very picky about bills; they have a complex security system embedded in the bills to ensure that no counterfeit can be made. After our tour, we ate some breakfast at a cafe near the Holocaust Museum. After breakfast, we walked to the Washington Monument, only to find that we couldn’t get a time slot until later. We then got on a trolley to see the Arlington National Cemetery, where several Medal of Honor winners rest. The trolley eventually stopped within walking distance of John F. Kennedy’s grave. We walked up the steps and saw the eternal flame sitting next to his grave. In 20 minutes it was time to get back on the trolley to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The changing of the guard was certainly a unique experience. The job must’ve been very hard; walking for an hour without brushing any water off of your uniform. After we saw the change and the rest of the monument, we went back down to hop back on the trolley to go back to our starting point to figure out where we were. Next was the Lincoln Memorial. We read his quotes/letters and marveled at the size of the statue. Behind the Memorial was the non-Reflecting Pool because it was raining. We then ran back out in the rain to get a snack before hopping on another trolley tour. This tour was very informative; we saw where Restaurant Row was, The Smithsonian, The White House, and many more important places. After this tour though, we were all done with the pouring rain so we decided to go home without going to the Washington Monument (the tickets were free). It was a joyous day when we made it back to the trailer and the safety of indoors. We had a relaxing end to our day. 

Wednesday was our day to see the White House. Myra and I were abandoned in line because the rest of the family left to go use the restroom. We made it to the front of the line, however the family was still not back, so we went to the back again and were 20 min late for our tour, but it ended up being fine. In the White House, we learned about some iconic administrations and saw some china and furniture that had been used by various Presidents and First Ladies. Following this was the Green Room. It was exactly what you would think: The walls, furniture, and carpet were all a beautiful shade of green. Next was the Blue Room. The Blue Room was the same as the Green Room, but blue. In the Blue Room, a Secret Service worker told us how the Presidential Gingerbread House was made. It is carefully handcrafted by ~50 volunteers. Then, due to the fact that it can’t fit in the elevator, it is placed on two large carts and delicately wheeled out the back door, into a van which then drives around to the front of the White House, where it is brought in and placed on the table. It takes up the entire table.

Well… After the Blue and Green Rooms came the Red Room. After all of the colored rooms, (that was all) we filed into the East Room, used for holding interviews, balls, and other public events. It was a BIG room with minimal furniture to allow movement and mingling between people at these social events. This was the final room that Myra and I saw before meeting back up with Mom and Dad and Zina. We saw the Presidential Seal, and made our way out of the building. We then walked down the street to the Old Ebbet Grill. I had some AMAZING fettuccini. They were very, very good. After lunch, we went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, which had an incredible amount of exhibits featuring Presidents, First Ladies, Athletes/Entertainers, Activists and more. My favorite exhibit was the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Hall of American Culture. It focused on how American Icons used their fame and influence to address national issues such as racism and poverty. I also got to see the original American Flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the star spangled banner. Myra and I did a bracket of foods, deciding which foods were more American. Our winner was fried chicken. That was essentially what we did at the Smithsonian before hopping on the Metro and heading back to our truck to go home. See you tomorrow!

Thursday – We woke up and headed out at around 8:50. We headed into the Capitol Building. We were first greeted by our Rep’s assistant, who told us about himself and was very kind. After this, we met Michael Baumgartner, Representative of Washington. We took a picture together, and then started our tour of the building. After going through security and talking with the officers about basketball, our tour guide led us through the building. We saw a replica of the original Supreme Court, an early look at the House of Representatives before it burned down, and the famous marble rotunda that you may recognize. All pictures will be located at the bottom of the post, so make sure to read to the end. Our guide knew the building really well and told us about how each state had to give 2 statues to the building. That makes for a grand total of 100 statues, most of which are in the basement. Washington’s 2 gifted statues are of Marcus Whitman and Mother Joseph. After viewing many statues and works of architecture, we said goodbye to our guide and ate lunch at the building cafeteria. The food, for what it’s worth, was quite good. Following lunch, we found an entrance to the public transportation and headed home to swim. While swimming, we met two boys, about our age. We played some games with them and had a very good time. That summarizes our 3rd day in DC. 

On Friday, I got up and did some math as usual, and then the girls woke up and we headed out to the metro at ~10:00. After riding to the desired stop, we got out and headed into the National Archives. We waited in a line for about 5 minutes before we got to see the Charters of Freedom (AKA The Bill of Rights, The Declaration of Independence, and The Constitution). We read about the interlude in between the end of the Revolutionary War and the true beginning of the USA. At one point, it looked like this idea of freedom would all collapse and the country wouldn’t succeed. Thanks to many of the finest political minds ever such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and more, they were able to pull the country together and form a stable government. Some other documents that we got to see were the original tally of “electoral” (if you could call it that at this early stage) votes in the 1st presidential election, and letters from women’s civil rights activists to congress. Following that, we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, featuring the Hope Diamond, several skeletons of animals and art based on climate change. I think that one of the pieces of art was painted by a future Judith (who must’ve married a man named Peck), as she said some very impactful things on climate change and made some beautiful art to go with it.

By this point in time, it was 1:00, so the family reunited and ate lunch before walking over to the Edgar J. Hoover Building for our FBI tour. The FBI over the years has become very good at predicting problems; if they don’t predict them, they find them immediately and shut them down as efficiently as possible. The tour had several interactive activities which provided a surface level idea of what FBI workers do on a daily basis. After all the exhibits were some rattling stories of what the FBI has dealt with in the past, from kidnappings to bombings to murders. Following the stories was the 10 Most Wanted list, in which there were 3 main types of criminals; Terrorists, Drug Dealers, and Murderer/Gangsters. One of the people on the list has a name that means Innocent Man. The Most Wanted List marked the end of our tour, so after seeing the boat involved in the Boston Marathon bombing, we headed out and went home. Right as we arrived home, HUGE droplets of rain started to fall, and we made it inside just in time. We then ate dinner, and the rain stopped. I went outside and played basketball for a bit, and then came back to the trailer to keep up with the official execution of the Boston Celtics. It was a good run; get well soon JT. Thank you for reading the Friday edition of Washington DC by William Jolley. I hope you enjoyed it. 

On Saturday, Mom and Dad had the opportunity to go to the temple. I got up, said goodbye to them, and relaxed for the next 2 hours until they got back and Myra and Zina got up. We ate some breakfast, I played basketball for ~30 min, and then we went swimming. While swimming, I met a child, about Zina’s age, who was never taught the meaning of fear. He was just sending flips off of the side of the pool and couldn’t understand why I couldn’t do it with him. Following this, I joined Myra in the hot tub, and we relaxed there until Mom came back from Costco and told us that it was time to go to the Orioles game. Why not a Nationals game, you ask? Well, the Nationals (DC) were playing AT the Orioles (Baltimore) that night. We were very late to the game, and by the time we got there (3rd inning) it was already 7-0 Nats. It stayed that way until Orioles Catcher Adley Rutschman Doubled, and then Ramon Urias singled him home to make it 7-1. Following this, Heston Kjerstad hit another single, moving Urias into scoring position. The next man up was Ramon Laureano, who hit an RBI double over the head of CF Jacob Young, scoring Urias. Young almost made the catch at the warning track, but he couldn’t pull it off because he ran headlong into the wall, which stopped the game. Dylan Crews moved from RF to CF to replace him, and Alex Call entered the game in RF. (Update – the X-Rays on his shoulder came back negative. He is now day to day.) That was all that the Orioles did for that inning, and neither team scored in the 8th inning. In the top of the 9th, Jose Tena singled, and Alex Call sacrificed him to 2nd with a bunt, and CJ Abrams hit a sac fly to move Tena to third. James Wood was intentionally walked before Nathaniel Lowe (I want him to come to the Mariners) hit a 2-RBI Double to make the score 9-2. After Lowe was Keibert Ruiz who hit an RBI single to score Lowe and make it 10-2. The rally by the Nats seemed to put the game away, but the Orioles had other plans. After Ramon Urias grounded out to start the inning, the O’s rapped 3 straight singles, first from Kjerstad, next from Laureano, and finally from pinch hitter Jorge Mateo, scoring Kjerstad to make it 10-3. The coveted O’s prospect Jackson Holliday was up next, and on a 2-2 count, he hit a 390-foot missile to make the score 10-6. Unfortunately, after that, Ryan O’Hearn lined out and Gunnar Henderson struck out to end the game. We went home, and relaxed until Mom got back from shopping at 10:30, and then we went to bed. That marks the end of our Saturday. On Sunday, we were approximately 15 minutes late for church, but we made it in for the sacrament. The two people who spoke in the meeting showed a lot of faith in very different ways. The first speaker quoted a lot of talks and made a lot of analogies and explained how she had used the principle in her daily life. The second speaker didn’t use sophisticated language or analogies; he just spoke from his heart and showed why faith is the most important thing to have when going through trials. Sunday school was very nice; it was just a Q&A with the missionaries. Some very good and productive questions were asked in the lessons, and the missionaries encouraged us all to consider going on a mission. That was all that we did at church that day, and we had a very lazy rest of our day, which was capped off by a delicious teriyaki chicken. 

Monday was our final full day in D.C. The things that we had planned were the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space, and Ford’s Theatre (The site of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination). At the Smithsonian, my favorite exhibit showcased how American astronauts used skills of bravery and resilience to win the race to the moon. It had a very good film that was very detailed in the telling of how the Apollo program evolved until it finally fulfilled the end goal. After finishing up in the moon exhibit, I caught up with Mom, Myra, and Zina. They were in an area that had lots of information on how Americans achieved great speed and how speed is measured in different ways. It featured pilots, motorcyclists, NASCAR champions, daredevils, and more. The most interesting thing that I found in this exhibit was how knots were counted at sea in the past. Soldiers would tie knots in a rope at equal lengths (not sure how they even did 1) and throw the rope off of the back of the ship. Then, they would count the number of knots that went off of the back of the ship in a fixed amount of time, and that would tell them how fast the ship was going. That was about all that we did at the museum. We met up downstairs, exited the building, and grabbed some lunch. Once we were finished with lunch, we went to check out Ford’s Theatre. The museum there was very detailed as well. It highlighted not only Lincoln’s death, but the key things that he did in his life to be a happy person and get reelected. Next was the ranger talk, given in a replica of Ford’s Theatre (They still do plays). The ranger was very informed and taught us many things about the timeline of April 14, 1865. Lincoln was having a great day, and he was going to cap it off with some fun at the theatre. Just before the loudest line of the play, John Wilkes Booth peered through the peephole of the door that led into the Lincolns’ box. As the line was said, Booth burst into the presidential box with his single-shot Derringer pistol and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. That was his last conscious moment. Booth fled the scene by jumping/falling from the 2nd tier of seats onto the stage, where he said something in Latin that was super delusional (I can’t remember) and then ran out of the theatre and jumped on his horse. He would be shot down 12 days later. Well, on that note, it’s been fun to write about DC. I hope you enjoyed it all. Bye! Next: Lancaster, PA. Overall Rating: 8.5/10