Next to Last Week!

(This post is a bit out of order, but I don't know how to fix that. It should be above the 4th of July post.)
Because Hayley's friend, Megan, was here last week we got to re-visit some of our favorite places. We also saved some things just for her visit, like the elevator ride to the top of the Washington Monument. It was amazing to see the view! We felt like we were saying goodbye to old friends.


To the West: the WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Constitution Gardens, Arlington Bridge, Roosevelt Island, and the Kennedy Center.

To the East: the United States Capitol, the Supreme Court (back left), and the Library of Congress (back right).

T0 the South: the Tidal Basin, Jefferson Memorial, 14th Street Bridge, and Ronald Reagan International Airport.



To the North: the White House.


Farther to the North: the LDS Temple. Isn't that cool?!

This is the Declaration of Independence in the National Archives. It was amazing to see the originals of these incredible documents.

Mara, Mark, and Jeffrey and I bought hot dogs from a street vendor and shared with a squirrel in the sculpture garden. Mark was astounded that we actually bought lunch from a vendor! We never buy lunch!

A sea turtle in the National Aquarium. We don't recommend the aquarium. It was rather underwhelming.


We got to go to the National Zoo one more time! And Mount Vernon too (my fifth time!)


The most incredible thing we did last week was take a tour of the White House and Capitol with Senator Bennett's (R-Utah) wife. We met her at church and she generously offered to take us for a personal tour to places that the general public doesn't get to go. It was a highlight of our entire 4 months here! This is a hallway in the Senate wing of the Capitol. It was beautifully painted. The artist worked on the Capitol for 25 years.

This is the room where the Senate Appropriations Committee meets. It was very beautiful. We got to ride the underground tram from the Senate offices to the Capitol! We saw Senator Leahy, Senator Bennett, and Senator McCain! We also got to see the House in a voting session. It was chaotic! And very interesting.

We are glad you came Megan! We got to revisit our favorite places!