D.C./Virginia Day 4

In Transit
Originally uploaded by kyle_reardon

Well I'm having a bit of trouble uploading photos right now, sos we're going to have to stick with just this one photo. I guarantee there will be some more photos soon! And good ones, dear reader, good ones.

Well the ghost tour was postponed until next week, but that's okay, today was a big day. I woke up early and dropped my parents off at the airport— they're in Florida right now for a big Salvation Army youth event. Then I went home, took a minute to pray, and then wandered upstairs to begin my week with the little bros (bro's?). It was awfully exciting, I couldn't wait for the nine o'clock reduced metro fare to start. (See picture) 

Wes, David, and myself boarded the train and rolled down the track- past The Pentagon, through Arlington Cemetery, then finally... THE SMITHSONIAN. Today we crammed in three of the Smithsonian's.. smithians... smithikers... we went to three different museums. 

                                            

           Museum the first! The National Museum of Natural History. First, we wandered through the blacked bones of ancient beasts! Stood in awe of the monsters towering above us, their teeth turned to deadly stones, hungry for the flesh of innocents! Be they mere skeletons, true, but no less terrifying! Then we saw some rocks and stuff. The Hope Diamond was interesting, but I really dug the earrings worn by Marie Antoinette.

We then trudged through the heat across the Mall and peeked into "The Castle," the main information center for all the Smithsonians et. all. And guess who was there just to the left of the door to greet us! It was the remains of Smithson himself. Pretty wild, seeing his bathtub grave sitting on a pedestal right there. "Hey guys, you enjoying my museums? Yeah, it's cool, I'm just gonna chill out here. I'll see you later."

Then we blasted off to the National Air and Space Museum. Ha! Blasted off! Get it? Rocket ships and stuff! But do you know what they have there? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, he original Flyer, the first successful flying machine, designed by those kooky Wright Brothers. 

That's the thing about these museums. I almost don't believe any of it! I've lived so much of my life at Disneyland and Universal Studios, where everything was made to look like all the amazing things I was inches away from. Very few replicas, this is the Smithsonian, for history's sake, it's all real, all right there. Yes, that's the real Spirit of St. Louis. Yes, that's the Apollo 11 pod thing— it was in space, it burned through our atmosphere and landed in the ocean. Why would we put up a fake one?

Wild, all of it. Well tomorrow's the National Archives— expect some stuff about liberty or whatever. PS— what do you recommend, reader? Have you been to D.C. before? Is there something I absolutely should not miss? Let me know!