DC Trip (in its entirety)

Here is my United States Trip that I took this summer.   I promised to tell many of you about it, but here it finally is:

On Friday, July 14th, we left our home early in the morning.  That day we drove to Omaha, Nebraska, which ended up being a thirteen-hour drive.  The next morning we went swimming, and then we started to drive again.  

We drove to Findlay, Ohio, which is where my dad’s best friend from high school lives.  On the way there, we stopped outside of Chicago and ate a Chicago dog.  It was kind of an interesting experience because we stopped in a weird spot.  We decided to go all out and get all of the toppings, so was kind of nasty to look at, but we all just decided to eat it.  They ended up being pretty good.  We didn’t get to Findlay, which is about 1-½ hours north of Columbus, Ohio, until 4 in the morning.

The next day was my brother’s birthday.  We hung out, took a tour of Findlay, and went to church that day.  My favorite thing that we did, though, was to catch fire flies that night.  It was so much fun!!!  I think it’s so sad that we don’t have them in Utah.  It’s great fun to run around and catch as many as you can.  We filled up a mason jar with them, and then had a great time taking the jar into the dark basement and watching them glow.

On Monday, the 17th, we went to some LDS church sites.  We went to Kirtland, Ohio, and did tours of things in that area.  We had a tour in the Kirtland Temple, which was very interesting.  Towards the end of it, we got to sing “The Spirit of God” in the room where it was dedicated.  It was so cool!   Then we drove to Hirum, Ohio, where the Johnson Farm is located (Funny side note: we went to Wendy’s to eat lunch.  We did the drive through, and when we gave the lady the order, she had to keep repeating it because she didn’t believe how much food we were getting.  It made us all laugh so hard).  I really enjoyed the tour of the Johnson Farm.  I love thinking about the amazing things that happened at different places and how famous people were once standing the exact place as you are.  That night we drove to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh was a very pretty city, and I loved looking at its skyline as we drove through.  That day we drove to Gettysburg.  I really enjoyed learning about the Civil War, and it was cool to go see this site where such a crucial battle took place.  We were able to do the driving tour and walk around the National Cemetery.  It’s humbling to see how many people gave their lives so that we could have the freedoms we enjoy.  It was cool to see where Lincoln gave his speech and read the Gettysburg Address.  That night, we drove to Washington DC.  It was so exciting to see it!  We took to wrong exit, so we got to drive around by the Pentagon, and the buildings over there, that night.  We were staying at my cousin’s house in Alexandria, Virginia, which is about 10 minutes out of DC.

On Wednesday we had tickets to go up in the Washington Monument.  I think it’s so much fun to drive into the center of DC, over by the Mall.  There are so many beautiful buildings around.  We lined up, and then rode an elevator up into the Washington Monument.  We were 500 feet up and the view from the top was incredible.  You could see everywhere around DC, and it was one of my favorite things we did on the trip.  On the way down, they showed up some of the stones that different states had carved and donated to the building of it.  The ranger told us that people couldn’t walk up and look at these any more because people had been breaking and destroying them.  That really bugged me.  I just can’t understand how people don’t really have any sense.  Like, maybe they think it’s cool to have a piece of it, or something, but I can’t imagine people doing that at the cost of ruining such an important landmark.  Then, we hiked around DC.  We went over to the old Smithsonian Castle.  After that we went to the National Archives.  We listened to a fascinating exhibit called “Eyewitness.”  It had first hand accounts of famous events from people that were there.  We left that exhibit and went and saw the Magna Carta.  It was so old, and it was cool to be able to see it.  Then we lined up to see the famous American documents.  The rooms was dimmed, to help to preserve them, and it really added to the feeling of how important these things were.  We went up and got to see original copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.  I thought it was so amazing, and it really hit me, as I was reading them, how important they are and what a difference they’ve made in, not only my life, but also millions and millions of other people’s lives.  When we were finished there, we went back home.  That night we returned and walked the Mall.  Walking through the Mall, at night, is one of my favorite things to do.  I love having the giant, stone monuments lit up against the dark background (well, as dark as DC ever is).  We went to the Washington Monument, again, the WWII monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial.  It was kind of sad because even though it was dark and late at night, it was still incredibly hot and humid.  I love those memorials so much.  One of the best parts is reading the quotes.  I also love how solid all of it feels.  The memorials give off such a feeling of strength and stability, and that gives me great comfort.

On Thursday, we hung out at the house for a long time.  Then I went into town with my Dad, my brother, Adam, and my sister, Emily.  We went to the Smithsonians.  First, we went to the American History Museum.  We thought it was funny because the building says, “History and Technology” (or something to that effect).  We figured that originally they could fit History and Technology into one place, but now it’s just American History.  They can’t go and change it now, though, because it’s truly “written in stone.”  I love looking at the historic artifacts and reading about them.  Some of the things that people’ve kept make me laugh.  I mean, who would honestly think to stuff and save George Washington’s horse??  When we were finished there, we went to the Air and Space Museum.  That was cool, too, though it made my dad kind of freak out.  He felt so overwhelmed because there really is so much to read and see, and it’s not like they have big signs showing you where the important stuff is because it’s all really cool and has some historic value.  We then headed to the Natural History museum.  The gems and minerals are so cool!  The Smithsonians do such a good job with all of their exhibits and museums.  We wandered around in the N.H. museum for a while.  Then we went to the National Archives again.  We went back to the Eyewitness exhibit.  I can officially say that I read and saw everything in an exhibit.  I was able to get all of it done.  When we were done there, we went to go get something to eat.  We were all really tired, hungry, and our feet ached.  We realized that we had been on our feet for eight hours.  We went farther downtown and went to McDonalds.  It was an interesting experience because almost everyone in there was black.  There was nothing wrong with it, but it was a change from what I was used to.  

On Friday, we had a Capitol Tour.  That was very cool.  We had a great tour guide that showed us tons of different things and did a good job explaining everything.  There’s nothing boring in the capitol.  Everywhere you look, there’s something interesting (for example, all of the ceilings in the hallways are painted with different things about America and above all of the doorways there are quotes.)  We then met my cousin downtown and ate lunch.  Next we went to the Library of Congress.  Before going on the tour, I really had no idea what it was, but now I think it’s amazing.  We did the tour, and I learned lots of interesting things.  There are over 30 million books in that library!  It’s the biggest library, book wise, in the world, and it’s the second biggest if you add up all the other things in it (England’s is first).  We then did some more of the Smithsonians and went home again.

Saturday proved to be kind of stressful.  We had to clean up the house, and then we drove to Philadelphia.  We missed our tour, so we had to wait until later to go on the general tour.  When we first got into Philly, we got sucked into Chinatown.  It seemed like a rough, scary place, and it freaked all of us out.  Then we went over to the historic sites, and it was okay again.  We saw the Liberty Bell, which was very cool.  While we were in that visitor’s center, it started to rain like we couldn’t believe.  It down poured for about half an hour.  Then we ran over to Independence Hall.  We went into that, and we also did a tour of Congress Hall, which is the building next to Independence Hall.  I didn’t even know Congress Hall existed until we went there, but many important things happened there, such as George Washington (and many others) being inaugurated as presidents.  That night we drove to New York City, to stay with my dad’s aunt.  

We had to leave early to get to church on Sunday morning.  We went downtown to the ward that’s in the same place as the Manhattan Temple.  When we left, we had a scary experience, that made me freak out about New York.  We were walking down the street, to our car, and a true crazy lady started walking up the street, towards us.  She was already swearing before she got to us, but when she saw us, she started to yell at us.  She was screaming and cussing at us, and it was really spooky.  To have this be the first thing that had really happened downtown was not good.  Then we met up with my Dad’s other aunt, and we went midtown.  We parked our van on Park Avenue ((), and then walked over to the Empire State Building.  We waited in line, and then went up to the top.  It gave such an incredible view of New York.  We listened to “Tony the cab driver” who told you all about the things you were seeing.  That was very interesting.  When we went down, we walked all over New York.  It was the most perfect day.  There was no humidity and a slight, cool breeze blew for lots of the time.  It was incredible.  We walked up 5th avenue, from the Empire State Building, to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.  We then headed over to Rockefeller Plaza.  Since my aunt works there, we were able to go up in the building.  It was very cool.  We then went and walked more of New York.  We went to Times Square and saw Broadway.  I think this was my favorite day of the whole trip.

On Monday, we had tickets to go to the Statue of Liberty.  We drove down to 19th avenue and parked our van.  We then walked through the Meat Packing District (which was a very … interesting experience) to get to the subway.  When we got there, we sat and waited for the train.  We found out that we had to be on one of the first five trains to get off at our station, so we had to run to get on.  Everything went well once we were finally on the subway, though.  We got off and went to get on the ferry.  It was very pretty to see the New York skyline as we went on the ferry.  The Statue of Liberty was very cool.  We had a tour, so we were able to go inside of it.  It’s kind of sad how much thing’s changed and how tight they have to be with security.  We were only able to go up to the pedestal on her, instead of all of the way up.  We went to Ellis Island, but didn’t get off the ferry.  We rode the subway and walked to Ground Zero.  It was very sad to think about the horrible things that had happened there.  There was a memorial for it on a fire station that was nearby.  We rode the subway again and went back to my other aunt’s house.

On Tuesday morning we drove to Palmyra, New York.  It took most of the day to get there.  During the drive, we saw some of the funniest names of places (Schenectady).  We saw the Grandon printing press while we were in Palmyra.  Then we went out to the Smith Farm.  That was amazing, and the spirit was so strong.  We went on the tour and saw their houses.  Then we went into the Sacred Grove, which was one of my favorite parts of this trip.  We also went to the Hill Cumorah.  That night we drove to Buffalo.

We went swimming at the hotel in Buffalo.  Then we went to Niagara Falls.  We brought our birth certificates, so we went to the Canadian side.  The Falls were so amazing!  It’s so big, and there is so much power there that it’s breath taking.  We then drove through Canada to get to Detroit, which was where we had to turn to get to Findlay, again.  It was kind of disconcerting to be driving on the Freeway and have it say 100 kilometers per hour.  We drove in Canada for a long time.  It was cool to see the Great Lakes.  They’re so big!!!  When we got to Detroit, it was raining VERY hard again.  We then drove down to Findlay, where we stayed the night.  

The next day we drove to Nauvoo Illinois.  We started really early in the morning (4 am).  Our main goal in going to Nauvoo was to see the Nauvoo Pageant.  We drove around Nauvoo, for a bit, when we got there.  We went to the Red Brick Store and the Smith family graves.  Then we went over by the temple.  It was so beautiful!  We did games and activities before we sat down and watched the pageant.  Though it was towards the end, the Nauvoo pageant ended up being one of my favorite parts.  It had such an incredibly message.  When it got dark, the lights didn’t come on in the temple, but towards the end of the production, the lights were turned on, and it was spectacular.

On Friday morning, my parents went to the Nauvoo temple and then did some gift shopping.  I hung out with the kids in our room.  When they got back, we drove to Lincoln, Nebraska.  We wanted to go there because it had Disney Channel, and our new found favorite show, “Hannah Montana.”  That night we had a Disney Channel marathon and watched TV until really late.  

The next morning we went swimming and watched more TV.  This was our final day of the trip, and we began our long drive home.  We drove for a long time, and then, just outside of Cheyenne, our car started having problems.  The car would lose all power and die, but when we turned it off, it would start up again.  We took it to a shop, where they worked on it for hours.  They took out tons of things and tested them, but everything seemed to be working fine, and they couldn’t come up with anything that was wrong with it.  My dad really didn’t want to miss another Sunday, but we didn’t know what to do because we didn’t want to break down in the middle of Wyoming, with no help and a van full of kids.  We said a prayer, though, and headed home.  Everything ended up working perfectly.  We got home at 5:15 am.  

So, there’s my killer trip.  Since we arrived home on Sunday, it ended up being 17 days, but we were technically gone 16 days.  It was so incredible, and I absolutely loved it!!!