Matt & Dani

We met up with Matt’s old co-worker Dan and his wife Martha this morning around 7:30 at the Washington Monument ticket center. After choosing tickets for a 2pm tour, we walked along the Mall for a while and chose to visit the American History Museum (one of the many Smithsonian Museums). We stopped first to see the ‘Star Spangled Banner’, the original flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore and the War of 1812. Originally sewn by Mary Pickersgill, the flag was given to the Smithsonian in 1912, the restoration effort began in 1999 and took 6 years to complete. Photos not allowed, sorry! We then visited the specialty Lincoln exhibit displaying the top hat he wore on the night of his assassination and copies of some of the legislature that he helped to pass, including the Emancipation Proclamation. Around noon we split up from Dan and Martha so that they could make their Capitol tour and we went on to visit the Holocaust Museum, to which we did not realize you needed timed tickets. After a walk through the public exhibits, we chose to head toward the Washington Monument and relax on the Mall lawn while awaiting our monument tour. The Monument tour was LAME! The views of DC from above were beautiful but not worth getting up so early to stand in line for. Martha and Dan wanted to walk the tidal basin so we went with them. This allowed us to capture the Jefferson and FDR Memorials in daylight, providing us with shots we had not been able to get the night before. We then made a brief stop at the Lincoln Memorial and decided to head back to our rooms to clean up for dinner. Around 7pm we met back up with Martha and Dan at Union Station for dinner. We had an enjoyable meal, the tastiest by far, and some good conversation. As we were all exhausted, we said goodnight and hopped back on the metro with plans to meet for coffee the next morning. -D