Weekend in Washington D.C.

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Last weekend, during President's Day Weekend, my family and I went to Washington D.C.

I've seen most of the tourist spots between my ten day stay in Baltimore/Washington D.C. through LeadAmerica's Law and Trial Advocacy Program back in 2005. What I hadn't seen then and really wanted to see was the Arlington National Cemetery [mostly for the eternal flame at JFK's grave site], but I did get to experience that a few years back with my parents and brother.

At that time, my other brother, Faraz, was residing in Canada.  He wanted to do a weekend in D.C. and see some of the things he hadn't seen before. As a family, we've seen some of the popular sites: last trip a few years back we did the tour of the Capitol, went to the Supreme Court, amongst a few other things.

But there's just something about Arlington National Cemetery. Second time around, it was just as neat to see. The eternal flame at JFK's grave site is something everyone should see, that's for sure. The Tomb of the Unknown is another part that is a must-see -- I talk more of that back in this post.

Other highlights from that day: watching "Journey to the Stars" at the Planetarium in the Air and Space Museum and the Washington Monument. We ended day one in D.C. with visiting the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial before heading back to Virginia for the night to spend time with the family.

Day Two: We started our second day off with walking through the Vietnam War Memorial on our way to visiting the Lincoln Memorial.

What I hadn't seen before this trip: the Newseum. We rounded off the trip with visiting the Newseum -- which was probably one of the main reasons we all wanted to go to Washington D.C. this time around. We spent several hours going through the six floors, but could definitely spend more time going through it more in detail. It's absolutely amazing, and something everyone needs to see. While most things in Washington D.C. are free of charge, the entrance fee for the Newseum, I'd say, is well worth the money. The best part is that the entrance fee is valid for two consecutive days... so well worth it for those who can spend the time. You won't regret it.

Arlington National Cemetery

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Happy New Year's everyone!

I hope 2011 is filled with great things for you and your loved ones.

On our way back from Virginia yesterday, we took an impromptu trip back to Washington D.C. to visit the Arlington National Cemetery. We went to Washington D.C. this past summer as well, but because it started raining we couldn't do/see everything we had planned to do/see. Even now, we still haven't done everything but one of the places I've ALWAYS wanted to go to was the Arlington National Cemetery.

Here are a few of the pictures we took:

The eternal flame at JFK's grave site. It's located between JFK and Jackie Kennedy. 

View of the Washington Monument

Not sure if you can make it out, but this is the grave site for Edward Kennedy

The Tomb of the Unknowns

There is a guard present 24 hours a day, every single day with no exceptions at The Tomb of the Unknowns... and there is a 'changing of the guard' ceremony at the top of the hour that takes about 12 minutes (which continues to happen after the visiting hours are over as well). 

I remember the day this happened I was at the Liberty Science Center with my family.

View of Washington D.C.

I was surprised (and amused) that they sell this at the gift shop there.

By the way, did you know that Washington D.C. doesn't have any fireworks for New Year's? We also went there the night before with our extended family from Virginia and my grandfather (13 people) and there were none! Apparently they only have them for the 4th of July. Who would have thought?

I would have never guessed that the nation's capital wouldn't do fireworks for New Years! I guess the no traffic along the way (when we left after 11 PM) and the fact that we found parking relatively easily should have been a hint, but there were so many other people waiting there expecting the fireworks too... very odd.

 P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.

Touring Washington D.C.

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While we travel to Virginia occasionally to visit family, we never set time aside to actually go visit places and see things.

For the longest time I have wanted to go and tour D.C. since the last time I did so, I was pretty young and a) I don't remember much of it and b) I wasn't interested in that stuff like I am now. So on the first thursday of June, we took a family trip to D.C. for the day (and to prove our dedication... we left at 6 AM!).

We visited the Air and Space Museum, toured the Capitol and the Library of Congress, and saw the Monument amongst other things. One thing that we didn't get a chance to do that I really wanted to go see was visit the Arlington National Cemetery. I've always wanted to go and see the eternal flame at JFK's grave site. But on our way there, it started raining and thunder-storming a lot, so we ended up heading back home instead.

 P.S. Don't forget to leave me a comment below on your thoughts! As always, I'd love to hear from you.