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.

And Now You Know: Why Divers Always Shower

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As we have watched the Olympics, we've all wondered why the divers always take a quick shower with their clothes in tact (in front of oh so many people) immediately after getting out of the water. Like many, I had come to the conclusion that they do so because of the chlorine in the swimming pool. I just read an article, however, on Yahoo! that informed me that the divers do so:

"to keep their muscles warm after getting out of the pool. The temperature of the pool water and the air are usually different (the pool is usually around 80 degrees, with the air temperature between 68 and 72 degrees). This difference can cause muscle tightness. To combat this, divers warm up in either the showers or a hot tub."

And so now you know.

Click here to read the original article.

Did you know...

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...that every hundred years, the leap year is skipped?

Apparently, while the leap year occurs every four years, once every hundred years it is skipped. I learned from Pat Sajak's random comments at the end of Wheel of Fortune tonight that in 2000 the leap year was skipped and this is why.

Upon some research, I found out that:

Years which are divisible by 100 are not leap years, unless they are also divisible by 400, in which case they are leap years. For example, 1600 and 2000 were leap years, but 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not

So according to this explanation, 2000 was a leap year (because it was an exception) but Pat Sajak got the every hundred year part of the rule accurately.

Source: Wikipedia