Washington, D.C.: Day 5

Whew, I'm pushing through to finish going through our pictures! I think I can, I think I can...

Our final day in D.C. was Tuesday, 9/11. Our flight wasn't until 1:45, so we milked it for all it was worth! Got up early, rented bikes, and rode one last time through our Virginia Creeper-ish trail. Goodness, I miss it!

We rode to the Jefferson Memorial before breakfast to see it up close and personal for the first time:

You can see the White House from the front steps:

And the Washington Monument (like anywhere in D.C.!)

We wanted to tour Ford's Theatre, so we ate breakfast at a Hole in the Wall called Lincoln's Waffles.

Ryan got fried chicken and waffles. Wowsers. I give this place about a 3 out of 10. :)

We then went across the street to Ford's Theatre, which is still a working theater!

(This is actually a pic of the student center across the street)

The basement is a whole museum dedicated to Abraham Lincoln. They even had the pistol used by John Wilkes Booth. Wow.

Coming up from the basement, they had a ramp with two sides of pictures: one side was what Abraham Lincoln did during the day of his death (by the hour), and the other side was showing how Booth was going through with his plan. They even had a clock ticking overhead. It was eerie:

It was really amazing to see history come alive and see where Lincoln was killed and to see the stage and how far down Booth had to jump to escape. 

A glass door separated us from the balcony:

The chair closest to us was Lincoln's chair:

Autostitch of the theatre (Lincoln's balcony is on the right with the American flag)

It's really super tiny in comparison to what I'm used to at the Tennessee Theatre.

Across the street is Mary Surratt's house where Lincoln was brought after he had been shot and later died.

(By the way--we shouldn't be smiling in these pictures! It was so so sad!)

We really zoomed through here and had to jet back to the hotel, pack up in a hurry, and head out by taxi to the airport. Our Metro station had the world's tallest escalator. Seriously. This thing has to be in the Guiness Book of World Records! This pic maybe shows half of it:

These pictures do not do it justice! It went on forever!!!

Show of hands--who would like to fly on 9/11? And not just on 9/11, but departing from Washington, D.C.!? I was a little anxious before we left, but there was extra security that we saw all morning around D.C. We even think we spotted Marine One--the President's helicopter--making circles around the city. Along with a police boat in the Potomac--the first boat we saw in there all weekend! So we really did feel safe.

Ryan took an Autostitch of the Reagan Airport because it was HUGE:

 We had to board our tiny plane (which only had 17 people on it going to Chattanooga!!) out on the runway. The stewardess told us all to spread out because we all got 2.5 seats per person! :)

 I felt a bit like the President or a movie star getting on and off out in the open like that. :)

 It was SUCH an amazing trip. I'm so proud of my super hard-working husband for getting this designation with work to make this entire weekend possible. I must confess that we had so much fun that we hardly missed our precious kiddos! But we are so glad to be back with them and back to our normal crazy life! :) Thanks for reading along with me!