Welcome back to our blog! Since this is my first posting on this blog, I'll give you a quick update. Right now we are living in Saginaw, Michigan, where Sam is starting his clinical rotations at Covenant Hospital. We are excited that we actually get to stay here for at least a year! We have enjoyed having the summer off and are now trying to get settled into normal life and hopefully find a job for me. Who knows what I'll find.
The main point of this post is to entertain you with pictures of our trip to Baltimore!! Our friends Krista and Josh recently moved there for a short rotation, so we took advantage of a free place to stay and made the trip out!! It was an awesome opportunity since neither Sam or I have been anywhere in the eastern US. We rented a car and drove through Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland. It was a lot of fun. Krista and Josh were awesome hosts and took us to see all the sights. We spent two days in Washington D.C., two days in Baltimore itself, and one day we drove up to Philadelphia. These pictures should help you get a feel for what our trip was like!
Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
We were able to make it to the National Aquarium in Baltimore one day, and had a blast seeing everything there. It was kind of hard to take pictures though, so this crocodile gets the honorary aquarium picture on the blog.
The jellyfish exhibit that was part of the aquarium was amazing! This is a great shot that Sam took.
Enjoying the view of the harbor in Baltimore from Fells Point.
PHILADELPHIA
For one of the days of our visit, we were able to take a day trip up to Philadelphia, only about an hour away from Baltimore. We were both really impressed by how clean and beautiful downtown was, where went to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Everything was kept up really well, probably the nicest downtown area I've seen.
Independence Hall, Philadelphia.
I was suprised at how much I enjoyed visiting Independence Hall. Our tour guide was very knowledgable and made the whole experience really interesting. For some reason I felt closer to America's history here than I did even in D.C., because I felt like this was where it all started, which in fact, is true.
This is the room in Independence Hall where both the declaration of independence and the constitution was written and signed. The tour guide did a great job of explaining how it happened and what the attitude of each member was and gave us a good taste of the whole atmosphere surrounding the birth of these two documents. The chair sitting at the front of the room is the original chair that George Washington sat in during the drafting and signing of the constitution.
Although it was originally located in Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell has been moved across the street. We had to wait for a break in the crowds to get good pictures of it.
Sam and I in front of the Liberty Bell.
This is Sam doing his best Abraham Lincoln pose (ignore the coffee cup) next to the sign that says "Abraham Lincoln stood here when he raised the flag on Independence Hall February 22nd 1861".
And of course, you can't go to Philadelphia without trying a famous Philly cheese steak sandwich!! We found these two places, built right across the street from each other, who each claims to have the best and most authentic philly cheese steak. So we decided to try one from each place and compare. Both places had very loyal followers, and each had a plaque in the front explaining their history. The workers there were very serious about their job and did NOT tolerate ignorant customers. There was a big sign next the window explaining exactly how to order and told us to practice it before we went to the window. They also very adamently reject credit cards, and were overall just a little bit intimidating. But the sandwiches were great (although we could not tell a difference between the two) and the experience was well worth it.
WASHINGTON D.C.
Sam posing next to C-3PO at the Museum of American History. They also had kermit the frog, Oscar the Grouch, and Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers. We could have spent a whole day by itself in this museum, definitly a MUST-SEE.
On the second day we visited D.C., it was really foggy, but we were still able to get tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument, and the clouds lifted enough for us to see a little bit.
Looking down the National Mall from the Washington Monument. At the end you can see the Capitol, and lining the sides are the many museums. On the left, the first is the Museum of American History (which we toured), the Museum of Natural History (also toured), and then the National Gallery of Art at the end. On the right is the Department of Agriculture, then the Smithsonian Castle and associated buildings, then the Air and Space Museum, and last of all the Native American Museum.
This is the view from the other side of the Washington Monument, looking down over the World War II memorial, the reflecting pool, the Lincoln Memorial, and then the Potomac River with Arlington on the other side.
Looking down on the White House from the Washington Monument.
Our amazing friends, hosts and tour guides, Krista and Josh pose with us in front of the Mall and the Washington Monument.
On the second day we returned to D.C, we were able to get tickets to take a tour of the inside of the Capitol. It was amazing to walk inside a building of such power. It was absolutely gorgeous inside. This picture is looking up at the inside of the dome.
This room used to be the house of representatives, but they didn't like the acoustics and size of the room, so now it is full of statues of honorable people from throughout our history. Apparently, there were tons of statues that people wanted to put in here (and elsewhere in the capitol), but the government finally had to limit each state to two statues. This room held many of them, the rest were spread out throughout the capitol.
The House of Representatives in the Capitol building. On our tour of the Capitol, we actually got to go see the room where the house of representative meets. We were not allowed to take our cameras, but it was amazing. They were not in session at the time, but we got to go sit in the observing area around the top of the room and look down on where they sit and debate and make the decisions that makes our country what it is. It was really amazing.
After a very long day of walking the Mall, we found a nice restaurant to enjoy dinner in.
Eating dinner at the Brickseller, a "dining house and down-home saloon" which claimed to have the worlds largest selection of beer. It was pretty awesome, although I think our waiter had been sampling too much of the beer selection.
Someone from the white house was also enjoying the sights that memorial day weekend--the presidents helicopter circled the mall 5 or 6 times while we were there. It was pretty cool thinking the president himself could have been in there. We were joking that it was his daughters giving all their friends tours.
Our timing couldn't have been better for this trip than to come visit the war memorials on Memorial Day Weekend. This is taken from the Korean War memorial. There were a lot of people at every monument that weekend, and usually they were plenty loud, but as soon as you got to the war memorials, everyone was quiet, the mood was very somber and respectful. It really hit home to actually see how many people lost their lives in these wars.
This is part of the Korean War Memorial. On the very left you can see the black mural wall engraved with scenes from the war, and in the center is the statues of the soldiers.
This is part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The granite walls had hundreds of names engraved in them, and the whole monument was decorated with flowers. There were also letters, gifts and flags there honoring the ones who were lost.
These are two men who came to trace the name of someone they had lost in the war .
Our reflection through the names on the wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
This picture was taken at the World War II Memorial that is in the middle of the National Mall. There are 56 pillars surrounding the rainbow pool in the center , representing each state and territory that were part of the union at that time. Because it was Memorial Day Weekend, there were flowers placed on all the war memorials.
This is the Lincoln Memorial at the center, with the reflecting pool and the World War II memorial in front of it.
It was such a powerful thing to stand at the base of this monument. The statue itself was a lot bigger than I expected, and the words from Lincoln's Inauguration address and Immancipation Proclamation inscribed on the walls surrounding it gave the whole place a very reverant feel to it.
Sun behind the Washington Monument.
Crazy Dinosaur in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Even though that was a lot of pictures, it's nothing compared to how many i actually took! So if you want to see more, just let me know. Overall it was an amazing trip. Sam and I were just sort-of awestruck at actually being in these places where so many historical figures have walked and so many historic events actually took place! Everything in the west just seems so young, and although the age of our country doesn't even compare to most other countries, there was enough history there to impress Sam and I. We loved getting to see the east coast for the first time and were really struck by how beautiful it is--not at all what i expected. Everything was so green and lush, and all the buildings, even the houses had an old historic feel to them. It was really neat. Visiting all those sights definitely made us wish we remembered our American history class better!
Well, that about sums it up! I hope everyone reading this gets a chance to go see these beautiful cities sometime. I'm proud of our country!
