Wow. Today has been incredible! I wish I had enough time to account everything I experienced today. I went to a few classes that really inspired me and gave me great ideas of things to do with my kids. After two classes his mornin I went to the Old Post Office where inside there are lots of shops and food places. I went up the tower to see a pretty good view of the city. The Washington monument is closed for repair from an earthquake, so it's the next best thing. I went up a cool glass elevator to get up. In the tower there are the bells of congress that ring on certain days, so that was cool to see. Inside the old post office there is a store that has been pain business for 29 years and for some reason they are closing down. It is the store where people to to get their fake picture with the president. I didn't know it until I went in, but since they were kind of using a barter system to sell things, I got a picture and a keychain there. So, yeah, I have one of those pictures now. Haha. From there I went to the national archives, but on the way I walked by the IRS building. Now I know where all my money goes. Haha. Actually, part of the reason all the smithsonian museums are free is because they are paid by taxes.
The national archives exhibit is incredible. All the museums with artifacts are very dimly lit, which kind of adds to the feeling of the places. Here I got to see the actual documents of the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, And all four pages of the Constitution. It was amazing to see them and see how faded they are, especially the Declaration of Independence. You can't really see much of the signatures on the bottom. The only one not faded is the Constitution because it was hidden away and not exposed to light end the elements as were the others. I asked a security guard some questions and learned that the security of those important documents has come a long way from what we see in National Treasure. He explained how it is kind of James Bond like to even try to find them besides the fact that they are moved every night to different parts of the building so anyone looking for them would have to look all over and they'd come across guards and other barriers before getting close. That was cool to learn. There also was an exhibit featuring different things that are in the archives, mostly related to the Presidents and things that happened when they were I office. It was very interesting how transparent it seemed to be. I then walked over to The National Mall, which is huge. It includes the major monuments and memorials and would take forever to see everything on foot. The Smithsonian museums are all along the block as well. Today I went to the museum of Natural History, which inspired the movie Night at the Museum. I walked in and recognized the main lobby area from the movie. There are lots of exhibits there and not much time, so a lot of them I quickly walked through and tried to see the main things. I saw the T-Rex, the mummies, and the famous Hope Diamond. Seeing all the bones, especially of the small animals made me think how creepy seeing all of them would be if it weren't a museum. There was a lot on human evolution and so I saw lots of old human skeletons, including the famous one named Lucy. There were two exhibits there I wish I could have stayed to looked at, but as it was I was cutting it close. Considering I had to leave the museum and find a taxi, it was seriously a miracle I made it to my afternoon class on time. I'm glad I went because it was a class on sensory disorders I really needed to hear.
I had many wow moments this morning, and so it was worth it.
After the class I went to the expo where hundreds of companies or people come and bring their things for us teachers. It was really overwhelming looking at a huge room full of booths. Where do you begin? I didn't get much free stuff, but I did get to meet one of my most favorite children's song writers named Jim Gill. I'm always using his songs with the kids. I ended up buying a couple things there.
Tonight was the very best, though. I will be super tired tomorrow, but it was worth it. I did the DC night tour where an awesome tour guide took a large group of us to all the major sights of DC. He even did an extra one for us, which I am grateful because that one hit me the most. I wasn't expecting to be so moved by the some of the monuments. There is such an almost sacred feeling at some of them. My favorites were the marine memorial and the Lincoln memorial. The tour guide was awesome. I wish I had money to tip him. He did everything just right. I took tons of pictures but because it was dark I'm not sure how well they turned out. I'm exhausted. I can't believe I gave another day and a glad here! I'm excited for tomorrow!
Pictures will come later, sorry.
Sent from my iPhone
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