Washington D.C.

After meeting up with Scott in Baltimore we drove back about an hour and spent half a day in Washington D.C. I hadn't been to D.C. in many many years so I was happy to see the sights a little and of course show Chance the landmarks that he might recognize and at least be able to recognize next time he sees a picture of them. That is one of the great things about travel. People learn and understand things better when they are exposed to them repeatedly and in as many different ways as possible. I love being able to see pictures of the White House (for example), see it on TV, talk about it and then actually be able to take Chance there and let him see it for himself. He knew that was where President Obama lives but didn't quite understand why we couldn't go in and meet him and his kids.
We had a great time walking around if only for a few hours. I don't even remember who this statue is in honor of but it was the first one we came across and Chance wanted his picture taken so I took one of him in front of it:



Then he wanted to take one of me so he did:



The next place we went was the Lincoln Memorial. I wasn't sure what Chance was going to think but his response to the Lincoln Memorial makes me very proud of him. First we had a fun time walking up all those stairs and then when we got inside he immediately wanted to know who Lincoln was, most four year olds are content with a simple answer but Chance is not he wanted to know exactly who he was and when I told him Lincoln was a president he said "like Obama?" Then he wanted to know if there were other statues in the building and when I told him no, because Lincoln was such a great guy and did so many great things that he gets this whole building all for himself, he took a step back, looked all around and said "wow". He asked me what the writing carved into the walls were and when I told him they were speeches that Lincoln had made he asked me to read one so I read the first paragraph of the Gettysburg address to him, he didn't run around he stood right there and listened then asked me questions, "men are created equal?" So I tried to explain that what he means is everyone in the world just like everyone in this building little ones and big ones, boys and girls, red hair, brown hair, no matter what color their skin is, they all have great potential and all deserve your respect.
After we looked all around the Lincoln Memorial we sat on the stairs looking out over the mall at the Washington Monument for a while. I am usually not much for views of man made things but there is no denying this is a pretty awesome view.



And here is one of the two of us while we were sitting on the stairs but Chance didn't really want to be in this one:



We made our way down the stairs and started across the mall toward the White House. Our first stop along the way was the Vietnam Wall. Again Chance was very interested asking about all the names and loved the statue of the soldiers nearby. We made our way along til we got to the White House. we couldn't get too close because evidently someone had jumped the fence the day before but we paused to take a look before moving down the mall on the other side slowly back toward the car. We got an up close look at the Washington Monument and the World War 2 memorial which I had never seen before. It was getting dark as we walked up to the WW2 Memorial, it is might impressive with it's fountains and dramatic lighting. Highly recommend checking it out at night. As we continued down the walkway Chance noticed that we would be walking passed the Lincoln Memorial he asked if we could walk up and see it again. Instead of going in again we walked right down in front so we could look up and see Lincoln all lit up looking out on the mall. No matter what your opinion on Lincoln is there is no denying that is an impressive sight. I got down on my knees next to Chance to be on his level so we could look at the Memorial together. When I did he hugged me and said "It's better than I thought it would be" That little boy is so amazing, I am in awe of how a four year old can genuinely seem to be taking all of it in on a level you naively think a small child incapable of. I am so proud of him.