Saturday adventures in DC

Last Saturday (July 17) we went into DC. Our first stop was Union Station. It was a very beautiful building. It was neat to see where the Amtrak train stops. It reminded us of a fancy museum, mall, airport, and metro station combined. We didn't get any pictures of it though, but here are a few from online so you can see what it looks like.

We then walked across the street to the Postal Museum.

Benjamin Franklin was the first US Postmaster General.

It really interesting to learn about the mail throughout the years. It was fun to see all the different kinds of stamps, mailboxes, ways the mail is carried, and even an old envelop making machine. It was a very beautiful building too. The lighting on our camera didn't work so well to show the beautifully decorated marble in the background. But it does show the beautiful, cute Aliyah posing for the camera!

Afterwards, we started the walk to the National Portrait Gallery, but the heat and humidity got to us. We actually found the National Building Museum along the way and stopped there to cool off. Here is a statue of a lion and cubs outside of the building. It had Proverbs 28:1 written under it. "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion."

Inside it had beautiful Corinthian pillars and archways and a fountain. They had a few fun exhibits where the kids could build with blocks, make an life-size archway, and they also had a Lego exhibit we would have loved to see, but we didn't have enough time to do it nor the money. Maybe next time, now that we know it is here.

We finally made it to the National Portrait Gallery. It was really neat! It had portraits of many of the founding fathers and those that had an impact on our nation. It had portraits from long ago up until today (including all of our presidents). We weren't able to take pictures of the paintings, but we could with some of the statues, so we got one of George Washington and the George Washington University student!

One of the highlights of the museum was the Norman Rockwell exhibit. We loved seeing some of his work. They also had a license plates from every state hanging up on the wall by the gift shop. The letters on each plate had been creatively arranged to spell out the preamble of the Constitution. It was really neat.