A Wonderful Week in Washington

This post continues the story of the wonderful week we shared during Christopher and Henry’s visit. We made great use of the Metro, hopping on and off to explore all kinds of activities and sights around Washington, D.C. In this picture, if Henry and Chris look cold, it’s because they were! We had an early morning White House tour and braved temperatures just above 30 degrees. We’d been told not to wear coats for the tour, so we layered up with sweatshirts instead. Of course, once we arrived, we saw plenty of people wearing coats! :(( So there we stood, shivering in the cold and wind, coatless but excited for the experience.

Once we finally made it inside the White House, we thoroughly enjoyed learning about the rich history of this residence which has been the home to every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. Informative displays introduced us to the lives of various first families. We viewed the elegantly decorated rooms (though I was reading the guide and forgot to take pictures) and beautifully maintained grounds. Looking out from here we could even see the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument in the distance It reminded us of the history that surrounds the White House on every side.

Henry ready to give his press conference. :)

The portraits in the White House are a collection of the presidents and first lady and other art pieces. I have always like this portrait of John F. Kennedy. He looks reverent and thoughtful. It was commissioned after his death by Jackie Kennedy.

First Lady, Michelle Obama has always been someone I truly admire. She’s a powerful role model, not just for women, but as someone who values integrity, family, and education. I especially respect her strength, honesty, and the way she openly shared her life experiences in her books. I believe she showed how to lead with both compassion and conviction.

Another adventure we enjoyed was exploring the National Mall at night. We walked to the Jefferson Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the World War II Memorial, the Korean Memorial and …

… of course, a favorite…the Lincoln Memorial.

We wore out our poor Henry, but he was a good sport about it.

There are so many museums in DC that we still need to visit, but we tried out the Planet Word Museum which was a fun interactive museum. There were so many interesting and entertaining activities. Our introduction to Planet Word was outside the building where there is a sculpture called the “Speaking Willow” which looked like a willow tree. The tree has small speakers on each branch and when we walked underneath, the speakers lit up and played poems, songs and sayings in multiple languages which changed as we walked under different willow branches.

The giant interactive word wall presents origins of words and we were able to speak into the microphones and the word wall would respond to our voices through illumination. The demonstration showed how language is always evolving and how all of us help words evolve each time we speak, sign, text, or write.

Some other activities we tried were creating our own advertisements using phrases and techniques that advertisers use, exploring the magical library where books come to life, actually painting the walls with words such as verdant or luminous, delivering a famous speech in our voices using a teleprompter, sharing our own stories in a recording booth, and a whole lot more.

One of my favorites was trying to get each other to laugh. Henry was good at getting me to laugh. :))

Another fun activity was the karaoke room. We learned techniques that songwriters use to put together lyrics. Chris joined in singing with a couple of folks and everyone had a fun time.

Sadly, the week flew by much too quickly. In these posts, I’ve shared some of the fun adventures we had with Chris and Henry, but what we all agreed what mattered most was simply being together and enjoying each other’s company. We’re already looking forward to the next visit!