DC part 3

The last day in DC, we toured the Library of Congress and the Capitol. The Library of Congress gets so many books (pretty much all published books) that they have set up a kids reading room in the basement. We all wanted to stay and read, but we had to leave to get to the Capitol tour (which we still were late for because of long lines to get through security).

In the Capitol, there are a lot of statues of famous people from the various states (generally two from each state). Jessica found the statue of Brigham Young. The other Utah statue is one of Philo Farnsworth, who invented the TV.

We also visited the Senate Gallery, from where you can watch the Senators debating things on the Senate floor. To get in, we had to go to Senator Orrin Hatch's office. I thought this was funny - a sign indicating where wheelchairs could go, but full of posts that would make it difficult to get there. Once we got into the Gallery, there were only two Senators there. One of them was John McCain. They were not debating any particular bill, but I think just making statements to get them onto the congressional record.



This is us in front of the Capitol.

DC part 2

The next day we woke up early to get into DC before sunrise.

This last one was taken from the Lincoln Memorial
This is us in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

This is Jessica and Katie in front of the Supreme Court building. The Supreme Court was the thing Jessica most wanted to see in DC. I think she said it was mostly because she liked the Greek architecture.
Because we got there so early, we got to the Air and Space Museum fairly early. We spent most of the rest of the day there. Rebecca's brother Rick joined us partway through (he's a pilot based in DC, though he lives in Nauvoo).


On the right is the X-1, the plane that Chuck Yeager flew to break the sound barrier. On the left is SpaceShipOne, which won the X-Prize for being the first privately funded ship to carry a passenger into space.
There were a lot of neat things in the Air and Space Museum, such as many satellites that went into orbit, the lunar rover, and an exhibit of pictures of planets and moons in our solar system. There was also a lot on the Wright Brothers, which was fun, as we also went to Kitty Hawk later in the trip. The kids particularly enjoyed an area of the museum with hands-on exhibits on principles of flight, like lift, thrust, and a plane whose surfaces the kids could control.

DC temple and Arlington cemetary

On Sunday, after church in Baltimore, we went to the Washington DC temple and took some pictures.
The next two are candid pictures. Brent and Jessica were just resting on each other, and I thought it was cute. The one after was Rebecca, the girls, and Brent having a laugh (though you can't really see Brent in this one).

The next day we went to the Goddard Space Flight Center Visitors Center, but realized when we got there that it was closed. We had originally planned to go another day, when it was going to be open, but forgot to recheck when our plans changed. It wasn't a problem, because the Rocket Garden (full-size rockets outside) was still accessible, but it was pathetic. Only a couple of rockets, and none of the important ones.

After that, we went to Arlington Cemetery. Here is the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, with remains from soldiers from WWI on.

I did not realize it, but there is another Unknown Soldier tomb, for unknown soldiers who died in the Civil War. This is their monument.
This is just a gravestone that I though was really neat with the draped flag carved into it.

Philadelphia and Ft. McHenry

In Philadelphia, we saw a lot of things. Most of the interesting things are within a couple of blocks of each other. We saw Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. These pictures were taken in the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution was debated.

Here some of the kids are in front of the Liberty Bell.
We also saw Betsy Ross' house, Benjamin Franklin's printing office, and toured the functioning US Mint. We also learned the value of a good tour guide. We had one person give a very interesting tour of Independence Hall, then went next door, and another person give a very dull tour of the first Congress building.

Statue of Liberty and Pennsylvania

Leaving Ohio, we crossed Pennsylvania. This was a long day driving, with a brief stop in Hershey, PA. I did not notice any smell of chocolate, for the record. By the time we got there and had dinner, the Hershey store was closed, so we settled for buying candy at the gas station.
The next morning we took the ferry out to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Ellis Island had a lot of cool exhibits talking about how immigration has changed over the years, such as gender and nations of origin. It was interesting to give a historical perspective to the current immigration debates. There were exhibits about immigration debates from 100 years ago, when the "problem" immigrants were either from Ireland or Eastern European countries. There were similar concerns back then over the burden the immigrants would be, but there was also information about how the economy grew during that period. Not making judgments, but interesting historical perspective.

The same ferry took us to the Statue of Liberty. We climbed to the top of the base, but not to the crown.

The next day we went to the Mack Truck factory in Macungie, PA. We got to see the whole assembly line and saw how they customized the trucks based on customer requirements. It was mostly manually assembled. The most automation we saw was a machine that would put tires onto rims, and only a single operator. Pretty simple automation, really. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures.

At Valley Forge (named after iron forges), we saw General Washington's base (which he rented at his own expense from a resident), as well as troop cabins. In the picture below, the kids are demonstrating how to get a cannonball wound (I already know how to get one! - Brian Regan).

After Nauvoo, we drove to Millersburg, Ohio for some geneology. Along the way, we stopped at Kirtland, Ohio and saw the temple there. We also stopped at Lake Erie in Cleveland.

Ohio was very pretty, particularly when we were off the highway. Millersburg is out in the middle of a lot of farmland. We saw lots of Amish riding their carts around. We spent most of the next morning looking for cemeteries, a couple of which were somewhat hidden and hard to find.

We've finished our three-week tour of the United States! Now it's time to update the old blog. We'll do this in several installments. The first stop was Mt. Rushmore. This will sound silly, but it's smaller than I imagined. Still, very neat to see, and the visitors center was very interesting. The main sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, also worked on a modified version of the Statue of Liberty
torch. It was interesting to keep seeing his name as we traveled to different monuments.


You can see to the left of the Washington (his right) where they had originally intended to carve Lincoln, but realized there wasn't enough room, so they blasted the area clear.



After Mt Rushmore, we stayed with Rebecca's brother Rick and his family in Nauvoo, Ill. They live right in town, just one block from the main road that the temple is on. We went to church with them on Sunday, and visited some historical sites. One of them (which we accidentally found) was the plot where the Bosley's had a house. We are related to these Bosleys - my great-great-grandfather's brother joined the church and lived in Nauvoo, and died in Winter Quarters. In the picture below, the child at the right is not in fact Matthew, but Rick's daugher Ember.

We learned about how the Saints made bread (Bustle ovens), made candles (that were made from cow fat, so they had to be kept in metal containers to keep the animals out), and the kids even got to make a rope.

This is a picture of the Nauvoo temple, as seen from the road to the Mississippi where the Saints crossed when they left.


Despite it being Sunday, Jessica decided to try swimming in the Mississippi. Anxious to follow the pioneers, I guess.


The next day we started with a handcart pull. That was pretty tough. It had rained, and the trails were pretty muddy. We had everyone get out of the handcarts when we went up the big hills, and it was still a workout. Here is all of us afterwards.


We spent the rest of the day going to various sites in Nauvoo, such as the blacksmith, the gunsmith, brick factory. The kids spent a lot of time in the pioneer play area. The girls dressed up in period clothes and played house.


Matthew, for some reason, loved to feed and sit on the fake sheep they had in the play area.
Here is a picture of the Nauvoo temple at night.