I promised pictures!

First we went to the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.


It was filled with amazing mosaics.


(That's the Byzantine Chapel.)



(The Virgin and the serpent, which was just awesome.)



Our Lady of Chestahova


The Blessed Sacrament Chapel.


The Miraculous Medal.


This is Our Lady of La Vang.  I have never seen Our Lady portrayed with Asian features and I thought it was really neat.  I am going to do more research on her because I had never heard of her before this.

There were some great statues of saints and a great one of Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, but my camera had already started to die at this point, so I wanted to conserve what I had left for the Smithsonian.

Then we went to the mall by the Capitol where we hit the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum.
 
There were plenty of locals walking their dogs and offering their time to take pictures of tourists.  It was really cute to see.  This particular picture was taken by a middle aged man who was great about getting the kids to look at the camera.

The Air and Space Museum:


I lost Joseph here for about ten seconds while John was in the gift shop.  It was the most terrifying ten seconds for both Joseph and myself.  He was a sobbing wreck when I found him (a mere 20 feet away).  I waited until we got to the car to sniffle and huff.

Here we are at the Natural History Museum.  The kids loved it, even though they were pretty tired by this point.  When we hit the ocean section, Thomas' eyes were as big as dinner plates and he had this dopey grin as though we entered his own personal heaven on earth.

Random sculpture that I didn't think was a total waste of space (it reminded me of winter):

The sculpture gardens were a laugh riot.  I bet every last one of those artists giggled all the way to the bank.  I'm not trying to sound like an ignoramus when it comes to art, but impressionism and abstract art (in general) just annoy me. 

The Capitol building:


"Freedom," the statue on top of the dome:


Bl. Junipero Serra, in the hall with the statues of other past statesmen and diplomats:

The Washington Monument.  With this, my camera died.

We drove past the White House.  I had never seen so many cops in all my life.

Relaxing in the hotel before we took off for the National Zoo.  I was smart enough to bring my camera charger.

Yep, Joe is digging for gold...

The National Zoo.  I took a lot of pictures of various animals, but I didn't feel like uploading them all here.  I don't think they had much of anything that you can't see at other zoos.  Well, they had pandas, but we couldn't see them.

I'm planning our trip to DC a little more in-depth this evening.  We're going to leave mega-early Friday morning so that we can make it to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for 8 a.m. Mass.  Then we'll mosey into DC to walk the mall, take in some serious Smithsonian buildings, wave at the Capitol building, and then go off to take touristy pictures outside the White House, Lincoln Memorial, and Jefferson Memorial.  Should we have our wits and any energy left, we're going to take the kids swimming at the hotel pool before tossing them into bed.  By then, John should have to go set up for his conference.

Tomorrow will be spent out and about picking up various sundries to make sure our cooler is stocked.  I also have to drop off meals for our priest that I miraculously finished, do laundry at the laundromat (boooooo), and give the kitchen, bathroom, and my bedroom a very thorough "once over" so that we don't come home to a wreck.  I got the living room and kids' room done today. 

I don't think I can pull it off, but I usually prove myself wrong.  We'll see.