Carden Memorial School American History Tour 2015: Day 8 Summary

We're still alive and kicking and had another full and fun day in Washington D.C. Our stops today included the following:

National Museum of the Marine Corps - The National Museum of the Marine Corps is the historical museum of the United States Marine Corps. Located in Triangle, Virginia near Quantico, the museum opened on November 10, 2006, and is now the top tourist attraction in the state, drawing over 500,000 people annually.
National Archives Museum - The National Archives Museum is home of the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights which are housed in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom.
Smithsonian National Gallery of Art - The Gallery's collection of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, medals, and decorative arts traces the development of Western Art from the Middle Ages to the present, including the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas. It has more than 7,000 artists represented in the collection, including masterpieces from the likes of Monet, Homer, Pizarro, and many others.
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Museum - The National Museum of Natural History is the second most visited museum in the world, the most visited natural history museum in the world, and the most visited museum (of any type) in North America. The museum's collections total over 126 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, and human cultural artifacts.
Smithsonian National Museum of American History - The National Museum of American History collects, preserves and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific and military history. Among the items on display are the original Star-Spangled Banner and Dorthy's ruby shoes from The Wizard of Oz.
Thomas Jefferson Memorial - The Thomas Jefferson Memorial is dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, (1743–1826), one of the most important of the American Founding Fathers as the main drafter and writer of the Declaration of Independence, member of the Continental Congress, Governor of the newly independent Commonwealth of Virginia, American minister to King Louis XVI and the Kingdom of France, first U.S. Secretary of State under the first President George Washington, the second Vice President of the United States under second President John Adams, and also the third President of the United States, (1801–1809), as well as being the founder of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Virginia. The guy was pretty accomplished, eh? BTW, our Carden students knew all of the above facts.

Here's Map of today's activities:

Before we even made it out of the neighborhood this morning, we did a drive-by of our new favorite stop for sweets. One of the favorite concoctions was a homemade donut topped with maple glaze and bacon.

National Museum of the Marine Corps
Our first stop of the day was at one of the coolest destinations of the trip, the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Here we learned about the history of the Corps, experienced what it takes to make a Marine, and heard stories from actual marines. The displays were incredible, presenting actual military implements as the pictures that follow capture.

Outside the museum. It is pretty dramatic building.

A few of the men waiting for the recruiter to sign them up. After an hour inside the museum, it wouldn't surprise me if they actually were to enlist.

"Semper Fi"

Frank Matthews, a veteran of WWII who was actually on Iwo Jima during the hostilities there. Quite a colorful character. He spent time with the students talking about his experiences during the war.

An early drone model

Background: Active Marines exiting a chopper; Foreground: Spencer looking for the recruiter

Group taking in all the cool displays

A Harrier Jump Jet hovered above us

These two have already enlisted and are all suited up (Savannah, Courtney)

Looking good in olive drab

The boys wanted to play as well. James is doing his best Vishnu impression

Another VERY lifelike display of Marines in combat action

In these speaker-outfitted booths, one can experience what it would feel like to be a new recruit in boot camp, having a drill sergeant yelling at one. They should sell a home version of this that we could send our kids into for a little yelling-at in times of need. Would save lots of parental energy to have a yell-box do the work for me.

A tank with six turrets and a bunch of other guns sticking out? Possibly the coolest thing ever...other than that yell-box thing that I'm going to develop for home (and school) use.

National Archives Museum
Our next stop was to the National Archives. Usually the line to get into this place is worse than the line at Splash Mountain on a hot summer day with no Fastpass, but luck was with us and we managed to get right inside to view the original copies of our nation's foundational documents, including the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Pictures were not allowed at all, so you'll have to engage Google to see what we saw. One common comment from the students was how much the documents have faded over time. They are really quite difficult to read anymore.

Another imposing and beautiful building - The National Archives

Stepshot© at the Archives - Couldn't take pictures on the inside

Smithsonian National Gallery of Art
We moved from the Archives to the art museum to see works of the masters.

Moneychangers at the entrance to the art gallery cafeteria where we ate lunch. Money was moving so fast, the hands were a blur.

Adam and Anne looking at the wall of water in the gallery

Gathering around the central fountain in the grand hall of the art museum

Looking for coins in the fountain to retrieve and use to buy more sweets

Another shot of the fountain

Grouped gathered in front of Napoleon. A few even imitated his hand-in-jacket pose

In another room of the gallery. It was like a giant maze.

And another room full of priceless art

Ben was smitten by this small statue and refused to leave her side the whole while we were in the gallery, or he was just tired and used that as an excuse to sit down for a while.

Bangles and bobbles (Laura, Courtney)

Museum of Natural History
Next up after the fine art was the Natural History Museum where we explored an amazing collection of all things natural, (e.g., mammals, gemstones, skeletons, bugs, restrooms, gift shops, etc.)

Gathering at the threshold (BTW, we learned how the word threshold actually means while in Valley Forge - ask your student if he/she remembers).

The Hope Diamond - a big, blue, expensive rock.

You think the Hope Diamond is big, this thing is the size of a softball

Last year's Carden tour group didn't make it out of the museum in time and...well...they've slimmed down a bit.

Madeleine and Kate have a bone to pick. Yep, that just happened. Boo yeah!

If we could put up a glass partition in front of this alcove, we could 'one-up' the picture/display two pictures above this one in a year from now.

American History Museum
O.K., jumping ahead to our next destination, the American History Museum where some of what has made our country great and memorable is captured. Our group seemed to be most excited about seeing the hall of First Lady inaugural gowns. I however was with the minority (boys) who thought otherwise so that will have to be left to your Google imaginings. Here are just a few other samples of what we saw:

Dorthy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz

An early Apple computer. This is the laptop version.

The original Sunstone from the LDS Nauvoo Temple

Perhaps the most memorable artifact we saw was the original Star Spangled Banner. Pictures aren't allowed in that room but it was truly magnificent. The students (and adults) reverently sang "The Star Spangled Banner" in the room while gazing at Old Glory. It was fun to see others, not of our group, join in the singing and enjoy the moment with us. Several students said that moment was the highlight of the day.

Thomas Jefferson Memorial
Our last stop of the day was to the wonderful Jefferson Memorial. Inside the memorial, the students were asked to copy two of the four large quotes engraved in the walls into their journal notebooks. It was really neat to see them engaging with the words of this great man.

Students copying quotes at the Jefferson Memorial

The beautiful statue of President Jefferson

View of the Potomac from the memorial

Laura

Lucy

Cameron, Emily

Ben, Andrew (Hey, what's Andrew doing here? I thought he was staying behind at the Library of Congress...)

Kate

Emily

Eeeeeast

Courtney

Isabelle, Spencer

Mary, Emily, Lucy

Mrs. Horne

Jefferson Memorial. If this looks familiar, it's because it is designed to look like the rotunda at Monticello, Jefferson's home.

With all the visits of the day behind us, we also left D.C. behind us and made our way to Gettysburg, PA, arriving in time for another huge dinner and evening wind-down.