Wednesday morning I awoke feeling wondrous! It turned out to be quite possibly my favorite day of our entire trip. After breakfast and our Lyft to the city, we began our day at the Ford Theatre. The Ford Theatre opened in 1863, and is where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14,1865. Since 1968, Ford's offers small tours of the theatre and the museum surrounding Lincoln's life, and the motions that took place during and after the assassination. The entrance fee for the tour was only about $3/ person, so if you're in D.C., I would definitely recommend stopping by. Taking approximately two hours, the museum is self guided so you can spend as much time as you would like reading all of the plaques and examining artifacts such as Booth's revolver and more. The tour allows you to visit all areas on both sides of 10th street, which includes four different Historic sites: The theatre, the museum, the aftermath exhibits and the Petersen house (the home in which Lincoln died).
There was a lot of history to take in, and we spent around three hours going through all factions of the museum and theatre. If you can manage it, the time and the money were well worth it. I've always held a certain affection for 'Honest Abe' but these few hours really helped solidify my admiration for the president. When you exit the aftermath exhibits, you do so through a winding ramp which holds in its center a stack of books all about Abraham Lincoln. It is quite a site and was definitely one of my favorite parts of the museum. After trying the ever famous Shake Shack for lunch, we passed the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building and continued on to my favorite places I have ever been able to step foot in: The Library of Congress.
Now there are two things I'd like you to know about me- one, I am an avid lover of books and history; two, and you would know this if you have read my past blog posts, is that I love National Treasure. We had a scheduled tour of the Library of Congress to get to and I was humming with excitement. Not only is the architecture and the building itself magnificent, but the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, housing over 170 million artifacts and books. We spent hours in the Library, and were there until it closed. After the hour(ish) long tour, we were able to explore the grounds and rooms open to the public. After lots of awe inspiring artifacts, I was on a mission to get to the Thomas Jefferson building. Besides housing a wide array of books in a pretty amazing room, my fictional friends, Ben and Riley, from National Treasure access this room in both of the films and I had to get in. Accessible only by those with a library card from the Library of Congress itself, I was bound and determined to get my hands on one and enter the library. Valid for two years and free of charge, I successfully obtained a library card with my name and photo for the Library of Congress. While Nanny & PawPaw waited patiently outside of the entrance, I walked into a book lovers dream. There are no words for the feeling (for me) walking into that space. If only I could access the secret passageway behind the librarian's kiosk. PawPaw ended up getting a card too, and after exploring as much as we could, we headed towards the gift shop to grab a few souvenirs.
Our last day in Washington D.C. was coming to a close. After dinner, we headed to the Pentagon just after dusk to see the Pentagon Memorial from 9/11. Located surprisingly in the midst of the city of Arlington, the Pentagon and the memorial are quite a site to behold. Lit by the twinkling lights, we took in the memorial in quiet. Feeling somber, nanny and I snapped a few photos that definitely did not capture the feeling of being in the memorial park. A quiet walk back to the car, had us heading towards the hotel for our final night before heading back to the Pentagon on Thursday for our official tour. Goodnight D.C.!
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