Washington D.C. Part IV

Tuesday June 2
Smithsonian Day!
1)Went to the Museum of American History and saw the collection of the First Ladies' Dresses, the original Star Spangled Banner, and numerous items that once belonged Abraham Lincoln. Due to the frailness of the flag we were not even allowed to take pictures of the Star Spangled Banner. So we took a picture of a plaque to help everyone get an idea of what it looks like. The flag is 30 feet tall by 34 feet long and is threadbare...but impressive nonetheless! Of the First Ladies' Dresses Rachel's favorites were Helen Taft's Inaugural Ball Gown (the beige one) and Laura Bush's Inaugural Ball Gown (the red one). The pictures are dark and not of great quality because we were not allowed to have flash photography for the preservation of the antique articles of clothing. We apologize for that.
2)Went to the Museum of Natural History and saw the Hope Diamond and moon rocks. The Hope Diamond is famous for supposedly being cursed. We didn't spend much time in this museum as #1 it was packed with loads of kids, and #2 we had other museums we wanted to see.
3)Went to the Air and Space Museum. This is a really neat place. There are loads of "originals" in this museum. For example: Below we have a picture of Space Ship One (the first civilian craft to enter space), a picture of the the Apollo 11 command module which carried Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins on their way to the moon and back, and a picture of the Voyager plane (first plane to fly around the world non-stop). It also has the Bell which was the first plane to break the speed of sound. 4)Walked into the Smithsonian Castle. This is a glorious building on the outside as you can see. We enjoyed the exterior despite the fact that there was little to see on the interior.
5)Went to the Holocaust Museum. We highly recommend spending some time in this museum if you are ever in the D.C. area. We had very moving experiences as we walked through the displays and were deeply touched. Rachel has been to the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles, but for her this experience was deeper and more profound. You can see the tip of the Washington Monument in the background. Sorry that we cannot provide any pictures of the collection. We were asked not to take any.
6)Walked over to the Jefferson Memorial. This memorial is 70 years old, but is absolutely magnificent!
7)Went to the Bureau of Engraving and learned how money is made. We took a picture of a $100,000 bill (the largest bill the Bureau printed) that was only ever used for large transactions prior to credit cards and checks. The largest ever circulated was the $10,000 bill, and the largest presently circulated is the $100 bill.
Apparently...Nathan is worth more than Rachel!...Although some beg to differ.

By the end of the day...our feet ached but it was WORTH IT!

Washington D.C. Part III

Monday June 1
1)Went to a Tour of the Library of Congress. We saw Thomas Jefferson's book collection (well at least one third of his original book collection). There was an enormous fire on December 24, 1851 that burned two thirds of his books. The library has replaced almost all of them with originals they have found from around the world. We were not allowed to take pictures of Thomas Jefferson's book collection, or in the main reading room under the rotunda.
2)Took a tour of the Capital by a woman that works for our local Congressman. The Capitol Building is magnificent! We saw the old Supreme Court Room, the old Senate Chamber, went into the Rotunda, saw loads of statues, and sat in the House of Representative room. This was really neat. Every year our President gives his State of the Union address in this room. Television makes this room look big...but it's not. It's very small. We were not allowed to take our cameras, cell phones, or any kind of electronics in the House's meeting room because the politicians are afraid that their privacy might be "invaded" and that they may have their conversations recorded.
3)Went to the National Archives Building and saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution (which is 4 pages long), and the Bill of Rights. These documents are so old that the lighting in the building is very dark and the temperature is pretty chilly. You can barely see the writing on these historical papers.

4)Walked down to the Washington Monument and took lots of pictures. This is a really cool building. This is the tallest self supporting structure in the world.

5)Walked down to the WWII Memorial and took more pictures. This is a new memorial. It was deditcated by George W. Bush in 2004.

Washington D.C. Part II

Sunday May 31

1) Went to church and attended the Capitol Hill Ward.

2) Went to Arlington Cemetery. Words cannot express the gratitude that we felt as we walked the burial grounds surrounded by white tombstones. Rachel really wanted to go see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the changing of the guard. That was really neat and touching. We also saw the graves of the Kennedy Family, the Iwo Jima Memorial, the Netherlands Carillon, and the Women's Memorial. The Iwo Jima memorial was very personal as Rachel's Grandpa (Nile Sorenson, Sr.) was at the battle Iwo Jima and was about a mile away from where the famous picture was taken.

The Women's memorial was magnificent and made us think of our dear friend Merry Bullock. She served in our Nations military and was in the Middle East several years ago. The vastness of Arlington National Cemetery makes it so that you spend several hours there and you feel as though you barely touch the service. Thank you to all of those that have served our Country.

Iwo Jima photo courtesy of Christopher Hollis Wdwic Pictures

Washington D.C. Part I

For our summer vacation we decided to use our travel vouchers and go to Washington D.C. Nathan had already visited DC when he was in 8th grade, but this was Rachel's first visit. Ever since we moved to Iowa and realized how close we were to our Nation's capitol we've been itching to go...so we finally went. We got to spend an entire week in DC and our bodies were definitely feeling it by Friday.

If we were to put all the pictures of our trip in one blog post it would be too much (not to mention the novel that would accompany each picture). So we'll just do some highlights of what we did each day accompanied by some pictures. Plus...we've got to catch up on life here at our house (bills, laundry, school, work, etc).

Saturday May 30

1) Arrived in Baltimore and took an Amtrak to Washington D.C. Rachel got to experience her first train ride ever! Remember folks...she grew up in Orange County, CA.

2) Rode the Metro (subway) to our Marriott Hotel and checked in. Found out there was no Wi-Fi otherwise we would have posted last week!!!!! Ugh...talked about being disconnected from the world!

3) Grabbed the camera and went to go see the President's pad (White House). There are security guards EVERYWHERE!

4) Walked around Downtown and saw the Treasury Department, Old Post Office, and other Administrative buildings.

5) Ate dinner, went back to our hotel to shower and get ready for Sunday.

More pictures of our trip will be posted later. We've got to get ready for Church.

Pella, IA

The annual Tulip Festival in Pella, Iowa was May 6th-9th and I tagged along with some friends to go see the world famous windmill and flowers. Pella was founded in 1847 by Dutch immigrants. Nathan has been itching to go since we moved here because of his dutch connection he has from serving his mission in the Netherlands. But he didn't get to go due to being tied down with writing papers for the end of the semester.

Here are some pictures of the famous windmill, their gorgeous tulips, and one with me in some large wooden shoes.

Boston

Every year the AAO (American Association of Orthodontists) hosts a convention. This years convention was in Boston, MA. My boss decided to take then entire staff as a reward for having such a successful year in 2008. Thank you Matthew Croco!

I spent most of my time in lectures, but I did manage to get out and see what Boston had to offer. We were not lucky with our flights (we had to de-board the plane 2/4 times in our entire trip)...but we made it nonetheless. There were lots of firsts for me on this trip: first time I have ever have had to de-board a plane, first time in a subway, and also a taxi cab. I'm from Orange County, CA...what can I say?

Our first night there, we went out to an Irish Pub for dinner. The restaurant was rather loud, but the food was FABULOUS! Thanks to my co-workers, I am discovering that bar food is very yummy...though I really don't prefer the atmosphere. After dinner, the girls wanted to go get a drink at Cheers. I tagged along because I didn't want to be walking alone in downtown Boston all by myself. At least I can now say that I have been to Cheers!

One touristy thing we were able to do was a Duck Tour. These are really fun. You take a tour throughout Boston (on land and in the Charles River) on ducks (a WW II style amphibious landing vehicle). The tour guides tell you about Boston's history in an educated and humorous way. Our ducks name was "Penelope Pru" and was hot pink! We stuck out like a sore thumb but at least we had fun.

We really wanted to go see a Red Sox game but they were out of town playing the Devil Rays. So next trip I'll go see Fenway Park. All in all...it was fun and I'm glad we went.

Rachel's Brithday and Easter

Rachel's birthday was on the 11th of this month so we went out to dinner on Friday night to celebrate. We went to a restaurant in Cedar Rapids called Granite City. They had yummy food and it was nice to spend some time alone with each other. It's hard to be able to do that with Nathan working so hard in school.On Saturday (Rachel's birthday), we went to a church primary activity, came home and dyed Easter eggs. This is the first time we have ever dyed eggs in the 4 1/2 years we've been married. It was lots of fun. Nathan's eggs are the blue and green ones (the manly colors).

After we dyed the eggs, Rachel opened her present from Nathan which was a food processor. Now she doesn't have to use a cheese grater to shred anything anymore! YEAH!Later that night we attended the adult session of stake conference. The talks that were given had messages that we both needed to hear. They were uplifting and encouraging, and the broadcast the next day from Salt Lake was also wonderful. Elder Snow from the Presidency of the Seventy spoke, along with Sister Lifferth from the Primary General Presidency, Elder Dallin H. Oaks from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and our Prophet President Thomas S. Monson. We are so blessed to live in this day in age. Sometimes we wonder where we would be without the church.