I'll take "Liberty or Death" for $1000, please.

The family loaded up and went to Washington, DC for a spur-of-the-moment, whirlwind tour this weekend.

Here's a not-so-quick recap of almost everything we did:

Day 1:
-Archives to see the Constitution, my favorite work of art (line too long, time too short, we'll catch it next time)
-American Art and Portrait Gallery
-Ford's Theatre (under construction and not open until 2009!)
-Petersen House, where Lincoln died
-Homeless people at Cleveland Park, which prompted a discussion about homelessness
-A panhandler, which prompted a discussion about panhandling and how to deal with it
-National Cathedral and President Wilson, which prompted a discussion later about the schism of the Catholic church, Luther and his 95 Theses, and why I think Catholic cathedrals are what heaven is like, if there is such a thing as heaven.

Side note: we walked through a very nice-looking neighborhood to get from the subway to the Cathedral. It was so posh, they not only had regular ol' gray squirrels, but also the ultra-fancy super-puffy-tailed black squirrels. Nice!

Day 2:
-Arlington Cemetery

• John F Kennedy
• Robert Kennedy
• Unknown soldier change-of-guard ceremony
• Robert Todd Lincoln, wife and son, and an interesting discussion about RTL's mom
  
• President Taft (or 'President T. Fat,' if you ask The Girl)
• 5-star General Omar Bradley
• A really weird discussion on who can and can't be buried there, why some stones have names on the back as well as the front, and if Mister would like to be there (answer=no, but thanks for asking).
• at least two soundings of Taps, which prompted a short discussion bugles and of when Taps is played.
  

-The Mall

• Washington's monument
• Reflecting pool and an excellent discussion on how this area is superb for protest marches
• Lincoln's monument
• Vietnam memorial and a short history of the conflict in which my kids asked really good questions
• Women in the Military memorial
• World War II memorial
• Jefferson memorial (we only saw it from a distance)
  

-Really strange people at the subway platform

**

Here's a memorable moment from the tour:

Awesome! (Yes, I cropped out The Baby. She's too cute to put up on the Interwebs, you know.)

We're thinking of e-mailing the photo to Colbert. Incidentally, his portrait is currently located in the Presidential portrait gallery. Specifically, there is a sort of cubby across from Andrew Jackson's (hack, spit) portrait into which restrooms were built. The Colbert Portrait is located inside that cubby, between the mens' and ladies' rooms, and overlooking the water fountain. His place in America's posterior is assured.

Posterior? Posterity? Hmm. I always get those confused.

Anyhoo, I have some other awesome photos from this trip which can only be described as "wicked awesomeful."

We made an attempt to hit Mount Vernon before it closed, but it was pissing down rain as we arrived at the interstate exit. Instead, we went to dinner early and came home. Regardless, we can tick off three more dead presidents on our Dead Presidents Tour guide.

No, there' s not really a guide per se, just that we're trying to visit the final resting places of all the dead presidents before we're dead ourselves. Everyone should have a goal. This just happens to be ours.

Mister will be leaving for a slightly warmer climate in April but will fly back in mid-June so that we can visit Mount Vernon for our final Virginia-planted dead president (Washington) as well as Stonewall Jackson's arm. Why Jackson's arm? Well, why not?

If anyone knows of anything historic and morbid and/or bizarre that might be of interest here in the Grand Commonwealth of the State of Ever-loving Virginia, please feel free to post it in the comments. For some reason, "morbid and/or bizarre" is what holds the interest of kids these days. I can't understand why.