After leaving Ford Theatre, we drove down embassy road where we saw the different embassies from countries around the world.  They had spectacular houses, some even mansions but the British embassy was the largest.  No country is poor in this street because their mansions were beautiful.  Down the road we also drove by the National Cathedral and I can certainly tell you that it was HUGE.  We also passed by President Obama's kids private school (I forgot the name) in the richie rich area.

Later, we were dropped off the Smithsonian Air Space Museum which was the museum I was most looking forward to going.  I love reading about history on the War of the Pacific, so I immediately entered the Air Space Museum and asked for the World War 2 exhibit.  I quickly walked in and was amazed to see the actual aircraft used in the war including the Mitsubishi Japanese Zero and the P-51 Mustang.  I took about 50 pictures and learned that the P-51 uses an air cooling engine system.  Then we visited the remaining exhibits which were all amazing and I couldn't believe how many aircraft they could fit in this museum. 

We then walked across the street to the Natural History museum and saw the Hope Diamond which personally, I thought, was small and expected it to be much bigger.  People laughed when I said, "I thought it was bigger," but it was nowhere near as big as I thought it would be.  It was 45.52 carats, but I guess what made it expensive was the blue color or something like that.  There was a much larger 75 carat diamond on another part of the exhibit and that it didn't get as much attention.  I was disappointed, but still, it was pretty cool.

Later, we walked a few blocks away to the National Archives to see The Constitution, The Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence.  "You can't take pictures, you can't take pictures and you can't take pictures" is what the guards told us, I understood her the first time, but I guess they had to tell me two more times.  We saw a brief movie of the National Archives that talked about the documents it has, but really at this time I was starting to get tired, but it was interesting.  We then walked up two flights of stairs to see the historic documents.  In a dark guarded room we then viewed the original Declaration of Independence signed by John Hancock, followed by the Constitution, then the Bill of Rights.  The Bill of Rights was very faded and I could only read part of the signatures.  There were also some Women's Right's documents but I really didn't pay too much attention to the copies. 

We were then dropped off to the World War 2 and Vietnam Memorials.  I took some pictures of this awesome World War 2 Memorial then walked over to the Vietnam Memorial.  At the Vietnam Memorial, I located the name of my uncle, Rafael "Ralph" Sanchez Jr., who was a private in the Army and was killed in action on August 4, 1968.  I took some pictures of his name on the memorial and etched his name with pencil on a paper that was given to me by the staff.  It was a touching moment for me because I never knew him, but was grateful to him and all the soldiers (58,267) for giving their lives for us.  My dad and I said a prayer together for him and the other soldiers who gave their lives.  We then left with the group.

In the evening, we went to Champs for dinner.  I, again, had a cheeseburger, Alan and David had chicken quesadillas, and my dad had a chicken ceaser salad.  The food was good and I was told to tell the parents that your kids are eating very well on this trip.  I can agree with that for now.

It is now 10:04pm, and I have to get ready to pack as we are leaving for Gettysburg tomorrow.

More to come....