Our vacation destination this year: Washington, DC

After we stopped in North Carolina, we continued up the road to Maryland.  We stayed with Todd's brother, Jim, and his family for the remainder of the week so that we could "vacation" in DC. 

Each day, we went into the city.  Our first day there, we walked the mall.... and got acquainted with HOW BIG it really is!  We were on foot and did not make it as far as we thought we would.  We did some cool stuff, however.

As soon as we got off the Metro, we went to a carousel / took a spin.  Then, we visited the Smithsonian "Castle." 

We also walked through a Smithsonian sculpture garden.  Mercer and Marley are standing in front of a stainless steel tree.  And we got another shot of Mercer standing inside of a Calder sculpture.  We saw - as we were leaving - that he was not supposed to be "inside" of it, however.  oops!

Afterwards, we walked towards the Washington Monument.  It was closed for damage, however, we played Frisbee on the big grassy lawn adjacent to the monument. 

After lunch, we went to the White House, but were "shoo-ed" away with the hundreds of other people who were peering into the wrought-iron fence.  We figured that someone was going to make an appearance on the lawn & we couldn't be there??

We worked our way over to the World War II museum and put our feet in the water / walked around to look at the states represented. 

We continued to the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.  We probably spent the most time at this monument.  He is carved coming out of a large stone that was "pushed" out of the larger boulder / entry - symbolic of the monolithic struggle he encoutnered.  Most-impiring are the quotes are etched into the wall. 

The monument faces the tidal basin and the Jefferson Memorial is beyond.  Mercer found a little water feature and had to play in it there for awhile. 

Our day ended with a long walk back to the Metro and then an evening at the pool where Jim & Becki are members.

The following day, we visited the Air & Space Museum.