Washington D.C.: Our trip 1 of 2

Wow! Have we had a fun past few days. Ten days, 5 hotels, and a ton of memories. I arrived in D.C. on Monday, and the family came out on Tuesday. It was fun to drive to the airport to pick them up, and them bring them back to my "home."
Our first hotel was our nicest, an Embassy Suites by the Washington-Dulles aiport. It was close to the new Air and Space Museum, the second building that now houses all of the "big" stuff. Brenda and the kids went there on Wednesday, while I was teaching. They had fun. There was a space shuttle there, a Concord, etc.
On Thursday, they drove down to Mount Vernon, and basically spent the day there. They had a blast.
I didn't teach on Friday, so we had the day to drive into the city. We spent all that day and Saturday touring. It was a blast. We started at the Capitol, where an intern from our Senator's office gave us a tour of the Senate side. We even got to sit in the assembly, while the other (liberal) freshman senator from MN talked. Pretty funny, as there is obviously a pecking order. She got to speak because there was literally one other senator in there.
A few years ago, while at Rimage, I had trained some guys from the House of Representatives, who promised an inside tour if I ever came. They held their promise, and it was great. We went to a lot of places that most don't go to, I'm sure. It was fun to stand where the President gives his State of the Union address, etc. It took a little more time than we had hoped, but it was fun. We ate lunch in the House cafeteria.
Saturday, was mostly taken touring the monuments and other Smithsonian exhibits, and also the Holocaust Museum. If you ever are in D.C., that is a MUST SEE! Not fun, but very moving and powerful.
It was also moving to read Lincoln's 2nd inaugural address. A powerful treatise on the sovereignty of God, there on display for everyone to read. It felt like we walked ten miles.
Sunday, we went to Capitol Hill Baptist Church. It was a good service, good sermon and music. The only thing we sort of missed, was an organ. I'm not a huge organ person, but that old building begged for a big pipe organ.
That ended our stay in D.C. I'll let the others comment on it, and later I'll add about the rest of our trip.