Year 4, July 25th, 2019: Washington, D.C. Day 2, Memorials and Museum of the Bible

Ok, Washington, D.C. Day 2! We were able to get up and out the door about an hour earlier than yesterday.  We got up the metro near the White House and Washington Monument areas because we wanted to those first while we were fresh.  We knew we would walk the rest of the Washington Mall together and then split off, some to the Smithsonians and some to the Museum of the Bible.  It was a little hotter the second day and we were outside for a good portion of the day.  I did have to sit down at one point and level off my blood sugars, but I was fine after that.  Because of all the walking, and being on the opposite end of the mall as the Museum of the Bible, I decided to look up an Uber or Lyft just to see how much it would cost.  It was going to take at least 45 minutes to walk to the MOTB, and the kids' and I's legs just couldn't handle it.  In less than five minutes, the Uber XL jumped in price twice over, so I went with the Lyft app.  For less than $20 (I gave her a hefty tip), Jared, I, Keturah, Justin, and Abishai (and the wagon) in less than 10 minutes from when we reserved it.  It was a young mom (who had a 4 yr old) and she was doing Lyft until she could find a more stable job.  I was more than happy to help her out and over tip her.  The app worked great, alerting us every couple of minutes, telling us what color van and such she had, etc.  And she drove well and was on time and the van was clean, etc.  It was a great first experience with an Uber/Lyft and an D.C. of all places!  So much cheaper and faster than calling a cab! And we showed her a new attraction, the Museum of the Bible.  She had only been driving for a few months and lives about 30 minutes away from D.C.  It definitely saved us time and comfort level.  Abishai even fell asleep during the ride!  So, it was just the five of us at the MOTB.  Aaron's family visited the Smithsonians and Gary, Leah, and Benaiah went to the Holocaust museum.  I feel like our country talks way more about a)wars in general and b) 20th century wars than anything.  We have almost glorified war but also focused so heavily on the victims as well.  But we forget all the other things that happened here and abroad before, during, and after the wars.  We forget about the scientists, the preachers, the teachers, the lay person, the mothers, etc.

Anyway, I'm sure my kids would have wanted to see things with their cousins, but I thought it was much more important to see a museum full of the history of the Bible and how the Bible (and the church) has influenced history so directly over the years.  The Museum of the Bible lived up to it's hype and more!  I was like a kid in a candy store because I recognized so many names and ideas that we have studied over and over again in our history lessons.  From the ancients scripts and things like the Rosetta Stone and Dead Sea Scrolls and the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Gutenberg Printing Press and Martin Luther Bibles to how the Bible and it's principals were the foundation of this country and how so many famous Americans had a Biblical worldview to scientists like Galileo and George Washington Carver to Christian CEO'S of huge corporations to prison ministries to how the Bible was used in schools and is part of school insignias, etc. etc.  History is HIS story, meaning God's story and HIS relationship with human kind and whether you like it or not, God's truth has been fundamental in everything.   Now, the museum did an incredible job of presenting facts and truth without arguing about ideology or theology.  It shared information about Jewish Torahs, Catholic Apocrypha, and even some Muslim items/influences. It was very religiously "neutral" if that's such a thing.  I didn't even get the vibe that they were trying to convert you to Christianity.  They weren't denying it of course, and they were there to prove how influential this Book has been to our world from the beginning.  You can walk into this museum as an atheist and learn a TON of history.  The wealth of knowledge (and the price tag of admission) and the modern presentation was just like the Creation Museum or the Ark Encounter.  I was only able to thoroughly read through 2 out of 4 stories of information in the 3 hrs I had.

The one floor we didn't go through was probably what the kids would have enjoyed the most and that was something like the Ark where they showed you the life and times of Jesus (and I think other Biblical time periods as well, maybe others, I can't remember).  Since we focus so much on those things (context before content) in our studies and we've seen picture book after picture book, I felt that we could cut that floor out without missing out on too much.  The one area we totally missed and wished we could have known about sooner was on the main floor and it was a little play area for kids!  Jared had to babysit an already wired for sound Abishai in the hallways outside of the exhibits and I wish a curator would have directed him to the kids' room.  In fact, there weren't a lot of curators around.  I wish there had been some for people who had questions and maybe a few more live demonstrations or explanations.  I should send in that suggestion.  There are a million and one REAL artifacts though, and that was the most exciting part!  Bibles printed 500 years ago!  Illuminated (Bibles with artwork in them) Bibles from 1,000 years ago! And not reprints either, the real thing!  There were some reprints and some fake ancient scroll pieces just because the originals are so fragile and I'm sure they wanted to share examples from all time periods.  But I have never seen so many authentic artifacts of the Bible before, not even the special exhibit that came to Indianapolis about 15 years ago.  There were parallel text Bibles that Jared would have liked to see.  There was even a Bible that had belonged to President Trump when he was much younger!  There were big Bibles and pocket Bibles.  And then there was an awesome display of types of Bibles you can purchase today.  And of course, the room all about translating the Bible into modern foreign languages (vs. the translations of Bibles over the years from the original manuscripts which they also showed off and explained as well, especially the King James Version.) 

Anyway, obviously, the Museum of the Bible was THE highlight for me on our two days in Washington, D.C.  I could feel my Mom smiling down on me (well, if that even exists, but let's pretend it does), for making sure our kids know the truth about the Bible and about HIStory and about our government, etc.  I know that Benaiah and Justin both paid attention to everything around them and soaked it in.  Keturah, too, did her best as an 11 yr old.  She fell at some point and was very, very tired and her knees were aching, so I know that was a distraction for her.  But overall, I was able to emphasize that while we love our country and understand our current freedoms, it's never been perfect.  Our founding fathers argued and even killed each other sometimes.  Political power is a highly sought out thing.  We should never put so much trust and love into a thing that was created by man, even the United States of America.  That would be called nationalism.  The world is a much bigger place than the United States of America.  Just like the Israelites and their system of laws was set up by God, so was our laws set on a Biblical worldview.  But just the like the Israelites, Americans are corrupt and we fail each other all the time.  Our hope is not in our country, it is in the God we worship.  I would find it awesome to touch any ancient artifact, no matter if it was an Israeli coin or something from Mongolia or Ecuador.  Touching a piece of history is awesome to me, especially if it's something from a foreign country. We have a lot of awesome things going for us in this country, but God blesses other countries, too.  We are part of a global economy and a global Church with a capital "C" and we need to remember that. Would have it been cool to see the origianl Betsy Ross flag?  Sure!  But was it more important to be reminded and see a real Martin Luther Bible? Absolutely. 

My conclusion, if you are going to Washington, D.C., I would highly recommend spending the time and money at the Museum of the Bible.  It is so well done.  Why not see things that help people have hope instead of viewing things that remind you of death?  There is death in the Bible. Jesus died for us and our eternal life.  Soldiers on earth died for our immediate freedoms, which is almost as important.  Are you just a citizen of the United States or the world, or are you a citizen of Heaven someday?  That's the real question.

P.S.We did get to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  I think I talked it about it in the previous blog.  But because I wasn't allowed to take pictures, I can't remember which day we saw it on.  It was at the end of the day right before closing time.  I'm pretty sure it was the first day because we were together, and on the second day, we had a similar experience about who had what metro card and where to meet up, etc.  Thankfully it didn't rain the second day and there was a metro station right next to the Museum of the Bible.  We opted to get back to our cars and then had dinner out at iHop before getting on the road back to Delaware.  It was the slowest food service (slower than Denny's!) I have ever experienced.  No one was in the restaurant and it still took more than 30 minutes to put our food together.  Oh well, we were full and most of us slept on the way home.

Washington, D.C. Playlist 7/24-25/2019

iPhone pics

There it is again!  The Washington Monument!  There's a reason why it was built to be taller than anything else in Washington!  This was on our way to the White House.

The one and only White House.  This was the best position we could find to take pictures at.  You'll know why when you see the DSLR photos below.

Abishai decided to pull his own wagon up the hill to the Washington Monument.  The WM was under construction so we didn't go in it.  We didn't have enough time anyway.

And another selfie.

This is me trying to peek through some fencing at the Washington Mounted Police's horse.  I'm pretty sure we have mounted police in Indianapolis, too.

Sorry for all the selfies but that's what I use my iPhone for. I just want to prove it was I taking all these photos!  Lincoln Memorial.  I remember standing on the right side inside the top with my mom reading I think the script on the wall and noticing a large African American family near us.  Or maybe group of people were singing.  I can't remember exactly, but it was the one thing I remembered from being here with my mom 21 years ago.

So many steps!  Little guy with Grandpa.

I guess I took way more photos of objects than our family over the last two days.  I think because we were always so split up and there wasn't many opportunities to stop and let the kids play.

Woah! What warm thing just feel on me?!  Bird poop!  That's a new experience!  Ew!

Little guy fell asleep during our Lyft ride.

Amen!  There were so many other quotes from famous presidents and people about the Bible, too.  But you'll just have to go to the museum to find out!

The Martin Luther Bible with a note from Martin Luther himself!

I'll explain this room down below, but this is one of those things that brings a concept to real life.

A full train on our way out of Washington, D.C.  Of course, as people disembarked, the train was nearly empty by the time we got off because we were the end of the line.

Jared had eventually shifted Abihai to laying down on his shoulder and he fell asleep!  When we got off the train, Jared laid him in the wagon and stayed asleep from the wagon through the ride to our van and from the van to the iHop.  He was wiped!

The more middle kids.  Best friends for life.  And they've spent so much time together that they fight like siblings, too.  There's a total of a 5 yr span between the four of them. 

17 year old's facial hair game is going strong this week because he is just like his father and "forgot" a razor.  Seriously, until Jared started shaving his head, he wouldn't bring a razor on vacations and just let his stubble grow.  And for this vacation, Jared did bring his stuff, but he still didn't get around to it until very late in the week. Like father, like son.

Can you tell they are related?  Yup!

Sugar overload!  Actually, I suggested iHop because I thought the kids would like to have a sugarfest pancake dinner, but only Nora and Justin had the motherload of pancakes.  Everyone else had other breakfast items.  There were no gluten free pancakes, but man, if only I could eat all the cannoli and crepes!

Abishai isnisted on trying out the different syrups on his (boxed) mac and cheese.  IHop, you have failed the mac and cheese game.

OOO, the diamond indicating the carpool lane! Yes!  I think I would be able to travel in that lane 95% of the time if we had them back in Indy, which we don't.

Ready to be back at the vacation house.  Keturah is sporting her brand new hoodie.  I think she claims that she loves hoodies because somehow she want to do the things that Benaiah does, despite not getting along with him.  He had bought one as well for "we" as in he and Ava.  So for all the "stop it's" I get from the family for making Benaiah's romantic relationship more than it is, well, I think it's more serious and more likely to be more than just a high school dating thing than the rest of the family believes it is.  Anyway, we ended up buying some souvenirs and postcards for Washington, D.C. at the mom and pop tiny room shop set up in the hotel we stayed at.  They were so kind and it was a more calm experience than buying something out of a truck along the sidewalk.  The gentlemen even showed me the cheaper sweatshirts as well.  They were an older Asian couple and I don't mind paying high prices for these things when I know I'm supporting someone like that.  Keturah would end up wearing that hoodie no matter how warm it was.  I think she needed some comfort or a way to hide from all the people time.  We made sure it was big enough to last a long time, too. I bought a ruler from the couple and some postcards.

Cargo ships in the bay.

Water and sunset, my absolute favorite! (Ok, on par with mountains and sunsets).

This was so random in my Instagram feed, but I love the snowmen made out of sand thing! We actually received a poscard ad with something similar on it.  So cute!  And I do have a thing for snowmen, or in this case, sandmen!

DSLR pics.  Bear with me as I don't know the names of everything.  Also, it may seem like a lot, but I didn't include all the photos I took at the MOTB.  I just wanted to include a sampling of what you could see there.  I won't be able to remember which Bible was what, but they are clearly marked in the museum.  I'm definitely grateful we had two days of glorious weather.  80-85 degrees is so much better than a heat index of over 100.  Praise God for a break in the weather!

This is what we saw when we came out of the metro station this time.  Definitely some old buildings!

If only these stones could talk....

Original home of the United States Post Office (I think), which was designed and put in place by Benjamin Franklin.

Some interesting DC facts.

As you gaze at these incredible structures, just remember a lot of them were build with Indiana limestone!  Washington, D.C. was the 5th city to house our government, which took awhile to figure out.

Such a famous street!

Department of the Treasury

If only we had the time to visit the 100's of memorials around D.C.

An interesting nugget of history which happened BEFORE Canada became it's own identity.

Give me back my money!  Ok, it isn't the IRS building, but seriously, they've been holding onto our refund for over 6 months and won't tell us why.  Grr....

Well, there it is, behind all the fencing.

Not many protestors out today.

I wish we had come at a time where there wasn't so much construction!  But, Trump insists on building a better, higher fence because of a journalist who got over the current one a year or two ago.  Sigh.  Let's protect the innocent in our slums just as much as we protect the one who thinks they are the king of our nation, ok?  He's just a man.  He's not the government, which can run on it's own.

Money shot.

Their selfie game is improving.

So many helicopters!  I don't remember having so many patrolling helicopters 21 years ago!  The noise definitely ruined the mood at times.

Some gates onto the White House grounds.  You can tour the White House but you have to get tickets six months in advance.

Beautiful day in our nation's capital.  I wonder what it's like on a rainy, cold day in January.

Washington Monument with a helicopter keeping an eye on the area.

So much lawn space in the Washington Mall and yet, we didn't feel like we could walk on it or use it to throw frisbees or something.

One of the most recent additions to the collection of museums here, the African American History Museum.  Granted, most of our museums are full of white folk, but why do we have to have separate museums and months of the year to celebrate a segment of our population that wants to be seen the same way as white people are?  I just don't get it.

The other brand new monument that was finished in the last 5-10 years was this WWII memorial.  I'm not sure why it has taken this long to accomplish and why there isn't anything else that represents that war, but whatever.  It is gigantic though with a pool in the middle you can deep your feet in, but they tell you not to walk in the pool out of respect.  Weird.

Different posts representing the states who sent soldiers into the conflict.

There was the Atlantic side and the Pacific side.

See the description below.  Yes, a huge loss of life, but there were plenty of worse conflicts in the Bible.

Walking down the mall towards the Lincoln Memorial.

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial I believe.

Mommy, I found a squirrel!

Keturah and I geeked out over mounted police trailers.  They have stalls for the horses right there behind a fence on the mall.

Korean War I think.

This was a unique way to represent the different kind of soldiers and conditions in the Asian conflicts that weren't really resolved, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

And then if you looked a different way, there were these pathways that I think represented how many died in each branch of the military or subdivision of the branch or something like that.

Another money shot, but some were very tired.  Grandma is holding Abishai up, lol.

Again, these buildings have been here for a very long time.  Imagine how many kinds of people they've seen over the years.

Knock off mini Lego of some of the buildings.  Lego does have a mini build of the Capitol Building and maybe even the White House.

I'm not going to try to explain every photo but we started on the floor that details how the Bible was brought to America and it's influence on it.  Then it went into the Gutenberg Press and all of that.

The MOTB did feature many of the early American preachers and some of the movements like the Great Awakening and how they were influential as America grew.

An example of a pulpit that was used outside because the preacher's theology was controversial.

Now this is a facisimile of the real Liberty Bell.   It was neat to see it's size, even if we couldn't be near the real thing.  There is an inscription on it that is based on Scripture, too.

Yes, the Bible can be used as history book.  Because the colonists couldn't bring over many possessions, they choose to bring their Bibles and used it to teach their kids to read before there were organized schools.  Kids would practice handwriting by copying down Bible verses. And of course there's the moral truth in it as well.

We were just in time to see a demonstration of the Gutenberg Press complete with a skit!

These are the insignias of some very well known Ivy League schools that contain Biblical elements to them.  In fact, many of these schools were founded as seminaries and Christian universities.  They have become everything but a Christian school in their current modern thoughts and hotbeds for post modern thinking.  How sad!

Again, another example of how the Bible was taught in public schools!

An early education ABC book included Bible stories.

They had this awesome wall with ALL the names of Bible people on it!  So, I made sure to find all of ours!  I didn't find Alexander, which is Benaiah's middle name, but I believe it's mentioned the Bible or it is at least a Biblical place as in the Alexandria, Egypt.   Can you find Abishai's name?

Benaiah

Apollos (Justin's middle name)

Keturah

Elisabeth, Keturah and I's middle name and yes, that's how we spell it, the original way it is spelled in the Bible.

Justus, for Justin.

Nathan for Abishai's middle name.  And of course there is Jared and Andrew, and Aaron (but no Blake, which is Aaron's middle name).

How cool to already add some Billy Graham materials!

A display of Jewish items.  They also had this cool touch table that explained the Passover foods I believe.

Florence Nightingale.  Remember, in the "boring" books of the Law, there are rituals about how to clean things and what to eat and that was to protect the Israelites from getting sick.

I loved these tiles that represented how different people groups came up with their own calendars!  Of course we get some of our months from the Roman and Greek calendars.  And some of these calendars are still used today.  Not everyone follows the standard calendar we use in the United States.  So neat!

All kinds of renditions of the Virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus.

A mock up of the Jewish temple.  The second floor took you through all of history.

Even Elvis had an album of hymns!

We have the comic book Bible in English!

Even comic books had Bible characters!

Epic of Gilgamesh helps to prove the stories of the Bible are true.  In fact, if we believe any of the history written in any form other than the Bible, although there are far less original copies of those history books, than we can trust the Bible even more because of the 1,000's of original documents that we have found of the Bible.  Remember MAPS? Manuscripts (1,000's of them), Archeology, Prophecies (most of the prophecies of Jesus in Isaiah and Jeremiah especially, came true, but I think there are also outside sources that also prove Jesus was real), and Scripture (this part of the acronym always stumps me, but I think it's that Scripture proves itself.  How can a single theme over 66 books with dozens of authors over 1,000's of years hold together if it wasn't inspired by God?)

Ancient coins like denarii that we read about in Scripture, and those log looking things have cuneiform writing on them!

What ancient Israel might have looked like.

More cuneiform I believe.  Ugh, this is a facsimile of an important artifact that helped prove the Bible or had several languages on it, and no, it isn't the Rosetta Stone.

Actual artifacts from Jesus' time.

Replica of the Rosetta Stone I believe.

A diagram of what the Dead Sea Scrolls look like.  Taken care of by the third group of Jews, the Essences for several centuries even after the time of Christ.  One of the biggest archaeological discoveries of the last century.

Babylonian brick that mentions Biblical stories.

Imagine trying to write down history on things like this.

Jerusalem at the time of King Herod.

There were many of these lightweight wood looking pieces that had the imprint of original documents on them, each representing some part of Scripture.  It was a unique way to display them that I hadn't seen before.  Like a wood carving.

Historians have the original documents, but they actually take photos of it so they can enhance the photo, making it clearer so they can read it better.

Awesome display of an original artifact so you can see both sides.  These photos are of items 1,000 years old.

Early Christian symbolism.

And the start of the Illuminated Bibles.  Handpainted, and in the beginning, hand written Bibles saved for only the richest of rich people.  The printing press helped make the Bible more accessible but some were still painted as well.

Tools for book binding.

Torah scrolls I believe.

How gorgeous are these originals?!

Gold letters!

Oh yeah, a lot of these Bibles not only contained what we know as the 66 books of Scripture, but often other readings and hymns or the Apocrypha.  It's easier to juggle one book, right?

Check out those clasps used to keep the Bible closed!

Wow, lots of different letters.

Examples of the individual letter stamps used in the Gutenberg press.  Imagine how many hours it took to set up the type! And then to proofread it and such.  They had a whole thing set up showing how each line was put together.

Ink blotters to add ink to the letters and then the paper was put on top, and pressed down.

Explaining that even after the printing press was used, the Bibles were embellished.

Oh yes!  They had original Tyndale and Geneva Bibles!  Wow!  I will also mention here that they included Johovah Witness Bibles, including the children's story book by the JW. I had just watched a vlog on YouTube about how scary some of the illustrations were in the JW children's book of Bible stories so I was able to make the connection.  I believe they also had a Mormon Bible.  Again, they didn't condemn anybody's theology, but instead had examples of all of it, letting the facts present themselves.  So anyone can come into the museum and learn and appreciate the Bible in all its iterations.

Oh yeah, this was the facsimile of the Rosetta Stone.  Neat!

Not copies, but REAL artifacts!

Interesting section for the Jewish culture.  I think those are real scrolls, and I believe each scroll contains one book of the Old Testament maybe.

Earliest Braille Bible!

Second edition of Braille Bible with Braille as we know it.

A scroll case.

Wow!  I haven't been in a synagogue, but I believe they use similar things like this sometimes.  Imagine when Jesus was upfront and reading the scrolls of Isaiah that explained who he was to the men there.

Some Jewish artifacts.

We have the Brick Bible!  Mostly accurate but does contain bloody battles and circumcision in all it's glory so it's not a young children's Bible.

Nice!  The Waterproof Bible!

Ok, here is where I explain this really neat area to you.  I actually saw them show it off on their Instagram stories a week or so ago.  Each book in this area represents the Bible and whether or not part or all of it has been translated into a current foreign language.  As you can see, half of the world's languages still don't have the Bible translated into them.  Some just have a chapter or two, some have whole books of the Bible, or even the New Testament or Old Testament.  What got me was just how much more work there is to be done before everyone on earth has heard of Jesus and has the written Word in front of them.  When recruiting for the ministry, we don't hear people talk about the need to translate Scripture into foreign languages.  But that's exactly what we need.  Not everyone will know English.  Some tribes are so far out in the jungle, that their language hasn't even been written down yet and stories are still passed orally.  For all the technology we have in today's world, why haven't we reached our goal that everyone hears the gospel? Wow!

All of these bright yellow books are blank and represent the fact that translating the Bible into that language hasn't even begun yet.

The other half of the books are either full of writing (fully translated) or partially written in (partially translated).  How are we not any further thn this?

What an incredible visual, especially for the kids, to see how much more work needs to be done.  Have you ever seen a purely blank book before?

And then this one is full because it's been fully translated.

Jared was able to be in on this particular conversation, thank goodness.  I had let the kids go and sit on a bench outside the exhibit while I quickly finished up because I thought I had shown them everything I wanted to show them.  Well, I hadn't because I forgot this room was here.  I had Jared bring the kids back in.  What an incredible visual reminder of the Kingdom Work yet to be done!

One of our last stops was a small display of one of the featured Bibles, and in our case, it was the Slave Bible.  In the Slave Bible, large portions of Scripture were taken out about freedom and anything about the Israelites escaping from Egypt.  It is NOT ok to change the Bible to suit your needs like this, and yet, it happened, in our country nonetheless.

Scriptures heavily used by slave owners of course included all the Scriptures on slave obeying their masters.

Wow!  They were missing the whole story of the Bible!  The whole concept of freedom!  Oh, one of the Scirptures they took out was the one about "neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free" everybody is equal in the eyes of God.  Of course slaves were not considered equal as late as the Civil War.  Wow.

And there's a real slave Bible.

We finally found a kids' section!  It was little contrived, but at least Abishai could run around for a few minutes.

Can you be Sampson and push down the pillars in the temple?

David and Goliah, so you throw a ball to hit Goliah in the had.

Esther walking up to the King, where yu have to get a ball to go between the figurines without it falling off the pathway which moved back and forth.

It took a lot of effort, but the pillars did move!

Noah's Ark of course, with toy animals from the Little People toy series.

A jungle gym!  Why didn't we know about this sooner?!  Abishai of course iddn't want to leave.

Jonah running away from Nineveh of course.

I wanted to stand underneath this until it changed to the Sistine Chapel, but oh well, we didn't have time.  The photo does slowly change to all kind of different sky photos too.  It's the entry way into the museum.

Very beautiful hat.  They of course branded their gear very well and had tons to choose from.

Ok, we have Bibleopoloy, but do we really need a David and Goliah themed connect four and a bowling set with Bible characters on them?  Lol.

This is a little too much branding, lol.  I did end up buying a magnet that said Museum of the Bible and had some pictures of the buildings in downtown DC, plus a couple of small Christmas gifts.

Zonked out.

Amtrak train.  It uses the same track as the metro, and so does the high speed train.

Another photo of the four middles.

So bored waiting for the shuttle to arrive that Jared started reading the brochure on year long metro passes.  Thank goodness the weather wasn't unbearable.

Benaiah checking his phone.  Don't worry, he had it off most of the time.

More Benaiah facial hair.  The boy is growing up!

The Fabulous Four

The high speed train going to New York or Boston!

Playing on the pillars waiting for the shuttle bus.

Phew, that was a lot.  I hope you got a glimpse into DC and the Museum of the Bible.  You could spend weeks and weeks exploring it all.  And it's so much more important than Disney World.  I'm glad we were able to go and for fairly cheap.  We Johnsons know how to travel, at least some of the time.  And the next time you are in DC, spend the $25 and explore as much of the Museum of the Bible that you can.  It's so worth it!  Enjoy!

The End