Jule’s Journal:
By: Julianne Lillie
9/23/22: “Arlington National Cemetery” – The Cherry Hill RV Park (where we camped) gifted us the “Hop on Hop off Trolley” tickets at Arlington Cemetery which was very kind! I later found out they were $17/person so we were quite thankful! We drove to the Arlington National Cemetery & luckily they had plenty of parking – even for oversized vehicles! We went through security, redeemed our tickets, and got a map at the Visitor’s Center.
We decided to visit Aunt Franny’s half sister’s uncle Earl’s grave first. Because the cemetery is so massive, they provide a gravesite shuttle for free! We found his section (27) and hopped on the shuttle. We found his gravesite, paid our respects, captured some photos for Aunt Franny, and rode the shuttle back to the visitor’s center.
On our way back, we saw one funeral’s fly-over & heard the 21 gun salute. We also saw the procession w/ horses & the caisson. We also learned there were 25 funerals that day! WOW! Once we returned to the Visitor’s Center, it was already about lunch time, so we decided head back to the truck for a picnic lunch. No picnicking in the cemetery, so the truck it was!
After lunch, we started our Trolley tour. We drove by JFK’s burial site & hopped off at the Tomb of the Unkown Soldier where we had 5 minutes until the next “changing of the guard” ceremony. (It happens every 30 min.) We got there just in time to watch the ceremony. It was an absolute meticulous routine done without flaw but with flair and precision! It was moving and even beautiful… leaving the audience full of thankfulness for those who sacrificed so much for our freedoms, respect for those who are still serving to protect our freedoms, and pride for our country & it’s rich traditions.
As we stood there awestruck and silent, we watched the changing of the guard ceremony followed by 2 wreath laying ceremonies. And then by that then, it was time for another changing of the guard ceremony. So we walked closer to get a better view of the inspection process during the ceremony.
During one of the Wreath laying ceremonies:
After the 2nd wreath laying ceremony:
Up close and personal during the Changing of the Guard:
Behind the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a large outdoor Amphitheater. It was gorgeous!
After that, we walked up Wilson Avenue (After our namesake: My maiden name & Jett's middle name) to the Arlington House.
We walked passed this beautiful peace memorial amphitheater on our way:
Made it to the Arlington House on top of the hill:
We learned that the Arlington House is a National Historic Site protected by the National Park Service (NPS). This house was built by George Washington Park Custis, grandson to Marth Washington whom was raised by Martha & George Washington. George Washington Park Custis had a daughter, Mary Custis, who married Robert E. Lee. Mary & Robert Lee lived in this house for 30 years & he was a great general in the US Army. President Lincoln requested that Robert E. Lee lead the entire US Army, which he declined & resigned to join (& lead) the Confederate Army leading up to the Civil War. He never returned to that home and shortly after he left, Mary also fled south. The federalists took ownership of his home and land and started burying Union soldiers on the property. And that’s how Arlington National Cemetery came to be. The house has been restored by NPS & stands as a memorial to Robert E. Lee & the enslaved people that worked there. The kids earned a Jr. Ranger badge & then we explored all 5 of the additional buildings.
Front of the house - it was actually coated with sand stone and painted to look like marble. Sandstone was readily available at that time whereas marble was not yet imported.
Inside of the house:
Dining Room:
Kids with their Jr Ranger badges:
Here’s the view from the front yard of the Arlington House looking out over DC. You can see the Washington Monument and to the left of that the Lincoln Memorial. You can also see the US Capitol building and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial to the left of that. Pretty remarkable view!
This is where JFK stood twice and told his wife, “I could stay here forever” both times. Hence, this is reason Jackie Kennedy chose Arlington National Cemetery as the burial site for her husband. We then walked to President John F. Kennedy’s burial site. You can see he's got the same view as the Arlington's house front porch.
We then trekked on to pay our respects to Claremore’s own, Stuart A. Roosa’s gravesite. He was a Claremore native who went on to be an astronaut and the pilot for Apollo 14’s mission to the moon.
We also got to see the Tomb of the Unknown Solider from down below as well. You can see the other wreaths from the day from other wreath laying ceremonies.
By now our legs were tired so we hopped on the trolley back to the Visitor’s Center. This place was SO HUGE! We then headed back to the truck and dove to the Pentagon’s 9/11 outdoor Memorial. We stayed about 20 minutes and walked around. It was a very neat and creative memorial to all those who lost their lives at the Pentagon on 9/11.
You can see the Pentagon building behind Jett in the photo below. Each structure with reflecting pool represents a life that was killed on 9/11 at the Pentagon. The structures pointing towards the Pentagon were representing a person who lost their life while working inside the building. The structures pointing away from the Pentagon were representing a person who lost their life in the airplane that crashed into the building. And they were organized by age at time of death. It was really a creative way to memorialize each person.
We then drove back to our RV, ate dinner and enjoyed a campfire in this cool, FALL weather! The high was only 68 degrees today… so it was the perfect weather for sweatshirts, campfire, & S’mores!
9/25/22: “Cathedral Day & Spies” – Today we went to church in DC and attended the Washington National Cathedral for worship at 11:15am. It just so happened (AKA: divinely orchestrated) that we were there for their 115th Anniversary Celebration of laying the cornerstone (which Pres. Theodore Roosevelt did).
They had a guest bishop fly in to speak and had invited Episcopal members from all over the nation come to attend this special day. They also had huge tents set up outside for a great reception afterwards. (However, I didn’t time my plans well so we had to leave early in order to make our timed entry at the next place.)
The Cathedral was so beautiful displaying grand architecture that produced superb acoustics adorned with gorgeous stained glass windows. The choir and organ music was incredible.
And the Bishop (guest speaker) was on fire & oh so funny! His authentic enthusiasm was so contagious! We were all thoroughly enjoying his message, but had to duck out a bit early to make it across town for our timed entry at 1pm for the International Spy Museum.
I had packed a picnic lunch which we quickly ate in the truck on our way to the museum. We arrived right at 1pm which was good because online they mentioned they would not accept late entries!
The Spy museum turned out to be REALLY neat & super fun! We took a short assessment test at the start so the computer could assign an under cover spy name, career, & hometown/country. We were also assigned a code word. This info was all tied to our badge card. The museum was HUGE – several stories high! And it highlighted successful spies who have impacted our world from all over in our history’s past. And it showed us crazy tools that had been invented & used from all different eras by spies. Some were a bit too graphic (like rectal capsules containing escape tools) but I’m sure proved untraceable behind enemy lines! They also had interactive kiosks in every room where we badged in and proceeded to complete covert missions, decoded messages, used ciphers, played mind games, disguised our photos, etc.
Got to try climbing through air ducts. Here was my view:
Here's the decoy blow up tanks that were used to outsmart our enemies in previous wars:
And of course the famous "James Bond car":
At the end, we all 4 completed our mission & received our assessments. It was really a lot of fun… so much so that we didn’t realize that we spent 4 hours there! We drove home in stop-n-go traffic and had to eat dinner quickly so we could facetime in for our Life Group Book Study!
9/28/22: “Smithsonian Day” –The boys woke up early & headed into DC to stand in line for 1 hour so Jett could get tickets and ride to the top of Washington Monument. Their photos of the view from the top are magnificent!
Meanwhile, Jaycie and I got to sleep in an hour extra (woohoo!) and took the bus to the metro and rode the train in to meet up with the boys. We met up with them at the Smithsonian Institute (AKA: Smithsonian Castle) and hit up the Visitor’s Center and outdoor gardens.
We learned there are 17 Smithsonian museums in the DC area. We decided to focus on 2 of them today. We headed to the Museum of Natural History first and explored the Deep Ocean exhibit on our way to the Live Butterflies.
The live butterflies were by far my favorite!
Then we visited the Gems & Minerals exhibit and caught a glimpse of the famous Hope Diamond and other rare, valuable gems and jewelry pieces!
Hope Diamond:
Queen Antoinette's Diamond Earrings - Can you imagine how heavy these were?? Ouch!
This was a really cool case:
Oklahoma was representing!!!
I thought this one was interesting:
We had lunch at the café then headed over to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. On our way we walked through another garden and found these monstrous gourds - Cucuzzi Gourds. Look at the size of these things!
Once we arrived to the American History Museum we headed straight for the Star Spangled Banner flag which we had learned so much about in Baltimore! It was so cool to tie all of our travels & learning together!
We also enjoyed browsing the Presidency Exhibit as well as the First Ladies Exhibit. Jaycie and I thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the First Ladies’ gowns and White House china place settings.
We also checked out the Money exhibit and learned that at one time there had been a $100,000 bill printed. It had President Woodrow Wilson on it.
We had a full day so we decided to head back home via the metro. We had evening chores, dinner, and then Jaycie and I tuned into Cedarpoint Students for an awesome message from Pastor Mike!
Jett’s Wild Flight:
By: Jett Lillie
9/26/22: “Mount Vernon” – This day we went to Mount Vernon which is owned and managed by the Womens Association. We visited George Washington’s old house and realized how lucky we are to have running water in our house!
Inside George Washington's Office:
We took a National Treasure 2 tour and learned where the movie was filmed. They used these stairs in the basement to film where Nicolas Cage and the president walked down to the "underground tunnels" that don't actually exist.
9/28/22: “Ride to the Top” – Soooo…My dad and I woke up early to get tickets to go in the 555 feet tall Washington Monument! We were one of the first people in line listening to this weird guy saying, “my great, uncle is Abraham Lincoln and o that Joe is a great president o I’m also related to a senator from Alaska” and so on! After an hour of waiting in the cold we got up in the Monument with a spectacular view.
Then we met up with my mom and sister and we went to the Smithsonian’s and learned about the deep see and animals!
9/29/22: “National Geographic Museum” – The next day we learned about King Tut in the National Geographic Museum and HQ (headquarters) building. The ancient Egyptians had very weird beliefs. They believed a person died every time they went to sleep.
Then we went to the HQ building to see the museum which was pretty small. After that we went to the United States Botanical Gardens. It was crazy humid and very big… I could barely breathe it was so humid inside the greenhouses!
Jaycie’s Bunny Hoppin’ News:
By: Jaycie Lillie
9/26/22: “Mount Vernon” – When we visited Mount Vernon we did a house tour which was cool.
We also did a National Treasure tour which was also cool [like daddy!]
The movie producers changed the heart to an arrowhead in the movie for some reason. I like the heart better.
George Washington once had 8,000 acres! The land was sold off over time and now is not that big. It is still very big, though!
9/28/22: “Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens” – The Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens were very fun. It is owned by the National Park Service but it isn’t a very big park. It is a river that was and still is polluted. They (NPS) are cleaning it up and planting lily pads and plants. We saw so many turtles and cranes!
Most of the flowers weren’t in bloom but we did see a few.The lily pads were pretty. Some were taller than Jett or even as tall as me!
We did a scavenger hunt and got a booklet. The park rangers thought they were out of Jr Ranger booklets, but they found 5 more. So when we turned in our scavenger hunt, we earned the Jr Ranger badge and also received the booklet to do later.
9/29/22: “National Geographic & US Botanical Gardens” – The National Geographic Museum had an Egyptian exhibit. It wasn’t an artifact exhibit though – more informational. There were many videos. I’m just saying… the Egyptians belief in the afterlife is something I am thankful for is not real! I’d much rather go to heaven with Jesus! I will give them this… they did have a wild imagination! They believed life and death were intricately connected and that they died each time they fell asleep. After they died (fell asleep) and walked through a journey in the afterlife they were reborn again when they awoke. They believed death was a form of sleep and sleep is a form of death. To me that is kind of scary. They also thought your belongings came with you to help you in the afterlife. After the national geographic museum we ate. I got a mahalo mango smoothie and a cake bite. We then visited a huge green house place. There were many plants. I liked the cactus.
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