Cierzan Travelogue: : PTA VI Day 8: Friday August 1, 2014: Newseum, Washington Monument and Final Monument Viewing, before heading home...

Well, this is it! Cierzan's last day in DC. This was clearly Guy's "Workation." (If you have seen the movie RV with Robin Williams, you should be able to appreciate the experience as much as we have. This is one of our families favorite movies!) To those of you that haven't figured it out yet, Guy travels to Washington DC a lot for work. This was our vacation week for our family, however, Guy still had a lot on his plate, after months of coaching a championship baseball team and running very busy accounts at work. Sleep is something we hope he can catch up on this fall.

We decided to save one of the best for last, the Newseum! Seriously, ALL of us LOVED this one. The catch is, it is one of the few museum's that have a fee to get in. However, it is certainly worth it! Honestly, I would consider it a must see. Here are some of our highlights:

Portion of the actual Berlin Wall--view from the east

View of the Berlin Wall from the west


Leah standing next to one of Grandma's favorite Comics!

Communication Tower from one of the Twin Towers

They had a rather stunning exhibit telling the story of 9/11 and how the stories were shared around the world. As you can see in the picture, they have some actual artifacts, the stories shared will certainly leave you touched, and there are few people that are able to step away from this area with dry eyes. Even Leah, someone who wasn't even born at the time this happened, she doesn't even realize how much has changed in our world since 9/11, was clearly touched. They had an electronic book where people could record their thoughts, memories, wishes, etc..., to be permanently recorded. I looked over and this is what I saw...

"Love and Hope to New York. Leah Cierzan, Minneapolis, MN"

Wow! Is all I could think...then I took the picture. She's certain to be someone important someday, she clearly gets the tragedy. Proud Momma!

Noah was able to test out the desk and camera. Clearly he is a natural and certain to be in this line of business somewhere sometime!

Does the set look familiar? Can you say..."Anchorman"

Guy got up really early today, and waited in a SUPER long line and scored us tickets to get to the top of the Washington Monument. The last time we were here, the monument was closed as it had suffered some structural damage after the Earthquake. It was all fixed and ready to go now. We really enjoyed getting to experience this!

View of Washington Monument from the ground.

Noah and Leah looking out from the top-"Awesome!"

Looking out toward the Lincoln Memorial and WWII Memorial

Thanks, Dad! The wait was worth it!

As we should have expected our flight was 2+ hours delayed, so we decided to take in a few additional sights nearby. The WWII Memorial was our next stop.

We found our way to the Vietnam Memorial next, it was becoming increasingly more challenging to explain to the kids why we were involved in all of these wars.

The Lincoln Memorial was next, we even were able to see where Martin Luther King, gave his famous speech, "I have a Dream." It was actually kind of chilling to stand in the same spot, which is marked in the marble, look out and imagine seeing what Dr. King saw and think about what he was saying. Wow!

This is near the top of the stairs to the Lincoln Memorial, note the inscription in the stone.

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE...Finally, we were able to see the Korean War Memorial. Leah was especially interested in this memorial, as it is believed that the memorial shows the men positioned in such a way, that they could view everyone and everything in 360 degrees.

The last stop was the Albert Einstein Memorial, it is one of the few statutes in Washington, where people are encouraged to climb on it. In fact, it is believed if you rub his nose it will bring you good luck. The kids were not going to miss this opportunity!