Last weekend my wife and I celebrated our second
wedding anniversary by taking a trip to the Mecca of school field trips,
Washington D.C. First, I would like to say Leah and I had a blast! Second, it
started off rocky. Leah and I woke up at about 5am (because we are nerds
and we were super excited) so we could make it to the Metro by 7 and to the
first stop by 9. I feel like I should also tell you that I am a pretty big fan
of Woodrow Wilson, shout out to Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library (:http://www.woodrowwilson.org/)
And I am kind of cheap so instead of buying breakfast at the hotel we decided
to get something on the way (like McDonald’s). There was no fast food joints
between the Metro station and our first stop (what kind of city doesn’t have
McDonald’s on every corner)! That first stop was the Library of Congress!
The location of Woodrow Wilson’s presidential papers (or so I thought).
Did I mention it was raining this whole time as well? Hungary and soaking
wet we toured the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress is beautiful! If
you have a chance to go…do it! Here are a few pictures of what we saw.
By the way Woodrow Wilson’s presidential papers are
actually in the National Archives not in the Library of Congress (The Library
has the books and some amazing artifacts but it is the Archives that maintain
the historical documents). We did eventually eat by the way. Refreshed, we
proceeded to our second stop.
The Woodrow Wilson House on S Street (http://www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org/).
This is a beautiful house near embassy row. It is also the house that
Woodrow Wilson spent his last days in. Here are a few fun facts about
Woodrow Wilson and his family! Did you know that Woodrow Wilson loved the
movies? He famously (or notoriously) screened the first movie seen at the White
House which was D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. After he left office,
Woodrow Wilson was presented with a Vitascope (old movie projector) by movie
star Douglas Fairbanks Sr. Woodrow Wilson would sit and watch movies in his
study. Edith Wilson (Woodrow’s second wife) was very proud of her
heritage. She hung portraits of her parents (like the rest of us) in the hall
but she also claimed to be a direct decedent of Pocahontas.
It was pouring down rain again, and we decided to go
to our next stop, the National Cathedral! Another fun fact: Woodrow Wilson is
the only president to be buried in Washington D.C. He was offered a place
at Arlington Cemetery but Edith refused because she was a southern lady.
(Arlington was Robert E. Lee’s old family estate it was confiscated during the
Civil War and made cemetery for fallen Union soldiers).
The National Cathedral became Woodrow Wilson’s final
resting place (I hope you see the theme here).
It was wet, cold, and cloudy all day long, and above
all the cathedral is about ten blocks from the metro station. And so the
march began! Half way there I began to remember every forced march in
history, from Napoleon's campaign in Russia to the trail of tears. I developed
a blister (side note: Chucks are not the right kind of shoe for a city hike). I
began to imagine myself in General Washington's army wintering at Valley Forge
(even though it was May and seventy degrees). As tired as I felt, I could
not complain, it was my idea to go in the first place. Also, my amazing
wife (who is six months pregnant with our first child) walked the whole way
with me. She shall be forever known as Momma Trooper! When we
turned the corner and caught our first glimpse of the cathedral, it was like
the heavens opened up and the Angels started to sing. Granted the sky was very
hazy from the rain and we may have been hallucinating (we were very
tired). As we approached the cathedral, a wedding was about to start
and Wilson's grave was corded off. I still managed to see the grave and I
had every intention of taking a picture of his crypt. But after I saw the
beautiful stain glass windows and the spectacular gothic architecture of the
grand old church (coupled with the worry that I was destroying someone's joyous
nuptials) I could not bring myself to photograph the inside of the church. Some
things should be kept sacred. I snapped a few pictures of the outside and
we started on our long trek back to the Metro station.
Despite such a day we had fun. We learned about the
Library of congress, we visited Woodrow Wilson's home and saw some amazing
architecture at Woodrow Wilson’s final resting place.
The second day was a little better…
Have you ever been to Washington DC? Tell me your experiences in the comments below!
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