A fun weekend in D.C.

This past weekend Stephen and I went to visit Shelby in Virginia.  She moved there last August to teach middle school.  Her birthday was on Friday, she turned 23, and my mom and dad met us down there for a fun little weekend get together.

Here is the family at the train station before Stephen and I left to come back to Massachusetts. The train was definitely better than driving in most respects.  It was a long trip though...almost 12 hours.   

 

We went to a really fun museum in D.C. called the Newsuem, with six floors of exhibits dedicated to journalism.  It was really fun to visit a museum all about what Stephen and I do for a living.  They had a really cool terrace with a beautiful view of the Capitol.  That is where Stephen, Shelby and I are standing.

  

Out side of the Museum they have something called Today's Front Pages (you can also do this on their website.) They display the front pages from different papers from all 50 states and lots of different countries.  Michigan's front page for that day happened to be the Kalamazoo Gazette, which was cool for me because I used to work there.  It's fun thinking about that fact that so many people are looking at your pictures.

One of the coolest parts of the trip was a motorcycle parade called Rolling Thunder.  Thousands and thousands of motorcycles ride up Constitution Ave., by the Capitol and then down the other side of the Mall and then they all meet at the Vietnam memorial.  We've heard different numbers about how many bikes there there, but the most recent number is 400,000 (from the Rolling Thunder website).  It was non stop motorcycles for nearly four hours!  It was totally amazing!  

This is Stephen in front of a 74 foot tall marble tablet with the first amendment on it outside the Newseum.  

We also spent a day in Fredericksburg, which is a fun little town near the city Shelby lives in. We had a great time, and it was really fun to see my family since we haven't seen each other since Christmas.