He arrived Saturday afternoon. While David worked, we went to DC for a little touring around at The National Archives. I can't believe I've lived here nearly 10 years without having seen the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and other documents kept and displayed here.
Dad, outside the Archives building
The lighting is kept very dim in the display area- sorry these photos are dark. Here, dad checks out the Declaration of Independence.
We the People....
Of course we've all learned about the 56 signers of the Declaration in school. Still, it was cool to see the actual signatures of founding fathers like Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Hancock and Thomas Jefferson.
In addition to the famous Charters of Freedom, we saw documents like the 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France, the Louisiana Purchase and the Emancipation Proclamation, Additionally, we saw historical patent applications such as Thomas Edison's Light Bulb Patent and Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin, and the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education and Marbury v. Madison Decisions.
With all the new museums opening up in DC (Newseum, Spy Museum, etc) that charge visitors to enter, it renewed my sense of appreciation for the many free activities the city has to offer. All you have to do is walk through a metal detector and anyone can see these amazing historical documents.
Afterwards, we walked around a nearby sculpture garden and enjoyed the sunny cool afternoon together. Then we headed home to meet up with David and check out the house we were interested in. I don't know if this is "the house" for us- but it certainly was helpful to hear an engineer's thoughts on it.
Sunday we had brunch at Tower Oaks Clydes- they are all ready for Halloween. There's a contest to see how much this enormous pumpkin weighs, so of course we had to enter a guess. We think 540 lbs is the winning guess- that’s going to make a LOT of pumpkin pie!
Then we went to Lowe's for some new wall sconces to replace one that had broken a while ago. Of course I need matching fixtures- so there were multiple lights to replace. We all participated in hanging them up, and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and watching football.
Men At Work: David and Dad hanging up one of the new light fixtures.
Putting the finishing touches (light bulb and lamp shade) on.
Sadly, dad eventually had to head back north so we drove him to the airport and said goodbye. As we drove around this weekend, I couldn’t help but notice how pretty the trees are this time of year. They are big part of why I love autumn- the crisp weather, apple picking and pumpkin carving, and how gorgeous the area looks just before the leaves begin to fall. I’m definitely not looking forward to the chore of raking all those leaves when we eventually buy a home- but I plan to enjoy the autumn colors while I can!
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