Washington DC, 5th and Final Post

We had an amazing time in our nations capital.  I would not mind going back someday.

We enjoyed a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  No pics allowed;) We were able to see the entire process of printing money from above by walking along enclosed catwalks.  Very cool.

 The Bureau will print 6.5 billion dollars in new notes this year. 95 percent of those notes will replace old notes.  Just crazy to think about!

The United States Holocaust Museum is so new they are still working on it.  Once again, this is a must see.  We can never be reminded enough of the atrocities committed on the Jewish people and others by the Hitler regime.

 Pictures fill a 3 story high room of families from a 400 year old Jewish village, one of many that were entirely wiped out by the Nazi's.

I remember reading
The Diary of Anne Frank
in 7th grade

this is one of the types of train cars used to "relocate" Jews

a copy of the sign over the entrance to Auschwitz "work will make you free" to give people hope

 Upon arrival at the "work camps" people were immediately chosen to go to the gas chambers (women, children, infirm, elderly) or to be worked to death.

"workers" carrying stone blocks up a staircase, over and over until they expired

A model of an extermination camps undressing, "delousing" chambers and crematorium:

Jews were sent down into an undressing room where they had to give up all their things and clothes to go into the "showers" for a delousing treatment

they were then moved into the "shower" room and the doors secured and poison was pumped into the chamber through the shower heads

up on top on the left are the incinerators for the bodies

after the war, huge piles of shoes were found outside this camp

casting of a memorial wall constructed from fragments of stones from a Jewish cemetery 

 The Kennedy Center of Performing Arts. We were unable to tour the main hall but there are several stages inside the center and every night of the year one can attend a free performance on the Millennium Stage.  Free!  We attended a jazz performance by Libor Smoldas of the Czech Republic.  He was introduced by the Czech ambassador.  Every type of performing art is held on these stages and from all around the world.  How cool is that!!

 Spent the better part of a day at the National Zoo.  The zoo specializes in endangered species.

 They have some great exhibits there but the undisputed show stealer that day was Batang and her baby, Redd.  The orangutans have an enclosure with an O-Line.  I have never seen this before and it is the coolest!!  They have the ability to climb up a tower and take the cables across the park to another enclosure.  So you may get lucky as we did and see one walking the cables 50 feet over your head!

initially, we did not see any apes using the O-Line.....

...sometime later, we saw people looking up and there was Batang taking Redd to the opposite enclosure

Mom and baby having some alone time in the Think Tank

Adorable little guy, 1 year old

 Annapolis is just a few miles from Washington so we could not resist a look at the Naval Academy:

this is the largest building and also houses all 4000 midshipmen!

beautiful inside!

the chapel

The organ boasts over 15,000 pipes.  Where they are hidden is not evident but it is beautiful .

under the chapel is probably the fanciest tomb/sarcophagus  in the US holding the remains of  John Paul Jones, naval commander in the Revolutionary War. A very interesting story goes along with his burial here.  Check on line;)

we were there for an evening parade, very nice!