Washington, D.C.

Wednesday, November 9-Our dear friend, Jim Reardon, whom we met in Colorado Springs when he lived there, welcomed us into his beautiful townhome for our stay here.  He so graciously took a day off of work to get us situated and up and running to explore the city.  He showed us how to use Lola (a gps which everyone needs in DC) and where the best free parking is near the sites.  We enjoyed eating lunch out today and then walking and seeing a bit of the mall today.  We also stopped to go through Danial's story which is excellent at the Holocaust Museum and take the tour of the Bureau of Printing and Engraving.  We are looking forward to a great week.

eating lunch with Jim

Jim getting us up and running.  Thomas Jefferson Memorial in back.

The japanse cherry trees were a pretty red

Almost 1 million paper money is printed here  each day.  Almost all of it is for replacement bills.  If a bill has a green star on it, it is a rare substitution bill replacing a new defective one and about 3% is actually for new currency.  Later bills have a USA and its denomination hidden vertically that you can see when you hold it to light. 32 bills on a sheet.

36 columns represent the number of states in the union,  The states are all written at the top of the monument.  Marian Anderson sang and Martin Luther King spoke on the steps.

A great man and great president!

Our handsome boy.  Look at the two tone Washington monument.  Construction stopped in 1854 due to lack of funds.  Resumed and finished 30 years later but stone different shading.

WW II monument

It's always moving to read the Gettysburg address especially since we were just there and have a greater understanding