Trip to DC (very long post warning!)

Okay, we're back from DC and I thought I would tell about the whole trip in one post. It might seem kinda mixed up but it's in the order we saw and did things. We left for the airport about 6 pm Tuesday evening and drove till about 2 am to reach the airport for our early morning flight. Yes, that is the nearest big airport! Anyway, we knew we'd be early but wanted to drive earlier than later at night. When we got to the airport it was almost deserted! Very creepy for such a large place. We only saw a person here or there sleeping.

We changed planes in Millwakee and a lady was nice enough to get a picture of the three of us. There was sure a lot of security everywhere we went.

This is Hosanna at our hotel. Very, very nice! The JW Marriot. Now we would never stay in such a place normally, but you had to if you were participating in the Bible Bee. Very expensive and we were glad we packed along lots of goodies. Then we found a McDonalds nearby - thankfully!! They were charging $5 for a can of pop at the hotel!!!!

The first thing we did after registering Hosanna is walk the two blocks from the motel to the White House. I'm told the flag flying on top means the president is home. No, we didn't see him or his family!!

Right near the hotel you could also see the capital in the distance. The "tourist" area of Washington DC is very, very nice! Such gorgeous architecture and landscaping.

The next day Hosanna did Bible Bee testing most of the day. After the tests they narrowed it down to the top 20 in each group. Sadly, Hosanna was part of the 80 contestants that were eliminated in her group. Meanwhile, Arthur visited our Representative, Collin Peterson. He is a democrat bluedog and voted against the Health Care Bill. He's a "good" democrat and is pro-life, supports the second amendment, and is generally good on farm and family principles. It's been very hard for any Republican to get many votes when they run against him because of this.

Arthur also went to the health care rally at the capital. It was really exciting to see all the coverage of the rally on the different news stations. I guess Aaron's brother and sister were there, somewhere among the thousands! Arthur took tons of pictures so we'll do another post with all the neat signs people had.

This was a FOX news reporter that went through the crowd with his camera man. Uh, we don't have a TV so we personally can't say we would recognize him but some of you might. He got a good reception.

So here's Arthur in front of the US Capital. One reported found out he was a farmer and interviewed him :)

Hosanna did so good and we are proud of her for all the hard work she put into the Bible Memory. Winning is fun but we know the results of scripture memory in a person's heart is far more valuable. The top 20 in each group had a semi-final round which narrowed it down to seven in each of the three age groups. The final round was really fun to watch. The winners of the combined quarter of a millon prizes certainly did deserve to win them! The top prize was $100,000. !!! They are modeling the Bible Bee after the National Spelling Bee.

Alex and Brett Harris were some of the special speakers. There was some extra time so they let people ask them questions. Those two young men sure have a lot of wisdom for their age! People asked them really, really hard social and doctrinal questions. Very interesting.

During the semi-final round we went and looked at the Washington Memorial. Impressive isn't it! We did not go up in it.

This is Arthur by the WWII memorial.

And other picture of the WWII memorial. By the time we left it was quite crowded so I was glad to get these pictures first.

Near the WWII memorial is Lincoln's Memorial.

And, the statue of Lincoln. We also went to the Archives building and saw the original Declaration of Independance, the Magna Carta, and the Articles of Confederation among other documents.

This was taken looking out from Lincoln's Memorial and you can see the Washington Memorial in front of the Captiol.

Our next stop was the Vietnam Memorial. What a sacrifice a lot of men have made over the years for our freedom that is so quickly eroding, or being given, away. We were glad Arthur could do his part even if it seems like it didn't do any good. We went south and it was just as cold or colder than at home! Thankfully we brought jackets along.

And this is the JW Marriott that we stayed in.

The last evening they had a candlelit awards banquet. They gave out the final awards and it was a perfect ending to our trip. If you look close you can see the waiters in their nice tuxes.

Hosanna took a minute after the banquet to collect signatures of some of the speakers, something each of our children have done in their Bibles. It's such a good reminder to pray for these men of God who go around preaching His word. The man in the background is Doug Philips. He took time to visit with Hosanna a few minutes and introduced his daughters to her so that was kinda special.

Early the next morning - was that only yesterday?? - we left for home. Yes, we had a great time! Hosanna was encouraged to work harder on her Bible Memory next year. We were encouraged just seeing evidences of God in our captiol city and in the founding of our country. Everyone should see DC at least once! If anything makes you want to fight for what's right and makes you want to pray for our nation, seeing DC will do it! (And those thoughts come from me, who hates cities, traffic, and tall buildings!!)