Woke to another beautiful breakfast at the Stafford House B&B and to an equally beautiful day at the Capitol!
We started our journey at the Smithsonian Institute...
It was.....gorgeous. I'd never actually been in the castle...it was HUGE! The gardens were pretty spectacular too!
After playing in the gardens for awhile we headed (on foot) toward the Native American museum.
Mom was generous enough to take a few calls on the way....
So while she talked story...I took pictures....
We explored the Native American museum for a little while (that's me howling at the moon)...
and then decided to go in search of the National Japanese American Memorial.
Now...let me tell you...this memorial was not easy to find. It did not show up on our GPS and it only appeared on a few of the map directories in the area!
After walking for what seemed like hours...we finally found it....
and it was completely worth the walk.
The memorial is extremely small....and unfortunately not well-kept....but we had the entire place to ourselves...and it was so..................so humbling....
After standing in the presence of these powerful words....words of forced justification...words of apology...words of regret....I felt physically and mentally exhausted. How is it that I can feel so ashamed and proud of my country at the same time? Ashamed for what it did...but proud that it realized a wrong had been done and addressed it. No amount of apologies or compensation will ever override what our country did to those forced into the camps and their families...but at least the mistake was acknowledged and addressed...unlike other countries where the issue would've been buried and left out of history books.
After the Japanese-Americam memorial we headed back to the car and back to the b&b.
Don't know if I've mentioned this...but I love GPS. =)
We hit up a cool diner...got some dinner...took home some dessert....got the jacuzzi going.....relaxed in the hot, bubbling water and just talked girl talk. =) It was lovely.
I think we both slept pretty well that night.
Woke the next day with an extra hour at the b&b thanks to the end of daylight savings (and we totally used that hour!) and then headed toward home.
As we drove, Mom spotted a neat little town that reminded me of a few fishing villages I saw in Scotland....
Welcome to the town of Occoquan...population 700! =)
It was super small, super cute and was right on the Occoquan river.....
It was in the lovely little town of Occoquan that Mom and I had an actual (yes...actual) encounter with an R.O.U.S.!!!!!!
Mom spotted this guy running from one yard to another....in broad daylight...very slowly...and when I approached to take this picture he just starred at me!!!!!!!! Mom thought he was going to charge me. It was very entertaining!
Kid you not...the thing was the size of a fat house cat!
One R.O.U.S. and many pictures later we were back on the road heading home.
We stopped at a Cracker Barrel for lunch and then finally made it to the house.
What a road trip!
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