Inspiration in Annapolis and Washington D.C.

We are in Annapolis and have had experiences in the past three weeks that remind us of some of the great things about this country.

We have attended services at the Naval Academy chapel twice and have been so impressed with the architecture and the service. It takes us out of our small world of boating and reminds us of larger ideals and truly important endeavours.
Thanks to our friend Jeff Hazzard we had a tour of Washington DC that included many of the highlights of the National Mall. At the National Archives we saw the original Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Then we went to several of the Smithsonian museums. We saw the Air and Space, American Indian, Hirshhorn, Natural History and American History museums. We saw the Capital Building and the Whitehouse but just from the outside.

The Washington Memorial is in view no matter where you go on the Mall. The Air and Space Museum amazed us with actual rockets from the space program and planes of every type starting with the Wright Brothers plane. Here's Al in front of the lunar module. It looks like something you could make in your backyard but one just like this made it to the moon.

Jeff's wanted his picture in front of this commercial airliner to show how enormous these planes are.

In the evening we saw the Vietnam Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the WWII Memorial. We started the day with the beginning of the country, then viewed artifacts of our history, art and culture and ended it with stunning reminders of those who struggled or died to keep the country going. It was an emotional experience and we found ourselves feeling very grateful and humbled at the end of the day.