"If I went to Washington DC, I would go to the Lincoln Monument"
"If I went to Washington DC, I would go to the Smithsonian"
etc
We had 4 kinds age 8-15, about 1.5 incomes,not a lof of extra money.
On impulse I said to her we should GO to Washington DC and see all those things. Really she was the only one interested in that sort of thing at that time. Susanna was too busy playing sports, Danny starting his acting out behavior. So we did, we went, Ilana and I. We stayed with my cousin June B. Her husband loved to show people around Washington DC. I contacted our representatives and they gave us 'tickets' for special tours (Library of Congress, National Archives).
Ilana and I went and toured all the places, she loved all of it. I'll post a bunch of pictures.
We went on a bus tour the first day. The driver was a big African American guy and he let us know that we belonged to him that day and everybody was going to have a good safe time...or else. At each stop, he made us all recite out loud. "I'm on bus 40 and my driver's name is DAVE." He told us that we would take 20 minutes at some location and to be back at that time. The unspoken message was that if you were not back, Dave would go looking for you and that would not be a good thing. Anyway, he ran a tight ship, we had a great time and I still remember him.
We went everywhere including the zoo twice and the Vietnam Memorial where we made a rubbing. Eric, June's husband had worked as a counsel for the Judiciary Committee and, pre 911, he took us on a special insider tour of the House office building including a stop at the ice cream place in the basement. We went into an empty conference room with a live mike. In his best congressional voice, he said over the mike "Mister Chairman, I would like to introduce Ilana Barnes from the State of Washington." Ilana ran out of the room with shrieks of delight. So funny.
Here's some pics....
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