Marine Corps Museum

On Friday we visited the Marine Corps Museum which is right down the street from Mom and Dave's house. It was pretty cool. The boys behaved about 50% of the time... I kinda wish I was there without them... it would have been a bit more touching. But it was still cool... I am pretty sensitive to war images so I made sure to stay out of the exhibits that seemed graphic... especially the one that specifically said "not appropriate for children" or something like that. Not for them... then not for me either! I was touched by several things, which I took pictures of. Having grown up in a military family most of my life I have always been grateful for those who serve. Seeing museums like this though really freshen the gratitude! I don't think I could do it! The boys loved seeing the planes and tanks. Jackson sure wished he could climb on all the displays... museums are a hard place for him to be! I kept thinking of how much Danny would love this museum if her were here!

I loved the 9/11 exhibit. Very powerful. They have a post where everyone who comes through can hang up little cards where they write what they were doing on that day. I put my little card up. I was in Art History class in Burke, VA. Some kids came back from a bathroom trip freaking out and talking about what other classes were watching on TV. The teacher didn't know what was going on so continued class as normal. When the bell rang it was absolute chaos! SO many of the students had parents working in the pentagon... Dave was! Everyone was crying and saying what they heard on TV. I found Isabel and she was a mess... I remember just trying to calm her down. I don't remember how the rest of the day went. I remember getting home and finding my mom watching it on the news... crying. We were all crying but she said Dave was ok. I couldn't believe it was happening! I wrote in my journal that night. So many friends and family called and emailed wanting to know that we were all ok. It's interesting to me that besides all the footage on TV, the most vivid memories I have are of Isabel's face when I found her in the hall and of my Mom crying on the couch. I don't remember my own reaction as much as I remember other peoples. I didn't write all that on the card... just a few sentences. I don't really think about all those details of that day very much... except of course on 9/11... but it's good to remember in a way. It makes me so thankful for my country! This museaum made me thankful for my country!

Stone from the Pentagon.

They had a wall of everyone who had ever received the Medal of Honor in the Marines. It was amazing how many their were... probably a hundred... but only 2 since 1976. Maybe that's because there hasn't been as great a war as WWI or WWII or Vietnam... but I guess I just feel their should be more since for most of my teenage/adult life we have been fighting wars in the middle east... the fighting has just changed a lot I guess.

Had to take a pic... german shepherds!!!

Solitary confinement. How terrifying to think of being in that box for a year or more like some prisoners!

We all had fun trying on the uniforms... they had an activity center for kids... they colored dog tags :)

Ah yes, the boot camp exhibit. Great picture right? You can tell I really worked hard to get that ONE pull up. :)

They had a wall of pictures of marines and they wrote why they joined the marines. There were a lot of great reasons but I think this was my favorite of all. It says "Someone's gotta do it." Amen. And I am thankful to those who do... because it's easy for us to say bad things about how our country is run, but these guys make it possible for us to be free!

After the museum we went to the library and got some fun books and hung out the rest of the day! A great but exhausting day. Who knows what we will do this week!