E-RING

I woke up today at 8 a.m. and grabbed a smoothie from a place down the street and headed to the National Archives. My tour got me in 15 minutes before the general public so we could see the Declaration of Independance, Bill of Rights, and the Articles of Confederation behind their bulled proof, temperature control, argon gas filled cases before the general public could see it.

I then went to the top of the Old Post Office which had a huge bell tower. It is the 3rd tallest building in DC. It offered a great view and had a nice food court that I ate at. I posted some more pictures on Flickr. MY LINK IS ON THE RIGHT SIDE.

And to top of the day I toured the Pentagon. My group was small, 5 people plus the tour guide. We were walking down the when our tour guide who walked backwards the whole time (kinda wierd. Im guessing so he could keep and eye on us so we wouldnt dart of and take secret files or something) when we stopped in the middle of what looked like a new hallway. He told us that on 9/11 this is where the impact of the plane hit going through 3 of the 5 rings in the Pentagon and killing I think he said 123 people in the Pentagon alone. It was a very humbling experience.

We went into a small memorial build for the people of the Pentagon. It was on the inside. They are making a outdoor memorial for public ect but this one was inside. It was small but very appropriate. A small chapel was next door to the inside memorial. We then walked to the very center of the Pentagon which has a 5 acre mini park with grass and a hot dog stand. After the tour ended we turned in our passes and this is where the cool part of the tour happened.

One of the people in my tour group was a female LTC, (leutenant colonel) who worked at the pentagon and her family were the other 3 people in the group. We got new visitor passes and then the LTC took us on a private tour. We could walk down any hall we wanted and thats what we did. She took us to the Secretary of Defense's office DONALD RUMSFELD. It was columbus day so he was not there but it was cool being that close to someone that important. Well tomm I head home but plan on hitting the Mall hard in the morning. Things still to see. (Arlington Natl cemetary, Washington monument, and the aronautical space museum.