Thursday, August 22, 2013

Day 4 – Lincoln and more Lincoln

The WWII memorial was the first half of the day. The second half was devoted to things Lincoln, starting with the Lincoln Memorial itself. … and yes, we walked the length of the mall to get there from the WWII memorial, which is challenging in the August heat and humidity that’s typical of Washington DC.

Since my brother-in-law and his family recently came from Illinois – the “land of Lincoln” – the children were already up on a bunch of history and were eager to see more stuff about our 16th President.
(By the way … the children are all homeschooled and each of them can tell you the names of all the US Presidents in order! Rather impressive)

We arrived at the Lincoln Monument … the kids were all excited to see “what’s on the back of our pennies”

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We looked and walked around and took some photos and then made our way toward Constitution Ave where there was a small outdoor cafe – because we all needed to sit down for awhile with some water and a little snack.

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After the Lincoln Monument, we headed over to 10th Street to visit Ford’s Theater and the Peterson House. But first …. we all needed to eat lunch.

After chowing down at the Hard Rock Cafe, we took the tour of the Ford Theater museum, which is located in the downstairs area of the building, and then proceeded upstairs to see the presidential box.

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One of the cool things was seeing my niece and nephews working on the junior ranger program booklets.

After Ford’s Theater we went across the street to the Peterson House, which is where President Lincoln died. This is the front parlor of the house … the first room when you enter it. These rooms are kept much as they were at that time in 1865.
The front parlor was where Mary Lincoln spent most of her time waiting, as she was inconsolable when she was with the President.

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The second room was set up to conduct the interviews of individuals that evening. Again, it is set up just as it had been used that evening in April.

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And the back room was where they laid the President as he died. The actual bed is in Chicago – so this is an exact replica.

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The room is much smaller than you’d think … and so the various engravings, sketches, and paintings of that night (there was no photograph taken) would seem to be rather incorrect … there really was no way for everyone to have fit into this tiny room all at the same time. They probably took turns.

But one thing for sure … it was quite moving and a little chilling to be at the location.

Best line of the day from my son. “I had a good time walking around with my cousins because they asked such great questions and it gave me a chance to see things through their eyes.”

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