Falcon Robotics in DC day 4
Well...where to begin... we started off in the morning just like the other three days. Met in the lobby to take the shuttle to the Metro station. Today we took the Metro almost to the furthest end of the line to a station called Foggy Bottom, we were on our way to the Lincoln Memorial. At this time I would like to go on record that the name Foggy Bottom is really cool. I felt like we were going to someplace in a Harry Potter story. Once we got off at Foggy Bottom we headed for about a 3/4 mile walk to the Lincoln Memorial. It was very dramatic see the memorial come into view as we approached it. The building makes a strong outline against the sky. The white building with the deep blue sky is a very dramatic image. It was awe inspiring to know all the historical events that have taken place at this monument, like Martin Luther King Jr.’s I have a Dream Speech. I actually got to see the engraved marker that shows where Dr. King stood when he gave his speech. I stood there and looked out over what he might have looked over and I saw the Washington Monument and the Capitol. It was great! I then turned around to see the steps leading up to where President Lincoln was siting.
There were a ton on people taking pictures in front on Lincoln. I walked over to the inscription on the wall where his famous Gettysburg address started and the team followed me. We sat on the floor and leaned back to read the inscription thoroughly. After reading the first wall, we walked over to the other side and read the rest of the speech. Of course we then stood in front of Lincoln and took the obligatory picture.
The Vietnam Memorial was next. It is a very unusual memorial, it is hard to see from a distance. It is almost just accidentally walked into. It is subtle and drops down below ground level. It is very quite and somber there. You can see veterans staring at the wall with contemplative expressions and you can see people scratching names off the wall by using a piece of paper and and a pencil. There was even a guy there with a ladder to help people reach the top names. It is hard to walk by this memorial and not be affected by it, even though it is probably the most simple monument out there.
We started heading to ward the Science exhibits that were out on the mall. On the way we passed by the World War II Memorial. It was very bold and flashy with lots of water fountains. It was a huge contrast to the Vietnam Memorial. We soon walked passed the Washington Monument and then took a quick detour to check in on where the stage was to see where would be performing on Sunday at 2:00pm. We then continued to head to the Science Exhibits after grabbing a quick hotdog.
We spent a while checking out the exhibits and then headed to the National Museum of Natural History. The kids were surprised that the dinosaurs were not as big as they thought they were going to be. Thank you Hollywood! It was weird to see the kids feel unimpressed as we saw a T-Rex tower over them.
Hunger was setting in so we headed out to grab a quick ice cream sandwich before we started on our 2 mile journey to Ben’s Chilli Bowl. It was a very long walk. It became imperative that the chilli be really good or we were going to be very disappointed. After we were really beaten by the walk, we finally got there. The facade was not impressive and expectations were fading fast. We walked in to a huge line and stuffy heat, but the crowd was upbeat so it sort of balanced out. We thought is must be good if people were here putting up with the lack of modernity, decor, and refreshing air. We got seated and noticed a poster of President Obama and it was signed by him and it was stated on it that the first place he ate at after the inauguration was Ben’s Chilli Bowl, that helped redeem the restaurant even more! The true test....the food was just alright, not special, but the tradition and history about the place sells the place.
After stuffing our faces we then headed for the Metro and caught the green line back to the hotel. After a little down time the team got together to go over the presentation for tomorrow. We then ordered Chinese from the Royal Jade and we all laughed at John’s comment that we lived at the Holiday in to the guy on the phone taking the order.
Tomorrow brings us to our main purpose for why we are hear. We will give you one last summary! Stay tuned!
Check out the pics from the link below all the days are being added in one file, newer one to the left.
http://www.cooliris.com/yoursite/express/builder/gallery.php?z=Sv9G37P4u2kn
Well...where to begin... we started off in the morning just like the other three days. Met in the lobby to take the shuttle to the Metro station. Today we took the Metro almost to the furthest end of the line to a station called Foggy Bottom, we were on our way to the Lincoln Memorial. At this time I would like to go on record that the name Foggy Bottom is really cool. I felt like we were going to someplace in a Harry Potter story. Once we got off at Foggy Bottom we headed for about a 3/4 mile walk to the Lincoln Memorial. It was very dramatic see the memorial come into view as we approached it. The building makes a strong outline against the sky. The white building with the deep blue sky is a very dramatic image. It was awe inspiring to know all the historical events that have taken place at this monument, like Martin Luther King Jr.’s I have a Dream Speech. I actually got to see the engraved marker that shows where Dr. King stood when he gave his speech. I stood there and looked out over what he might have looked over and I saw the Washington Monument and the Capitol. It was great! I then turned around to see the steps leading up to where President Lincoln was siting.
There were a ton on people taking pictures in front on Lincoln. I walked over to the inscription on the wall where his famous Gettysburg address started and the team followed me. We sat on the floor and leaned back to read the inscription thoroughly. After reading the first wall, we walked over to the other side and read the rest of the speech. Of course we then stood in front of Lincoln and took the obligatory picture.
The Vietnam Memorial was next. It is a very unusual memorial, it is hard to see from a distance. It is almost just accidentally walked into. It is subtle and drops down below ground level. It is very quite and somber there. You can see veterans staring at the wall with contemplative expressions and you can see people scratching names off the wall by using a piece of paper and and a pencil. There was even a guy there with a ladder to help people reach the top names. It is hard to walk by this memorial and not be affected by it, even though it is probably the most simple monument out there.
We started heading to ward the Science exhibits that were out on the mall. On the way we passed by the World War II Memorial. It was very bold and flashy with lots of water fountains. It was a huge contrast to the Vietnam Memorial. We soon walked passed the Washington Monument and then took a quick detour to check in on where the stage was to see where would be performing on Sunday at 2:00pm. We then continued to head to the Science Exhibits after grabbing a quick hotdog.
We spent a while checking out the exhibits and then headed to the National Museum of Natural History. The kids were surprised that the dinosaurs were not as big as they thought they were going to be. Thank you Hollywood! It was weird to see the kids feel unimpressed as we saw a T-Rex tower over them.
Hunger was setting in so we headed out to grab a quick ice cream sandwich before we started on our 2 mile journey to Ben’s Chilli Bowl. It was a very long walk. It became imperative that the chilli be really good or we were going to be very disappointed. After we were really beaten by the walk, we finally got there. The facade was not impressive and expectations were fading fast. We walked in to a huge line and stuffy heat, but the crowd was upbeat so it sort of balanced out. We thought is must be good if people were here putting up with the lack of modernity, decor, and refreshing air. We got seated and noticed a poster of President Obama and it was signed by him and it was stated on it that the first place he ate at after the inauguration was Ben’s Chilli Bowl, that helped redeem the restaurant even more! The true test....the food was just alright, not special, but the tradition and history about the place sells the place.
After stuffing our faces we then headed for the Metro and caught the green line back to the hotel. After a little down time the team got together to go over the presentation for tomorrow. We then ordered Chinese from the Royal Jade and we all laughed at John’s comment that we lived at the Holiday in to the guy on the phone taking the order.
Tomorrow brings us to our main purpose for why we are hear. We will give you one last summary! Stay tuned!
Check out the pics from the link below all the days are being added in one file, newer one to the left.
http://www.cooliris.com/yoursite/express/builder/gallery.php?z=Sv9G37P4u2kn
