Washington, DC Reunion, Part 2

Day 2 in Washington, DC included attending the LDS Temple open house, lunch out, then a few hours at Arlington National Cemetary and a quick walk-through of the Udvar-Hazy Center.  We had dinner back at the house, then Colin put together a fun Colin-Jeopardy! trivia game which was funny yet challenging.  (That afternoon, Ben had to leave to spend a couple of days in NC for work, so that's why he disappears from the pictures.)

We loved getting to have Reed and Jen as our private tour guides!
They happened to be serving as hosts during the entire open house
and had free time during our scheduled time slot, so they walked us
through and told us about some of work and workers during the renovation
process and the experiences they had helping during the open house.

Our first stop at Arlington was the visitors' center, which has lots of interesting information about the history of the cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  From there we took a shuttle to Section 60, where Grandma and Grandpa Fields are buried.  We took some time there, then walked up the hill to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and back to the Visitors' Center again.  Arlington is so beautiful in its outward landscape and uniformity, but even more so in its sacredness and the selfless sacrifices of the hundreds of thousands of people buried there.

Grandma passed away first, in 1995, and was buried at Arlington
in the same plot where Grandpa was interred nearly 19 years later.

Grandpa's information is engraved on the front of the tombstone,
Grandma is on the back.

Cat's middle name was also my Grandma's middle name.

The changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
was impressive and moving.  I also really appreciated the respect
shown by the hundreds of observers.

We were disappointed that the Air and Space Museum was closed while we were in town but decided to hurry over to the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA before it closed for the day.  It's basically the Air and Space Museum's hangar for all kinds of air craft, with additional items on display because of the main museum being closed.  It turns out, Will is an aviation enthusiast and was able to tell us about most of the planes we saw, so that made it even more fun.  My least favorite plane on display was the Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

On the ground behind them is an SR-71 Blackbird, a Cold War-era plane
which is still the fastest operational military aircraft.

Luke had recently learned about the Blue Angels so he was excited to see this jet.

The plane in which Chuck Yeager exceeded the speed of sound in 1947.

Space Shuttle Discovery

Colin-Jeopardy!

Each member of the winning team had the opportunity
to choose one of these special Colin-curated prizes.

Suz recruited some helpers to prepare chicken balls for dinner for the next night.
Cat loved it.