A Saturday in DC

This past Saturday Nate and I spent the day in DC with our friend Janne. We started off the day at the Cherry Blossom Parade. I can't even remember the last parade I went to, so it was a lot of fun! Here are the highlights of the parade in pictures :)

How better to start a parade than with a beaver...

and Marines!

There were lots of marching bands, but this one from a DC high school was by far the best!

Bagpipes are sweet and should be included in all parades

Elvis and his hound!

Even Slapshot was in attendance (I took a picture just for you Brit)

After the parade festivities we got some lunch and headed over towards the Lincoln memorial for a joint services drill exhibition that Nate had heard about on the radio. On the way we stopped and admired the WWII memorial.

Nate and the Marine Corps emblem at the WWII memorial

After our brief stop at the WWII memorial we went over for the drill exhibition, which was really cool to watch. The Navy, Coast Guard, Marines, Army, and Air Force all participated. The Army won, but the Air Force put on the best show. Here's a picture of the Air Force tossing all their weapons in the air at the same time!

After the drill competition, we headed up the steps to see the Lincoln memorial. Believe it or not, I've lived in Maryland my entire life up until the last few weeks and had never seen the Lincoln memorial... It's amazing what you take for granted when it's so close.

My first time at the Lincoln Memorial!

Nate and me at the Lincoln Memorial

In addition to having never been to the Lincoln Memorial, I had never been to the Jefferson memorial. Sad I know... Since we were already in DC we decided to head that way and see what we could see. Here's what we found...

The Korean War memorial

The FDR memorial

Janne and me across the water from the Washington Memorial

We actually found the memorial commerating the giving of the cherry trees

The George Mason memorial

After being at the Cherry Blossom Festival all day we finally found a tree that still had it's blossoms at the end of the day :)

And finally, our last stop of the day, the Jefferson Memorial