My mother is and always has been very big on being a close family. She had always wanted all of us to go vacation together, or take a "big adventure" as she would call it. In 2002, my uncle on my moms side moved to Baltimore, Maryland. Over the years, we had slowly grown apart from my uncle, aunt, and cousin since they lived hundreds of miles away. We had missed seeing them during holiday get togethers, birthday parties, and other family events. Then, during the summer of 2007, my mom got a phone call from my uncle inviting all of us to go spend thanksgiving week with them in Maryland.

The whole family was thrilled. Not only do we get to see my aunt, uncle, and cousin again, but we get to go visit Washington D.C., the nations capital! The thing I remember being most excited about was all the museums. I have always been a sucker for American history, and D.C. was practically the headquarters for it. My mom booked the flight, and my uncle offered for us to stay at his house since he had enough room. For the rest of the upcoming months, I was filled with excitement.

Finally the day came, the day when my mom, dad, brothers, and I were to fly out to Maryland. Even though I had flown before, taking off in the airplane still made me nervous. But, thankfully, my mom had given me some sort of nerve relaxant and I passed out. The last thing I remember is the plane landing on the tarp and realizing, I was finally there! Getting out the first thing I realized was, it was really cold. Like, really really cold. My brothers and I had been stubborn and we refused to take out our jackets from our luggage because, of course, we didn't believe my parents when they told us it was to be very cold. And, of course, they turned out to be right. So, the first few hours in Maryland were not great for me to say the least. But, nonetheless, I was still super excited.

We arrived at my uncles house. The first thing I noticed about the houses around there was that they were very "tall" looking. No house really looked very wide. Just straight up and down. Walking into my uncles house the first thing you'd smell was cats. He had about 3 of them. The room my mother and I slept in was upstairs, it was my cousins room. It was filled with video games and other electronic devices.

The house was not completely "homey" feeling, but it would work for the week. Unfortunately, every morning I had to wake up to my aunt's awful cooking. Luckily when we would leave to go tour the city, we would go out to eat actual good food. Not as good as New Orleans food, but it would suffice.

The first day of our tourism, we went to the Capital. We did not go inside because, of course, I didn't feel like it and the Capital honestly did not interest me that much. But nonetheless, it was still a part of our history. After, I vaguely remember walking around town and seeing building that I did not recognize. Then, my brother told me that we were at Ford's Theatre which I did not know at the time. My mom then told me this is where our 16th President Abraham Lincoln was shot. I got chills as soon as we walked in. The whole theatre was completely empty, it was very eerie. The theatre was very big, and the top right balcony was still decorated as it would have been over 100 years ago. I just stood in awe at the whole scene. A tour guide approached us and told us the entire story of John Wilkes Booth and moment by moment with what happened. We were then escorted to the downstairs part of the theatre where there were artifacts from the day Lincoln was shot. These included a bloody pillow that Lincoln laid on, John Wilkes Booth's gun and boot, the door that was broken down, and many other cool artifacts.

After visiting the Fords theatre, we made our way right across the street to a very small house where Lincoln was escorted to and where he eventually took his final breath. We walked through the very tight hallways and finally got to the room where Lincoln laid. The bed that was there was too small for the President so they had to lay him diagonally. It was a very cool, sad, and eerie place to be.

After that, we walked past the J. Edgar Hoover building which, at the time, I did not care about at all. Across the street was the Supreme Court House. We walked in and the first thing I noticed was that security was very tight there. We were searched and examined in every way possible before we could even walk in the door. If we even thought about the word "bomb" or "attack", we would be tackled and arrested. It felt like eyes were on you from every point of view. It was still cool because we got to see all the Supreme Court Justices and all the ones of the past. Although I didn't really know much, it still interested me.

Over the next few days we visited the George Washington Memorial, the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and many different old courthouses and museums. The Museum of Natural History was one of my favorite museums we visited. At the time, I was obsessed with animals and the outdoors so that was the place for me to be. I remember we stayed there for about an hour and a half because of me. Another thing about the museums in D.C., the museums are huge. Sometimes it will take you a day just to walk through the entire thing.

I saw many interesting things on my family adventure. I got to see the first draft of the star spangled banner, Dorothy's shoes from "The Wizard of Oz", Kermit the Frog, video of the first landing on the moon, and many other different, cool artifacts throughout our American History. But there was one museum that hit me really hard and was my favorite of all time. The National Holocaust Memorial and Museum.

Now, at the time I was only around 9 years old, so I did not know a lot about the Holocaust. But I did know it was one dark period of time for everyone around the world. When you first walk in, the sadness just hits you. You are given an "Identification Card" as if you are a Jew in the 30s/40s. The card states where your person was from, what happened to them, and if they are still alive today. I can still remember my person was a young girl in her 20s who luckily survived.

The museum is spilt into different parts. We did not go into all parts because my parents didn't want me to see it for all the violence. But we did walk through the majority of it. You got to see where the Jews had to sleep in the concentration camps, all of their belongings that were taken away from them, all the Nazi propaganda, and probably the most recognized and powerful part of it all, the shoes. Thousands and thousands of the Jews shoes that were taken from them. Some of them look were torn apart and had no color to them, while others still probably looked the same from the day they were bought. It was so powerful. I think every one of my family members at least teared up at one point while in that museum, I know I did.

Thanksgiving Day we ate all the traditional foods. Unfortunately, the feast was not too appetizing but it was still nice nonetheless. We spent our quality time as a family together that we had missed for a long time. Although we were far away from our home, for that day we felt at home with each other.

From Arlington Cemetery to the National Space Museum, I saw many interesting things on my trip. Things that have changed my view on the great country I live in. I was very sad to leave D.C., but little did I know I would be back in 3 years for my 7th grade school trip. No matter how many times I go, it will always be interesting for me and I will never forget the things I saw and learned.