WA DC Day 4 - The Sidewalk Warriors Continue

Another beautiful day here in our beloved Nation's capitol. Today my mother and I hit the streets a little later, we were wore out from the 4th. But after resting up for a bit and doing some calf stretching we hit the streets again. This time we went to the Native American Museum and spent 5 hours. Little did I know that I am 1/8 Native American, crazy! My grandfather, Henry Lawerence Roberts's mother was full blood Native and he was born on what he called the "Kansas City Reservation". So, we went to the museums research library and met with their archivist who helped us to locate his actual tribe of orgin. It turns out that the only Kansas tribe was the Kickapoo, who's reservation was very close to Kansas City. I found all sorts of great information on their tribal history and linguistics. I even submitted a request to the Kansas Vital Records department to get a copy of his birth certificate, which will allow me to apply for a Tribal ID. Now how cool is that?!? After spending a couple of hours doing research and swapping information, I dropped the magic line, "I'm a US History teacher", and OMG he gave me 3 free curriculum kits, a magnificant book Native Universe ($40), a DVD on Native History and Culture, maps, posters, and showed me how to navigate the websites teacher section. TOO COOL!!! The museum itself is absolutely beautiful, in fact it is my favorite out of all the one's I have seen here in DC. I do have to brag here a bit and say, "Hey Victor, my student's make way better Fry Bread".
After we left the museum at closing, we decided we should go and see all the memorials. (those are on the opposite side of the Mall) Thank Goddess, for bikers, who gave us a lift from the Air and Space Museum to the White House, where of course we had to stop and take a photo op. We then flexed our over worked calf muscles and once again headed out in full speed towards the Monument, we ended up touring WWII Memorial, Reflection Pool (which had all sorts of trash in it from the festivities on the 4th), Korean War Memorial (very moving) , Vietnam Memorial (yep, I cried, it was eery, this was the only place on the Mall where Silence ruled), and of course the Lincoln Memorial.

We both took all sorts of pictures which I am putting up for everyone to use on Picasa + making powerpoints to be used as "Into's" for various lessons and Units. I'll make sure I forward them to Ruth to put up on the site. As for now I am looking forward to the long bus ride to Gettysburg on the morrow, so these tired tootsie's of mine can have a wee rest.