US Marine Corps War Memorial, Netherlands Carillon, and Pentagon 9/11 Memorial

As per my last post, I think you now know that I love tulips! 

Someone had mentioned the Netherlands Carillon in Arlington a few weeks before this day and that they had tulips there in March/April. Since it was the right time of year to see the tulips (and I had become slightly obsessed with them at the tulip farm a week before), I planned a field trip to Arlington to see them one Saturday in April.

I looked up things to do around there and invited a couple of my friends to join. Only one of my friends could come that day but it was a good field trip!

I decided I didn't want to drive in Arlington and have to deal with parking so I took the metro to Rosslyn and met my friend, Heather, there. 

Heather had a recommendation (from one of her coworkers) to visit a pizza place near Rosslyn for lunch. We went there first and got pizza. It was called Wiseguy Pizza. I really liked my slice of pizza. It was delicious!

In the same park as the Netherlands Carillon is the US Marine Corps War Memorial (also known as the Iwo Jima Memorial). Although I had been to the US Marine Corps War Memorial before, it had been many years. (I think I hadn't been there since I was a teenager visiting my sister and her family that lived in the area). It was cool to see the memorial up close again. 

This is a miniature of the memorial with the big memorial in the background.

It's a pretty iconic monument!

It was pretty windy this day but it was a nice day.

After we walked around the memorial a couple of times, we went to the Netherlands Carillon in the same park.

The view from the Netherlands Carillon.

Tulips!!!! I was so excited to see more tulips although I had seen some the week before!

I loved when there were a few red ones mixed in with the yellow.

Or yellow ones mixed in with the red ones. So pretty!

An accidental photo, but I liked the way it turned out. ;)

After we were finished looking at the tulips, we walked to the Arlington Cemetery metro stop to get on the metro to the Pentagon.

Actually the Pentagon was relatively close to where we were. I had done research beforehand to see if we could walk there from the tulips but it looked like there wasn't an easy way to get there walking. No sidewalks and along a busy road so I decided the metro was the best way to go one stop.

I had never been to the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial before and I thought this field trip would be a perfect time to visit.

Although the area surrounding the memorial was kind of noisy with cars passing by and planes overhead, somehow the park felt peaceful.

 

Each person that died in the Pentagon or on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11/2001 had a bench with their name on it.

This whole family died on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. 

I read about them after I got back that day. It was a Mom and Dad and their two young daughters heading to Australia for a few months for the Mom's job. Reading about them and a few of the other people that died that day made me cry.

After spending some time at the 9/11 Memorial we tried to get to this memorial (the Air Force Memorial) but there didn't seem to be a good walking route to there. This picture is pretty zoomed in.

Some more tulips! (Heather took this photo).

Overall it was a good day! I am glad I got to see the Iwo Jima Memorial again and the tulips at Netherlands Carillon and the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial.

Thanks Heather for joining me on this field trip!

Tulips!

I love tulips! I've always liked them but I think I've now decided they're my favorite flowers. They're beautiful and colorful! 🌷

My sister, Kristina, was in town a few weeks ago with two of her children, Madeline and Jesús, and two of Madeline's friends. One of the things we did while they were here was visit a tulip farm. With the cost of admission, we each got to pick five flowers to bring home! The fields were beautiful and the weather was nice. I loved it!

Enjoy the pictures!

Kristina and Jesús!

Aren't they pretty?!

All of us minus Jesús (who was running around somewhere close by).

Since Kristina and family left town the next day, I got to keep all of the flowers we picked!

I loved having the tulips in the house. They were so pretty and they made me smile every time I walked passed them! 

I am so glad Kristina and part of her family came to visit and that I got to hang out with them quite a bit while they were here.

Votes for Women

My friend, Diana, gives a Sisters, Saints and Suffragists tour every spring (or almost every spring). On her tour, she talks about some of the ladies who fought for women's right to vote.

A few Saturdays ago, I went on one of these tours. It was cold, rainy, and windy that day. Thankfully, the rain had stopped by the time we had the tour, but it was still cold and windy.

One of the stops on our tour.

I learned about Martha (Mattie) Hughes Cannon. She was a lady who lived in Utah and ran for state senate in 1896 and won the spot (beating her husband for that spot). For some reason it makes me smile that she beat her husband in that election and also that she was the first woman state senator in the USA.

Mattie served a four year term as state senator and fought for improving public health and women's rights during her term. (She was a really interesting lady, you can also google her to learn more about her.)

 Diana, our tour guide!

 

Another stop on our tour, on the side of the capitol building. (Look at that view, with the Washington Monument and the cherry blossoms in bloom!)

Another thing I learned on the tour was about the Women's March on Washington in 1913. They were marching to bring attention (to the men in power at the time) that women should have the right to vote! It was the day before President Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. 

Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, and the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) organized the march. Thousands of ladies from all over the country marched along Pennsylvania Avenue (the same route the President would take the next day for his inauguration). 

You can google 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession (or parade) and some decent websites come up that talk more about it.

An original (I think) banner from the Women's March on Washington in 1913. (The tour ended across the street from the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument. This banner was in that house.)

 Votes for Women!

The tour group at the end of our tour! I really enjoyed the tour and I learned a lot. I am so grateful for the people before us who fought for women's right to vote so that I (as well as all of the other women who are of age) can go and vote now.

 

Since the tour ended across the street from this house, my friend, Heather and I decided to go and visit it. It's a small museum, but it was cool!

 

 I liked this stained glass inside of the museum.

 

 

I think this was an original banner women used to peacefully protest in front of the White House before women got the right to vote.

"I stand on the shoulders of the women before me."

After the museum, Heather and I walked back towards the mall to get on the metro at Smithsonian station. Look at the sky in this picture! Isn't it pretty?!

The sky again!

I am glad I went on the tour this day and I am so grateful for the right to vote! Thanks Diana for giving the tour and helping educate us about some of the awesome ladies who fought for women's suffrage.

Nature

 I just wanted to share these pretty nature pictures.

Spring has come! I was walking on a trail on Sunday afternoon and this is what it looked like on either side of the trail most of the way. I liked the contrast of the brown trees with the green ground cover and yellow flowers.

So pretty! On the same trail as the first picture.

I liked the sun beams coming through the clouds behind the Washington Monument in this picture, but also the blooming cherry blossom trees, the green grass, and the sky with their contrasting colors. (I took this picture on Saturday).

Orchid Exhibit

I read somewhere about an orchid exhibit in downtown Washington D.C. I knew immediately that I wanted to go and see the exhibit. I invited a couple of my friends to join me and one was able to come. 

Heather and I met at Metro Center and we walked to the museum where the orchid exhibit was located.

The exhibit was at the National Portrait Gallery courtyard.

The flowers were gorgeous! There were a lot of natural orchids as well as some hybrids. There were some pretty amazing colors. I loved it!

Enjoy the pictures below!

 I loved the color of this one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we finished at the orchid exhibit we decided to look around some other parts of the museum. The colorful paintings of this artist were fun to look at! (Read more about the painting above in the picture below.)

 

Michelle Obama!

 

Since last Saturday, the cherry blossoms were close to peak and it was a really nice day outside, we decided to walk to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms there. But everyone else had that same idea and it was super crowded.

We got close to the Tidal Basin but ended up not going all of the way there because the crowds were too crazy. But we saw some pretty cherry blossom trees along the way.

 

 

 

After the Tidal Basin we headed to the metro to head home. 

Overall it was a nice day! Thanks Heather for joining me on this adventure.

Why I Blog

Why do I blog?

I started this blog in 2008 when I was in my last year at BYU. One of my roommates at the time encouraged me to. Also my sister, Lara, had started a blog the year before and I thought it was kind of cool. :)

When I started this blog it was supposed to be me writing my thoughts and opinions about stuff, any and every kind of stuff (hence the name The Early Morning Confessions of AnnaLisa). Although it may have started out that way, I mainly use this blog now to post pictures and write about adventures I go on.

Although I will happily share my blog with certain people, I mainly blog for myself. On a day to day basis, my life isn't very exciting (and that's okay). But I like documenting the things I have done or thought about (although I don't blog about everything because that would be too much) and I like that I can look back on old blog posts and remember those things.

I enjoy blogging. It's kind of like a journal of my adventures in life. I have always been a journaler. I have over 10 physical journals full of stuff I've written since I was 8 or 9 years old. I do still keep a journal where I write my most personal thoughts but I don't write in it very often anymore.

Although I'm not always consistent with updating this blog, as of right now, I plan on continuing to update on here when I feel so inclined. :)

A random photo of me on a hike last month.