a Great, Good Friday

This is the first year that Jeff actually has a vacation when Annie Kate as spring break. Yee ha! We will head to the beach after Easter so we have a few days to explore the city until we leave.
Today we went to the National Cathedral. Being Good Friday I figured it would have a service going on that we could take the kids to.
We were able to be in the chapel for the first part of the service and the girls did really great. But we scooted out after just a bit so we didn't ruin a good thing. I had never heard the organs played inside and that was a treat.

Since most of the main floor was closed for the service we went to our favorite spot which is on the 7th floor conservatory. You can do a 360 view of the city and I am not so worried about the kids whispering up top.

Sally Jane played tour guide to Jeff by pointing different things out.

Caroline of course just ran and ran and ran!
They have some classes up here so have tables and chairs. All the chairs have a gold plate on them with someones name whom the chair is in memory of. This chair was for a man named Hennings. I love that name and am throwing it out there for anyone having a boy.

They have an exhibit going on right now that was me and Jeff's favorite part of the day. It was so interesting to read all the detail and stories behind this amazing place. Here are two of my favorite from the day. On all the prayer benches below each chair there are hand needle pointed cushions that are made by women all over the world. It is such a beautiful part of the Cathedral and a must see if you go. They are mostly down in the crypt. Any one can apply to stitch one for the church but you must first send in a sampler to apply and then if your work is accepted they send you back a painted canvas for you to do. Ever since I saw these a year and a half ago I thought, I would love to be able to say I learned how to needlepoint and do one. But I would always self talk me out of thinking that was possible, considering I have no idea how to do it. But this story was an awesome example of you are never too old to learn something new.

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Katherine Schachner first learned needlepoint at the age of 60. During the next 25 years, she worked on more than 30 projects for the Cathedral alone.
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There are more than 1500 separate pieces of needlepoint at the cathedral. The blessing of blogging is while typing this I have done a little more research on these pieces and their history. I found a class being offered in the cathedral in a few weeks and I just bought tickets to go. We get to walk through the parts of the cathedral and learn of their history and the hands that made them. I love it when my favorite two worlds collide - handmade and history!

The story of Phillp H. Frohman who was one of the Architects of the Cathedral. He decided at age 12 that this is what he wanted to do for his life, build churches. This was a neat story about him and his characters.

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If any man was a perfectionist it was Philip H. Frohman. In War Memorial Chapel, Frohman discovered that the stone capping a double column was too short by a fraction of a inch . The problem was a result from his miscalculation.
His solution: insert two carved figures to conceal the space. He personally paid for the carvings, entitled "Architect's Mistake"
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The two figures or two figures: one pulling his hair out in frustration for discovering the mistake and two a figure calm after seeing the problem was fixed. We could not go into the War Chapel because of the Good Friday service going on. but next time we go I will look for those for sure. The Cathedral has so many stories all over that it is almost like a treasure hunt to find them all.

the bookstore of the National Cathedral I think is one of the best of places to visit in D.C. I have never bought anything but the entrance is just enticing and they always have great treasures. If you collect nativity sets, you can find ones from all over the world in there.
as we walked outside the girls found a little, little lady bug on the big stone steps.
this was the first time we have been there since they have added underground parking. It is such a breeze now to park, in the past it has been bit crazy. They now have these glass Wonkavators that take you under ground.
We then made our first visit to Georgetown campus. We had lunch and walked around. We ended our day by going to see the new Disney movie called College Road Trip. The character in the movie dreams of going to Georgetown, so I thought a visit to the campus would be fun. (the littles watched Horton and a visit to the zoo to see the elephants happened a few weeks ago, but of course not on purpose)
The campus is so much smaller than I expected. This was a building used in the movie and Caroline made it her stage and started doing all these dances while we sat on the lawn to watch. It was so funny. And my second favorite part of the day.

She was seriously in her element performing

her cooky personality really got going and we had to stop her before she broke out into song and got us kicked off campus.
I was able to add a new photo to my "me in D.C." collection.
I also came home and did a little research on some Georgetown facts I was curious about.

• Tuition $35,568 a year
• a little over 6000 undergraduate students
• it was founded in 1789 the same year the US constitution took effect
  

Housing costs are $8,000 a year

these were some photos of the dorm windows and thought they were a perfect journaling for the year

then the best part of our campus tour and Annie Kate's favorite part of the day. The women's Lacrosse team was practicing. It was just awesome to watch. (my friend emily would be so proud of me!)
Annie Kate almost became in a daze and was so focused on them. It was an amazing thing to watch all the girls being so supportive and constantly yelling "good Job, way to go etc" while they are playing

we were obviously the only one in the stands and the girls had a blast

there were two cemeteries on the campus that we found

we then headed on our way out to the Campus bookstore to get Annie Kate a Lacrosse T-Shirt. (they didn't have any her size)
The Basketball team was playing and they had the game on in the bookstore. right before I took this photo there was quite a crowd watching the game. Their is some big time March Madness going on on that campus.

We found Annie Kate a shirt and she was pretty excited to put it right on.

It was a great, Good Friday for sure!
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Have you ever been to Georgetown Campus?
The National Cathedral?