National Cathedral, Washington DC

"Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made a cathedral."  -- Robert Louis Stephenson

Not a Pinterest entry, but something that I really wanted to share.

Every year, the day after Christmas, we have gone downtown into Washington, DC to see the miniature trains set up at the Botanical Gardens.  To find out more, check out their link here:  http://www.usbg.gov/

If you have never been and are planning to be in the Washington, DC metro area around Christmastime, I highly recommend this as one of your must sees.

But this year, we tried something different.  We were busy the day after Christmas and it didn't seem right to go on a different day.  So we completely broke tradition and decided to tour the National Cathedral since we had never been there.  Looks kind of like Notre Dame in Paris, doesn't it?


                                    

The Cathedral is famously known for its gargoyles and grotesques and we managed to get a few good shots of some of the lower ones.

 

We were actually trying to find the Darth Vader grotesque, but it was too high up, even with our telephoto lens.  There was great debate from the family over whether this was it, but upon zooming in with the camera, we found out it was just a skeleton head.  Still pretty cool.

 

 

 

 Inside the Children's Chapel, 20 angels for each of the children killed in the Sandy Hook/Newtown shooting.

 

 

 

 

The Cathedral’s Pentagon Cross is made from fragments from the face of the Pentagon attacked on 9/11.  On the tenth anniversary, it was presented to the Cathedral as a gift by the U.S. Army chief of chaplains “in recognition that we are united in memory, united in freedom, and united in faith, hope, and love for God, our nation, and all humankind.”

 

 

 

 

 And of course the space window.  In the very center of the large red circle is the small, dark moonstone.  It is was presented to the Cathedral from the crew of Apollo 11.

 

 

There was so much to do and see, that we did not get a chance to see it all.  Definitely check out the observation gallery on the top floor, the Bishop's Garden, and the pinnacle that came crashing down during the 2011 earthquake.  It is HUGE!!!


This is definitely a place that requires a revisit.  For more info and what to see with children, check out this link:  http://www.nationalcathedral.org/pdfs/families.pdf