Over the holidays, we took a trip downtown to see the National Archives. I have always wanted to visit The Archives to see and be in the presence of the Charters of Freedom - The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and The Bill of Rights.

I never really noticed how much more was on display at the National Archives - like the Public Vaults exhibit and the Magna Carta. The Public Vaults is an impressive collection of documents, video and audio artifacts that capture American History. A shocking piece of information towards the end of the exhibit reminds us that as we have progressed into the digital age, the ability for the National Archives to maintain accurate and complete records become more and more difficult. This challenge has required them to think outside the box in order to validate and authenticate everything such as a piece of email to the President.

Anyway, just behind the National Archives building in DC, we stumbled across a plaza which turned out to be the US Navy Memorial. You can read more about the memorial at http://newsite.navymemorial.org/events.php

We walked around and looked at The Lone Sailor statue and some of the sculptural panels that circled the plaza.