Last Wednesday a friend of mine, Dave, said he was going down to Washington DC for the weekend and invited me to come with him. He was initially going down to get a bobble head from a the Nationals baseball game, but when I said that I'd take him up on the offer it became a sight-seeing weekend along with the baseball game. It's about a four hour drive down there with traffic and of course there was traffic on a Friday night.
The National Mall from the Capital building
Saturday we started out at the Capital. Dave lived in DC and worked at the Capital Building as a guide so we were able to bypass some lines waiting for a tour, and once we were on the tour Dave wasn't satisfied with how little our guide was telling us so we sort of wandered between tour groups and Dave filled in what wasn't being covered.
Archie Bunker's chair
Dorthy's Ruby Red Slippers
Oscar the Grouch. Note no slimey or elephant trunks or Bruno the can carrier.
We made our way through the various Smithsonian Museums for the next couple of hours which was good because it was raining.
We took the metro to the Nationals game. There are some big differences between the New York and the Washington Metro systems. DC's is newer and more open, people are more courteous, and you feel like you are less likely to find a pile of poop or a passed out drunk in the station. But where's the excitement then? The game ended up being delayed for about an hour because of the rain which turned out to be a good thing because by the time the game started there weren't many people left in the stadium so we could sit wherever we wanted. We sat in some great seats in both left and right field (we moved in the 6th inning). We did get the bobble heads.
Washington Monument reflecting in pool
Lincoln Monument
Closer
After the game we wandered back into the city to see the monuments at night. This was a really neat experience and I would highly recommend it. All of them are lit up at night and there is hardly anyone around. I didn't appreciate how empty they were until the next day, when we saw them during the day. It ended up being a late night, but DC has so many police around that I never felt unsafe.
During the day. Just a different look than at night.
On Sunday Dave had called a friend of his who is a city guide and agreed to take us around all the monuments and tell us all the stories about them. She is a lady in her 70's and has been doing tours for about 16 years so she is full of information and her pace was quick. She was a lot of fun. Having someone tell you the significance, historical background, and artistic aspects of each of the monuments deepened the whole experience.
The White House. The Obamas were on vacation.
World War II Memorial. With the Lincoln Monument in the background
This is hidden on the WWII memorial and was actually included by the artist. The American GI's would leave this mark on building as they went though cities.
Korean War Memorial. The etchings on the wall are actual pictures of soldiers from the war arranged to look like the mountains of Korea.
There are 19 statues of soldiers representing the army, air force, and Marines. Only 19 because when you look in the wall you see their reflections and you see 38 (see previous picture) which represents the 38th parallel the DMZ is on. Each of the soldier's faces is different and every face has characteristics of all the races of the soldiers that fought which makes the faces almost distorted.
The Vietnam War Memorial is just a wall with about 54000 names of the missing and dead. After the names of dead there is a diamond and after the missing a cross. Once the missing are confirmed dead the cross becomes a diamond.
People leave things at the wall all the time. Every day the national parks service picks up and catalogs what it is and where it was placed and stores it. There were a couple of letters on the ground while was there. Very personal letters. This one was from a guy writing to a friend of his. He explained that he had fought side by side with this guy but that he had been dealing with a lot of his own problems since he returned home but he was now ready to deal with his friend's death. The writer was said he was the first one to his friend's side after he went down.
Changing of the guard at the Tomb for the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. They change every half hour. The one guard marches back and forth for the half hour, then an officer comes out followed by the replacement guard. The officer inspects the uniform and gun of both guards.
This is a picture from Robert E. Lee's house in Arlington national cemetery. You can see the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Monument, and the Capital building. Arlington was build on land once owned by George Washington but was passed down to his step-granddaughter who married Lee. Despite living in Washington, Lee said his heart was in Virgina and he left to lead the the South in the Civil war. His wife moved shortly after when they started burying people around her garden. You can see that there aren't any tall buildings in Washington; no building is allowed to be taller then the Capital building.
I think I came away from the weekend with an appreciation for the way a country honours it's people who have sacrificed and held true to what they believe in.
