The tour of a million names...It started early and lasted most of the day. We started off by going to Arlington National Cemetery. We went there first to avoid all the traffic in D.C. because of the filming of a movie called 'Salt' with Angelina Jolie. We visited the Kennedy graves (JKF, Jaqueline, and the two children who died in infancy) and Bobby Kennedy's grave. We also visited the Tombs of the Unknowns. According to Wikipedia, "the Tomb of the Unknowns has been guarded continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, since July 2, 1937. Inclement weather does not cause the watch to cease."
After Arlington, we visited the WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial. Sad, but there is no memorial for WWI and there is not likely to be one because there is no one left living to fight for it. At least this is what our tour guide thinks. It was really windy and a little cold so we did not stay long. After the memorials, we made a quick stop at the Washington Monument. We rode up the elevator and the view was quite nice. We could even see the Pentagon!
We then were dropped off for an hour at a food court. It was pretty packed with school tours and business people. It was loud so we ate, got some ice cream, and went outside until the tour guide picked us up and took us to the Jefferson Memorial. This memorial has a lovely view of the river. I really liked this memorial the most.After Jefferson, we stopped at the FDR Memorial. This one stretched for a while and was quiet. It had a story behind the two statues... the original was FDR covered by a blanket in a wheelchair. They added on a statue of just him in the chair after there were complaints...
After all of this, the tour guide dropped us off at Ford's Theater. The theater is still a working theater and they were actually tearing down a set from a recent show. They also had the box open where Lincoln was shot. It has been kept really nice and it is lovely, small theater. Across the street, you can see the house that they brought Lincoln to and even the small room where he died.
The last thing we wanted to do on day 7 was to go to the Library of Congress. This was the most impressive building by far. It is lovely. We went and registered as 'readers' so we could go to the main reading room. We were on a mission. We wanted to find the book that contained Alan's grandfather's thesis. As luck should have it, we were able to get the reader cards and the book because the main reading room stays open until 9:30 for individuals with reading cards. YAH! The book was a bit old and considered brittle. We carefully made a copy of the thesis and with the day's goals tackeled, we headed out to the Diner for dinner.
Brief glimpses of spring throughout the day signaled the coming of the cherry blossoms. To bad we are leaving tomorrow... but we miss Ubi and Ro!
No comments:
Post a Comment