Wed. 9/26/07 ~ Monuments and Memorials

Once again we boarded the bus at 6:45 AM and made the trip to Union Station. Bill and I stopped at McDonald’s for a quick breakfast before boarding the tour bus to the monuments. Our first stop was at the Washington Monument. We got a ticket for the 10:00 tour and walked up to the monument. Once again, the security was very tight and we were scanned and x-rayed and taken in groups of no more than 24. We rode the elevation to the 500’ level of the monument where you can look out on all four sides onto Washington, DC. From that elevation you can really see the layout of the city as planned by L’Enfant. After the Washington Monument we walked a short distance to the relatively new World War II Memorial. It is very beautiful and moving with wreaths from all the states, carvings showing battle scenes, fountains engraved with all of the names of all the battles and a wall of stars showing 1 star for every 100 men who lost their lives in combat. Beyond the World War II Memorial and a little left of the Lincoln Monument is the Korean War Memorial. It shows bronze statues of soldiers representing all of the various groups and branches of the military who fought in the war. They are walking through a field of gravel and juniper bushes to symbolize the landscape of Korea. The men are all looking around in different directions as if in anticipation of an ambush. Along the side is a wall engraved with pictures made with templates created from actual Korean Veteran photographs. We continued our monument tour with the Lincoln Monument and finally the Viet Nam Veterans’ Memorial. Bill found the name of a childhood friend who was killed in Viet Nam in 1967. We Hopped On the tour bus and continued on to Arlington National Cemetery. At Arlington we took a narrated tram tour with stops at the John F. Kennedy gravesite and eternal flame, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for the changing of the guard, and the Arlington House which was the home of Robert E. Lee. Although we considered stopping for lunch we were running out of time and vacillated on whether or not to go to the Library of Congress. We finally decided in favor of going and are we ever glad we did! When you hear library you probably expect to see an enormous room with miles and miles of shelves but instead we were awed by the beauty of the architecture. Mere words cannot even begin to describe the ornate sculptures, arches, murals, paintings, columns, elaborate ceiling details, and symbolism of the building. We joined a tour already in progress and learned that the building was built completed in 1897 at a cost of $6 million dollars. The interior was decorated by over 50 American artists. It is truly the most amazing and beautiful building either of us has ever seen. We returned to Union Station in time to catch the return shuttle to the campground. We stopped by the office to register for two additional nights and ask for a recommendation for dinner. We told them something close, good, and not expensive. They suggested the Sir Walter Raleigh Inn which wasn’t that close and certainly wasn’t inexpensive. One look at the menu and we both opted for the soup and salad bar which was the cheapest thing on the menu. Strike three – the salad bar left a lot to be desired.