August 10, 2014
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| Arlington |
Last day in DC so we headed to Arlington National Cemetery,
as I wanted to make sure Bobby got to visit this impressive place.
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| Tomb of the Unknown Soldier |
First stop was the visitor’s center
to get a map, then we headed to the Unknown Soldier tomb to watch the changing
of the guard. Bobby had never seen this
and was very impressed. I’ve seen it 3-4
times but still very impressive! It
takes 10 min., so you can get hot while watching, there is NO shade. The tomb was created in 1921, first guard was placed at the tomb in 1925 but only on special occasions and in 1937 the full time guards were created. The tomb is never unguarded, not even during the Sept 11, 2001 or Hurricane Sandy!
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| Challenger & Columbia Memorials |
We then wonder around the tomb area looking at the grave sites, here are many (over 400,000) but three that we saw that impressed me were the mast from the USS Maine,which sank in 1898, tributes to Crew of the Columbia space shuttle that died in 2003 & the Challenger Space Shuttle crew that died in 1986.
President Lee’s
home is not far from the Unknown Soldier tomb, so we walked up there to see the view
of DC. Incredible!!!
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| President Lee's home |
Next we walked down to President Kennedy’s grave site. It's sad to see Pres. Kennedy, Jackie, their unborn daughter and son Patrick (only lived 2 days) all are there.
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| Pres. Kennedy's grave site |
Nearby is his brothers Bobby and Edward Kennedy, they have simple grave sites compared to many of the others in this cemetery.
We then headed back to the visitors center, looked around
and then headed to the train. Thought about going to the Pentagon, but it’s
hot and we are very tired. Will be nice
to not do anything this afternoon!!!
August 9, 2014
considering parking is horrible per the website and it was, every parking lot was full. This zoo is owned by the Smithsonian, so it’s free. Believe me, it’s well used! Lots of families enjoying the day!
Walked around and saw all the animals, they say this is the
largest zoo in the USA. We learned its
125 years old this year. It’s located
right in the middle of NW DC, obviously they’ve built all around it.
They have some very unique things that we’ve not seen and
then off course they have all the normal animals, just different varieties than
we are accustomed to seeing. My
favorite thing was the Pandas & big cats…never get tired of seeing these! In fact when looking at the Pandas, we saw
the baby, but it was up a fir tree. So
cute!
We are now home and will probably do nothing the remainder
of the evening.
August 8, 2014
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| John Marshall...Supreme Court Justice |
Bobby took me out to breakfast, then we caught the train to
the capital. It’s the same route (orange),
just a different stop.
When we got across the street from the Capital, the bomb
squad was arriving and would not let us go to visitor’s center. We learned there was a suspicious bag and
they closed the capital. We stood around
for about 5 min., they were questioning a person, so we decided to visit
Supreme Court House first. We didn’t
want to be near the capital in case a bomb did go off.
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| Supreme Court |
The court room was closed for annual maintenance so we did
not see that portion. We did watch a
movie about how the process works, very interesting. Learned that there have been 112 Justices
throughout time and now we have 9 (currently 6 men & 3 women) serving on
the bench at this time. The longest serving
justice was John Marshall, he served 34 years (1801-1835) and the first woman
was Sandra Day O’Connor who retired in 2006.
Next was the capital…apparently the bag was left by a
visitor that had gone to get something to drink and left his bag. Bet he won’t do that again!
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| Capital |
Got tickets for the 11:30 tour, our guide gives you head
sets, so it was easy to hear him describe all the art work and statues. After watching a 15 min. movie, you meet
your guide that shows you the Crypt (lower portion of the rotunda), Rotunda
& National Statuary Hall (hall of statues).
If you want to see the House & Senate portions, you have to get
tickets from your representative or senator.
We did not do this, could have today, but had enough to see. We did learn that each state can have two
statues in the Capital. They can be of
anyone they choose, some choose presidents, heroes, someone that made a mark on
history (Rosa Parks, MLK, Philo Farnsworth from Utah (invented the TV)) and
they don’t have to be a resident of that state!
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| Rosa Parks |
After our tour, we got some lunch at the cafeteria, as we
still had portions of the capital to visit.
Then we headed to the Library of Congress via the tunnel. It’s amazing how long it was! Think we walked 2-3 blocks. In the Library, which is utterly beautiful,
you get to see the Gutenberg & Mainz bibles. The Mainz bible is a handwritten bible and
the Gutenberg is a printed version of the bible, both dating back to 1450’s.
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| Library of Congress |
We also saw the Jefferson Building, which houses Jefferson
library. It opened in 1897 and Mr.
Jefferson gave his personal collection in 1815 (after the British burnt it in
1814) of 6,487 books. It cost Congress
$23,950 to purchase them, the price was determined by the size of the book…smallest
was a $1 and largest $5, with prices in between. I’m sure that today these are worth a whole
lot more!!!
Next we walked to the front of the Capital to take
pictures. You get amazing pics from
this side! Then we went across the
street to the Botanical Gardens, our last stop for the day.
August 7, 2014
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| Amelia Earhart |
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| From the Air & Space Museum |
We then
headed to the Ag building again for lunch.
It’s just good food and cheap.
Afterward we
headed to the Smithsonian Castle. It’s
the headquarters and visitors center for the Smithsonian’s. They have a wing on the history of the
Smithsonian and some of the older stuff they’ve collected. For example, they have a piece of the Berlin
Wall, Napoleons napkin, a colored person water fountain, animals, largest tarantula (Goliah Birdeater) ..it eats birds, just to name a few.
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| Looking up National Mall at Capital |
Next was the
Natural Museum of history. It was
packed and I mean packed, with kids!
Extremely difficult to get near the exhibits but at least we saw the
Hope Diamond! They have sections on minerals,
manuals, skeletons, butterflies, etc. for you to look at.
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| Hope Diamond |
Last stop
was the History Museum. It’s the 200
anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner so you get to see the original flag; it’s
huge and obviously worn and tattered. Very
impressive but they don’t allow pics.
You also get to see things like Dorothy’s red shoes from the wizard of
OZ, First Ladies dresses, dishes used in the white house, stuff on the wars and
how American got her independence and they also had a section on
transportation. Here they had a section
that featured Portland, OR and in particular Sandy Blvd. They time frame was just after WWII, so I did
not recognize all the buildings but knew the Fred Meyer Store that they
showed. It was very interesting to see
Portland featured in the Museum.
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| Dorothy's Shoes |
Caught the
train around 4:30 and now we are home for the evening. Feet are tired from walking 7 miles
today. It’s amazing how the miles add
up!
August 6, 2014
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| WA Monument |
We wore out
our feet today! We walked over 11 miles
as we walked around the National Mall and saw all the memorials, which are
wonderful. I don’t think we missed one,
but if we did, we’ll catch it tomorrow.
The National Mall is part of the National Park system, so throughout the
day, I collect stamps for my book.
Think I got 20+ stamps!
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| WWII Memorial |
Started out
the day by parking at the metro garage about a mile from us, caught the Orange
train and headed to town, once we bought our 7 day pass. This is the most convenient & cheapest
way to travel around this town. Since
we are staying in Fairfax, VA it took us about 20 miles and we got off at the
Federal Triangle stop. It put us across
the street from the History Museum (part of the Smithsonian’s).
First stop
was the Washington Monument. You have to
get a free ticket, which took us about 15 min.
We got a 2:30 tour (they give out 3,000 a day and they are usually gone
by 9:30…we got lucky to get one), so we decided to head towards Lincoln’s
memorial. Along the way we stopped at
the WWII. This is absolutely
gorgeous.
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| Lincoln Memorial |
Next was
Lincoln’s memorial. We were
disappointed in that it was so dirty.
Looked liked the statute had not been washed for many months, no longer
white but a dirty white. However, this
is still a tremendous memorial, gives you that feeling that you can hear him
giving his famous speech. From his
steps, you get a great view of the Washington Monument and the capital behind
it.
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| Mr. Lincoln |
Nearby is
the Vietnam Memorial. Bobby thought this
would look a lot different than it does; it’s impressive but very sad to see
all the thousands of names on the wall.
We found a friend from Bobby high school days on the wall. There were lots of people doing the same.
We then
headed to the Korean War Memorial, here you see the men as they moved along the
beaches, etc., it’s very well done.
Here you get to see some of the numbers of the dead, injured, etc. So very sad that war takes so many of our
men/women.
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| Korean Memorial |
A little
further down the mall is FDR memorial, what an impressive place this is! Love all the saying engraved on the walls,
the water falls, statues, etc, one of my favorites.
A memorial I
had not seen was the MLK memorial. It’s
very different, not anything what I had expected. I liked it, Bobby did not.
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| Vietnam Memorial |
Next was
Jefferson memorial…what can I say, it’s very impressive but like Lincolns, was
dirty. Sad!!!
By now we’ve
walked over 6 miles and feet need a rest so we head to the Holocaust Museum in
hopes of find a cafe? The guard gave us
a suggestion to visit the USDA (dept of agriculture) and eat there. Excellent and inexpensive!!!
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| Jefferson Memorial |
We had
about an hour before we have to be at Washington Monument for our tour, so we
go into the Freer Gallery. They have
art from the Asian Cultures. It was
amazing to see the dates on the exhibits…some as old as 345. The Peacock room was beautiful with all the
pottery in various colors of a peacock.
It’s time
for our tour, so we walk down the Mall to the Monument. They are running a little late, so we have to
wait about 30 min. for our tour. Once
you get into the building you take an elevator up 550+ feet to the top
floor. Here you have a 360 degree view
of DC. Impressive!!!! Might have to do a tour at night!
Time to head
home, so we head to the metro and catch the train back to the parking garage,
arriving back home after 4. Long day but oh so worth it!
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