Washington DC Monuments and Memorials. Oct 2019

The weather had finally cooled off a little so we thought it would be a good day to take the red bus around the Tidal Basin to see all the memorials and monuments. Did I happen to mention that this was the hottest first week in October in Washington in something like 40 years?

We didn't get an early enough start to get in line for tickets to go up the Washington Monument so we had to be satisfied with looking at it from the outside. Actually we'd been looking at it all week as you can see it from pretty much everywhere in Washington.

Just down the hill is the World War II Memorial. It's a semicircle of obelisks, one for each US state and territory, with two atria facing each other across the circle - one representing the Pacific and one representing the Atlantic theaters of war.  There is a fountain in the center and walls of relief panels run along both sides of the entrance. The reliefs depict different types of service units in the war.

Next stop was the Jefferson Memorial. The domed roof was covered in scaffolding due to some renovation work but the interior was still open to the public. There's a large statue of President Jefferson and inscriptions of his inspiring writings on the walls. While we were at the memorial, Marine One (the Presidential helicopter) flew right over us and across the Tidal Basin to land at the White House. Mike was really excited about that.  His godfather had been President Reagan's helicopter pilot and so he was really happy to be able to see the helicopter land at the White House.

The Lincoln Memorial was next and there were a lot more people here than at the Jefferson Memorial. Of course, we've all seen pictures of the huge statue of President Lincoln seated in a chair but it was very cool to see it up close. His Gettysburg Address is inscribed in one of the walls. The setting of the memorial is beautiful, you look right up the Reflecting Pool to the Washington Monument. It's the iconic view everyone thinks of when you mention Washington.

The Vietnam War Memorial aka "The Wall". It's a very unassuming looking monument. Nothing showy or tall, but the sheer number of names is staggering. There were a number of family members there leaving mementos and doing rubbings of the inscriptions. There's a statue of soldiers and also one of combat nurses.

The Korean War Memorial, in my opinion, is the most moving. There are life size statues of soldiers in rain ponchos that seem to look right at you and yet right through you at the same time. The wall at this memorial reflects the statues so that they almost look like ghosts. If you look at the wall closely and at the right angle, you'll see that it has etchings on it that are of people's faces. Soldiers, Koreans, many faces all along the length of the wall. A very well done memorial with an inscription reminding us that "Freedom is never free".

                                                              Vietnam War Memorial

                                                           Korean War Memorial

                                  View from Lincoln Memorial to Washington Monument

                                                          World War II Memorial

World War II Memorial

                                                  Marine One landing at the White House

Korean War Memorial

Washington DC/Virginia Arlington National Cemetery and Old Town Alexandria Oct 2019

We took the Metro two stops from our hotel to Arlington Cemetery and found the subway exit brings you right to the gates of the cemetery. I'm going to give you a good piece of advice here - pay the extra for the little tram that takes you around the cemetery to the big points of interest. We didn't do that and my feet were killing me after awhile. This place is huge and it's a long walk to see all the major monuments and gravesites. And I wore the wrong shoes for so much walking :(

We saw President Kennedy's grave and the eternal flame, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We were there to see the Changing of the Guard ceremony as well as a couple of groups who were there to lay wreaths at the tomb, one of them was a group of Vietnam War veterans. We even got to see the guard stop and chastise the crowd because someone was talking and being loud despite all the signs that ask for "respectful silence at all times".

We went back to the hotel so I could change shoes and then we took the Metro to Old Town Alexandria. There's  a shuttle that stops at several points along King Street and takes you back to the Metro station which was very helpful.

What a gorgeous place! Beautiful brick colonial buildings and even some cobblestone streets. There's a waterfront area with shops and restaurants. We had dinner in a converted firehouse built in 1883.

Alexandria has a pretty brick City Hall with a clock tower and there are lots of row houses that were decorated for fall. They had gorgeous front doors and transom windows and some of the houses still have original gaslights on the exterior.

We visited Christchurch where George Washington attended services when he was in Virginia. The lady asked if we wanted to sit in George Washington's pew box! Who would say no? Certainly not us! I think that was one of Mike's favorite moments from the entire trip. We're history lovers, can you tell?

There's a Presbytery Meeting House where George Washington would sometimes attend meetings. The clock in the church is stopped at the exact time of President Washington's death.  In the churchyard in back, there's a grave of an unknown Revolutionary War soldier.

What a cool place! We only wished we had more time to look around, maybe we'll be back someday.

                      See the gaslights next to the front door? (Click on photo to see it larger)

                                                      Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

                                                              Cobblestone streets

                                                        George Washington's pew!

                                                              Alexandria City Hall

Washington DC Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History/National Air and Space Museum. Oct 2019

If you like dinosaurs, this is the place to be. Lots of Dino exhibits and models as well as skeletons and fossils.  Mastodons, T rex, triceratops - they're all here. There is the usual gallery of stuffed animals that you see in any natural history museum. They also have some incredible gems but the most famous is the Hope Diamond, a 45 carat blue diamond that even has its own curse! They also have an amazing huge aquamarine that is 10,363 carats. Lots of diamonds and gemstones here too.

We left the Natural History Museum and walked across the Capitol Mall to the Air and Space Museum. Did I mention that everything is very walkable here? The Capitol Mall is very long but practically everything you want to see is right there. There is a red bus that makes a loop of the mall and monuments to reduce the amount of walking if you prefer. It was initially free but they had just started charging a small fee at the end of our visit.

The Air and Space Museum was undergoing renovation so only about a third of the museum was open. We did see a prototype of the lunar landing module, some spacesuits and they also have the original airplane that the Wright Brothers flew for the very first airplane flight!  The canvas has been replaced due to aging,  but the remainder of the plane is completely original. There was a movie theater but we skipped that part. Mike says there is another air and space museum near the airport as well.

Washington DC Bureau of Engraving and Printing/National Cathedral Oct 2019

We had an early morning tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. This was the morning that we got on the metro heading the wrong way and had to get off at the next stop and board again to go the right direction, so we had to hustle to be there on time. We arranged this tour through the Congressman's office as well, so we actually had a tour prior to the building opening to the public. It was really nice, there were only a few other people with us. We walked by later and the line to get in was out the door and down the sidewalk.

On this tour you get to see the printing presses and learn about how the money is printed. All the employees were funny and would hold up stacks of money for you to see. There are lots of layers of printing on the currency to try to stop counterfeiting, so there are lots of stages in the printing process. It was an enjoyable tour and you can even buy bags of shredded money in the gift shop. I thought that was a little weird but.. whatever.

We then walked over to the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence,  the US Constitution and the Magna Carta. It was a little disappointing to see that the Declaration was so terribly faded that you could barely make out anything except John Hancock's signature. I'm sure they have a better copy locked in a vault somewhere, I hope so anyway. The Constitution is still legible as is the Magna Carta.

After lunch, we took an Uber to the National Cathedral for a tour there. I wanted to do the Tower Climb tour but they didn't have any that day so we opted for the behind-the-scenes tour instead.  It was an interesting tour. We started in the main cathedral and learned some of the history behind the cathedral. We went up to the upper levels and out onto a walkway to see the buttresses as well as some of the damage from an earthquake several years ago that is still being repaired as funding allows. We even got to go inside to see the top of the vaulting above the nave and we talked about some of the restoration efforts and the craftsmen who work on the cathedral full time.

Washington, DC. White House and US Capitol Building Oct 2019

If you want to tour the White House, you have to apply through the office of your congressman in the US House of Representatives. They contact the White House tour office and you receive a form to fill out and return, and then you wait and wait and wait... The form said the tour office would let us know 2-3 weeks before our requested date if our tour was authorized. They were running a little behind so we actually received our tour date and time 3 days before we left home. I was beginning to think we hadn't been accepted for some reason, Yikes!

There are several layers of security checkpoints that you have to pass through to enter the White House, as one would expect. You're not allowed to bring anything with you except your tour confirmation, your wallet and your cell phone. I was actually surprised they allowed cell phones, but it was nice to be able to take a few photos.

We toured the East Wing, the West Wing is where all the action is so you're not allowed to go there. We were able to see the private movie theater, the East Room (where they hold formal receptions), Green Room, Red Room, Blue Room, Vermeil room, and the formal Dining Room. The East Room has excellent portraits of George Washington (one of the items saved by Dolley Madison) and also of Theodore Roosevelt. There are 3 large chandeliers as well.  An interesting thing about the chandeliers is that even thought they are still large, they were originally much larger and have actually been reduced in size by about one third. An even more interesting thing about the East Room is that when President John Adams moved in, the room was used for laundry because the East Wing was largely unfinished at the time.  A large portrait of Abraham Lincoln hangs in the formal Dining Room and there are beautiful pieces of antique furniture in all the rooms and lovely floral centerpieces as well.

Upon leaving the White House, we had a couple of hours before our Capitol tour so we walked to the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.  We had a friend whose name is inscibed on the wall there.
The memorial itself is nice, there is a water feature and a book to help you find the names of people you're looking for. There is also a museum across the street that has displays related to law enforcement history.

Our Capitol tour started at Representative McClintock's office which is across the street from he Capitol. One of the interns took us through the tunnel that goes under the street and accesses the Capitol Building. We got to see the original Supreme Court chamber as well as the original rooms where the Senate and House would meet.  They have beautiful marble floors and columns and domed ceilings with intricate cupolas. In one of the rooms, if you stand in exactly the right place, you can hear what someone is saying far across the room. It's an acoustic phenomenon that could be a strategic advantage if you wanted to know what the other party was talking about.  It's similar to the Whispering Gallery at St. Paul's in London.

One of the rooms has huge paintings of early American history. There is an excellent painting of George Washington resigning his commission as Commander of the Continental Army.  There are also friezes around the upper perimeter of the room that depict moments in American history from the beginning of the nation through the discovery of gold in California in 1848.

There is a place in the Capitol building where you can see the place where George Washington laid the original cornerstone on September 18, 1793.

The Congress was not in session so we were allowed to go down and actually sit in the front section of seats in the House of Representatives, right where all the generals sit during the State of the Union address I think.

It was a very enjoyable tour and there was just one other couple on the tour with us. At the end, the intern was able to take us onto the front balcony which has a great view all the way down the Capitol Mall to the Lincoln Memorial.

                                                                   The East room

                                                              State Dining Room

                                                        US Capitol Building frieze

                                                            Painting in US Capitol

Washington, DC Metro system/ Smithsonian Museum of American History. Oct 2019

It's been a crazy busy year! I'm finally getting around to posting about our trip to Washington DC in October. Mike has been there a couple of times, but it was my first trip. One of our daughters got married in September, so we only had time for a short vacation this year. We allotted 1 week to see the major sites and museums with a trip to Mount Vernon as well.

We arrived early in the day on a Sunday and checked in at our hotel, the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. There is a convenient metro stop just across from the hotel with underground access tunnel through the Crystal Gateway shopping center.

As I've said before, we're definitely not experts at using subways but I had done some research and knew which transit pass to buy. There was a transit office in Crystal Gateway center, so we were able to buy our prepaid transit cards there. The lady at the desk was helpful and really funny, we actually checked back with her when we returned to our hotel at the end of the day to let her know we found our way back! The metro system for the main sites in DC is really very simple to use and the subway is very clean.  We only got on going the wrong direction once and immediately realized our mistake, so we just went one stop out of our way.

After purchasing our cards, we headed into DC and our first stop was the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. There was so much to see! We spent a good bit of time on the first floor which highlights American inventions and ingenuity. The second floor's most incredible display is the Star-Spangled Banner - the actual flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. The same flag Francis Scott Key saw as he watched the battle from the ship where he was being held prisoner. The flag spent almost 100 years in the possession of the Armistead family, the descendants of the fort commander. This is a big flag, originally 30x42 feet. It is very worn, as one would expect because the Armistead family used to take it out and display it on holidays and the flag has been laundered several times. It now lies in a controlled environment room with a huge glass window.

We eventually made our way to the third floor which has exhibits on the Presidents and First Ladies of the United States. One of the most interesting things to me was the exhibit of the actual table and chairs used by General Ulysses S. Grant and General Robert E. Lee at the signing of the Confederacy's official surrender to end the Civil War. There are also some items relating to President Abraham Lincoln, but there are lots more at the Ford Theater (a tour I highly recommend). They have George Washington's sword as well.

An interesting story, that I had never heard before, was an account of how First Lady Dolley Madison helped to save precious artifacts of American history. In 1814 during the War of 1812, the British advanced on Washington and burned the White House and the Capitol Building. When the Madisons found out that the British were coming and were only 30 miles away, the orders were given to evacuate the White House. Dolley stayed and oversaw the packing of several key possessions and artwork that were important in American history, and only then did she leave the city. A few days later, after the British had been repelled, she returned to Washington to meet with builders and start making plans to rebuild the White House.

We stayed so long that we actually had a late lunch in the dining area at the museum. I think we spent about 6 hours total, my back was hurting from standing in place so long looking at all the exhibits and reading the information.

It was one of my favorite museums in Washington.