Arlington Memorial Bridge

Washington DC has many bridges in it. This one is the Arlington Memorial bridge. The arches on it are beautiful and the Potomic river peacefully flows under it. The side opposite Washington DC is adorned with 8 ft high eagles. I'm sure that you guessed that this bridge takes you to Arlington National Cemetary. Also on that side of the bridge is the former home of General Lee. It seems ironic that the first thing on the Washington side is the Lincoln Memorial. This was done on purpose to symbolize the coming together of the North and the South.

This huge statue is one of the four

that were given to the U.S. from Italy. They stand on pedestals near the Washington side of the Arlington Memorial bridge. They are beautiful Greek revival horses and riders. One is called Music and Harvest. Another is Aspiration and Literature. This one is called Valor. The last one is Sacrifice. I love the smoothness and detail in the muscles of the horses and people depicted in the statues. They seem so noble and honorable -two characteristics that I value greatly.

Washington Monument

This is a view of the Lincoln Memorial from the other side of the reflecting pool. It is calm and peaceful around the pool.

Many people seem to enjoy walking and jogging around the pool. It's hard to believe how many joggers we saw. They made me feel guilty (and tired). Ducks also enjoyed the pool.

The picture below gives new meaning to 'bottoms up'. I knew my kids would love to see that one! I'm sorry to inflict that on you but I just had to <:)

At the other end of the reflecting pool is the Washington Monument. It is amazing. I seem to have hundreds of pictures of this monument. It seemed like no matter where you were you could see it. Some of the people in our group used it as a compass to find their way around the city.

Here is a closer shot. It's easier to see the two different colors of the monument. We wondered about this. It so happened that the building of this monument was disrupted and after a time started again. The builders I guess used slightly different stone to finish it.

WWII Memorial

This is the World War II Memorial. It is between the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument. I really enjoyed the small and larger fountains. Lit at night it is beautiful!

Some where on this memorial is a wall of gold stars. These 4, 048 stars are in honor of the 405,000 plus American lives that were lost during WWII. I'm sure I missed many significant features at this memorial, but it is hard to miss the two large pavilions. One is dedicated to the Pacific area and the other the Atlantic area.

This is a picture looking through one of them. The sculpture inside looks like a wreath being carried by doves (maybe eagles ?). I'm sure there is a lot of meaning behind this. I like to think of them as a vision of peace. It just seemed so natural for these birds to be carrying these huge wreaths and working together for peace.

Another thing I noticed was this doodle on one of the walls of the monument. (I did the one pictured below) I couldn't understand why no one cleaned it off. I should have realized that it belonged there since that area was kind of 'roped off'.

As it turns out, this was a sign of hope used during the war. It's beginnings is almost like an 'urban legend'. The most popular story of its origin was about a shipyard inspector who signed the items he inspected with a version of the figure above. The sailors would see this and liked it. They would then leave it in ports where they docked. The troops would then see it and like it and leave it other places. Soon where ever troops went they would find the figure and in turn would leave it for others. It was great comfort to know that Kilroy was there before them paving the way and stayed behind bringing up the rear. This website http://www.kilroywashere.org/ has many stories about Kilroy sightings. I really enjoyed the one about Stalin in a latrine!

Vietnam Memorial

This memorial is located near the Lincoln Memorial. It is the Vietnam Memorial. I guess I should say that it is a part of the memorial. It is the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall.

It is a very emotional memorial to visit. It starts small and gets bigger as you go down then smaller again as you go back up. The top of it is level with the ground. When you get down in you are surrounded by all these names. Over 58,000 names of members of the U.S. Armed forces who either died in service or were(are) unaccounted for during the Vietnam War.Many people come to find the name of some one they lost in the war. There is a directory up above on the main walk that tells you where the name is. Often people make a rubbing of the name when they find it. The lady in the green jacket is doing that above. Down below is the corner of the wall. Someone has left a wreath for their loved one. I also saw a note pushed into one of the cracks of the walls. It can be seen in the top picture on the right side.

There are two more parts to this memorial. This is the Three Soldiers Statue. It is located near the front of the wall.

This is the Vietnam Women's Memorial. It is located off to the side. They are both very touching dedications to those who gave of themselves during the Vietnam War.

One emotional moment for me was when I saw two men grasp each other's hand and shake it. One was a Vietnam War Veteran and the other was a WWII veteran.

Birthday

Hi, I'm taking a break from Washington DC.

We celebrated my youngest's birthday today. On my kid's birth date we have a little birthday with just the immediate family. Later we have an extended family birthday party. Today he got to pick out his special breakfast (pop tarts) and a cake and ice cream substitute (brownies- cake and ice cream is for the big birthday).

We had fun this evening.

My daughter wanted to light his candle. I let her.The first match went out when it touched the candle. The second one did the trick. She then blew out the match (and candle) all in one breath. The third match broke when she tried to light it. It actually flew and landed on the brownies! She picked it up and lit the candle with it. SUCCESS! She then picked up a tooth pick and lit it on the candle flame. I was very nervous. I made her put it in the sink before she blew out the candle again.

I took the cake into the living room

where he was waiting. It was so dark that I pretended to not know where he was. I walked around to everyone else while we sang Happy Birthday!! He knew I was teasing him. I finally 'found' him and we sang again. He had fun and really enjoyed his presents:)

Roosevelt Memorial

The Roosevelt Memorial was kind of like a walk in the park. It was set up with trees, plants, statues, and waterfalls. It was beautiful and relaxing. Well the stuff I could see was. We toured it at night and some of the lighting wasn't very good.

One of the first statues was of Roosevelt in his wheel chair.

Another was of a man listening to his radio. That seems silly now a days but soon people will think it odd to watch TVas we do. There are other statues that depict life in those times and at least one more of Roosevelt with his cape covering his wheelchair.

Near the middle were these eerie pillars. I think someone said it was a tower that told the story in braille(?) It had impressions of people's faces. They were pretty neat. I thought my kids would like to see them.

I reallly enjoyed the waterfalls andwater features. These are really relaxing and the lights on them were beautiful.

Lincoln Memorial

Much like the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial has many columns. As you can see it is very sharply rectangular. It is modeled from the Parthenon from ancient Greece. I really love this type of architecture.

Above the pillars are engraved the names of the 36 states that were in the union during Lincoln's Presidency. I had a lot of fun walking around looking for Pennsylvania. See if you can find it.

I love the extra embellishments.


Inside is a large statue of our 16th
president.

The inscription above him reads:

IN THIS TEMPLE AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS ENSHRINED FOREVER

It is beautiful.

Jefferson Memorial

Our night tour included a stop at the Jefferson Memorial. This is Mr Jefferson himself. He stood by himself in the middle of a large room. There were inscriptions on the walls. The one below was very interesting. I enjoyed reading what he thought of God and religion. I also believe that all should be allowed to believe what they want without fear of punishment. I also believe there is only one truth. One way to heaven.



All of this was housed in round building. It had columns on the front and a domed roof.

This is a view of it from a distance and at night. You can see the domed roof and columns. If you look closely at the blurry picture you can see Jefferson standing in the middle of the building and picture.

This one is at night also but up close and from the front.

It was beautiful.

Home

We're back! It's nice to get away but I always love to get home again. The kids and animals survived our absence. The teenagers seemed to enjoy being "on their own" a little. They did a great job with the kids. The kids even said so.

Back to our trip. We rode on a bus most of the first day. After we checked in it was time to eat. They had appetizers then a buffet. With over one hundred people in front of us we decided to wait to get our food. It was worth the wait. I loved the salad. It had water crest in it and some other different greens in it. The prime rib and fish were good also. I must enjoy eating too much-I almost missed the next activity trying to finish. After this we went on a night tour of the monuments. We were on the top of a double decker bus. My seat was right on top of the speaker so I was vibrated most of the time. What a weird sensation. My muscles loosened up good though. I'm glad they didn't charge extra for the massage.

The next day we were on our own most of the day. Being the industrious go getters that we are- we woke up at the unearthly hour of 10 o'clock (what do you expect we were on vacation). We started by going to some memorials that we missed the night before. Hopefully you will get to see pictures of them later. The most memorable was the Vietnam memorial- The Wall. My husband had never seen it before so he was very impressed. After that we went to a few Smithsonian Museums. We started to go into the Museum of American History but we had trouble with the weapons check. My Swiss Army Knife was passed but when the guard saw Scott take his machete out of his pocket she told us we couldn't go in. We decided to take them back to the hotel then try again. We went and visited a few museums but by that time we were getting sore from walking and were running out of time. So being the old people that we are we vegged in the hotel watching T.V. That night we went to ESPN Zone. Scott loved it. They have TVs every where. Even in the bathrooms. I hope Scott doesn't get any ideas! They also have an arcade in the basement and Scott's company gave us a charged card so we could play. It was exciting to see these older people (mostly men) enjoying themselves on the games. I played a basketball hoop game against Scott. He won one game and I won one. It was fun!

The next day we loaded up and went to the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport. It was amazing to see all the aircraft. There was even a space shuttle there. WOW! Our last stop was home.

It was a great trip. I spent a lot of time with my husband and ate way too much food but it was fun.

Hello and Goodbye

Hello this is my first post. I guess I shouldn't be saying goodbye. I am though, only for a few days. My husband qualified for a trip with his company. We are going with other managers to Washington DC. Sounds exciting! We've gone with them the last few years. The people are great and they put together a wonderful trip. I mostly look forward to time with my husband (he's great) and lots of food that I don't have to cook or clean up after. It's perfect my husband and food. What could be better? Well I must say that having the kids there would be great also.



Kids? Yes we have a hand full of kids. They are pretty good though. They add something special to everything. My Mom usually watches them but this year she can't. You know you're blessed when your friends start fighting over who gets to watch them. One problem though, we have a 1 yr old black lab mix who can't stay at someone else's house. Well he probably could but I may loose a friend that way and good friends are hard to come by. We decided to see if someone would stay at the house and watch the kids, dog, bunnie, turtle, the works. Its hard to believe but we have been doubly blessed- the teenage daughters of our friends volunteered. They are going to fill in for each other when the other has an activity. Amazingly I actually trust these girls with my children. How many teenagers can you say that about? So these young ladies are going to stay in our house for 3 days and look after our kids. God has blessed us greatly!



Se ya later!