Washington DC

Wednesday, Sept 10

We planned to go into DC today as it was the only day not to have some rain predicted.  Fortunately, the weatherman got it right.  It was overcast and cloudy all day but no rain.

We had a lot of trouble deciding whether to drive in and try to find a place to park, or to take the Metro.  After much thought we finally decided on the Metro.  It was not cheaper but it was probably easier.  We drove to the nearest station, about 15 miles away, and after a bit of trying, found parking in the far reaches of the lot.  Cost to park for the day - $5.10.  We bought a one-way ticket to Union Station (cost $4.60 each), where we would catch the Old Time Trolley (cost each - $35.10).  We were lucky and there was a Metro employee who helped us get tickets as the machine was kind of confusing.  They have a disabled and a senior pass but you can only get those in specific places.

Once we reached Union Station we got on the trolley.  It is an on/off trolley that circles the city.  It sure cuts down on the walking and I definitely recommend using one.  My feet and legs would not have lasted if I had to walk the entire time.  Union Station is stop 4 for this trolley.  The drivers are very informative as they drive around.

We decided to focus our tour in the area of the Jefferson Memorial.  There are many new memorials in the area that we wanted to see. And we haven't explored it before.  We got off at stop 8, the Jefferson Memorial -

From the Jefferson Memorial you can look across the Tidal Basin and see the White House -

Look in the gap between the trees for the White House

Oh, did you know the difference between a Monument and a Memorial?  A Monument is planned while the person is still alive and a Memorial is planned after a person dies.  The Washington Monument is the only Monument in DC.  He helped plan it but it wasn't built until after he died.

Back on the trolley, which runs about every 30 minutes, we rode over to the FDR and MLK Memorials.  The FDR Memorial is very big.  I was very surprised at the size.  I remember when they were designing it and there was a lot of controversy.  There are 4 areas to the Memorial.

 

There is one section dedicated to Elenor Roosevelt, the only Memorial to a First Lady.  She was also our countries first representative to the United Nations.

Just a little bit down the road is the Martin Luther King Memorial.  It is suppose to represent the Mountain of Despair and the Stone of Hope that he talked about in his speech.

Back on the trolley and across the river to stop 10.  This is the area of the Lincoln Memorial, the Viet Nam Wall and the Korean Memorial, the WW1 and WW2 memorials.  We would spend the most time in this area.  My father asked me to make sure I visit the Korean Memorial the next time I was in DC.

It was a very nice Memorial.  We will visit it again.

Next we walked over to the Vietnam Memorial, or The Wall.  We always visit this Memorial when we are in DC as the war impacted our lives directly.  We both probably know some of the people on the wall.

They have added the following statue and plaque to honor those who served and are living with the after effects.

After paying our respects here we walked back to the Lincoln Memorial.  We only went part way up the stairs and were going to take the elevator to the top but there was a long line.  There was a group from the Honor Flights in to visit the WW2 Memorial.  It was nice to see that.

We picked up the trolley and rode back to the other end of town.  We got off at stop 3 to visit the National Archives.  It has been awhile since we have visited this museum.  Since 9/11 there have been some changes here.  You no longer enter through the big doors.  You have to enter on the side and pass through a metal detector and xray machine.  No pictures are allowed so I have none.  We saw the Declaration of Independence,  the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.   These original documents have faded and are very difficult to read.  It won't be many years until they become unreadable.

We decided to hop back on the Metro from here and head home.  We had trouble trying to figure out how to buy tickets but once more a helpful Metro employee was there.  Soon we were back on the Metro and headed back.  Since it was around 5:00 we had to pay the higher fare of $5.70 each.  The trip was fast and we were soon back on the road and headed to Ft. Meade.  The traffic wasn't as bad as I expected.  In fact, all of our travels in the DC area have been less stressful than LA traffic.

We had a simple dinner of turkey sliders, corn on the cob and applesauce.  We were both tired.  We plan on not doing anything tomorrow.  Just resting and recuperating.   We will be leaving here on Friday and heading to the Hershey RV show.  We had hoped to see my nephew, Brian, while here but he is still in Chief's school and not available.

So that was our day.  I took a lot of pictures and I hope you enjoy the slideshow.