April 18-25, 2014 -- Washington DC

We left North River and made that 9 am appointment at Cummins.  It took them until 2:20 before they even got us an estimate! For something that Wayne already diagnosed for them!  Unbelievable! Then they said they couldn't even work on it until tomorrow. But one of the mechanics wanted to start on it, so they actually got to it and finished it before 6:00. We got on the road and drove for about an hour and called it a day.

 

The next day we headed up towards DC.

 

 We stayed at the Cherry Hill RV Park. It was so convenient.  The day we got there they had a 4 PM meeting to help us decided how to see as much as possible and to tell us the easiest ways to get into the city. It turns out that a Metro bus route started in the park and ended at the Metro Rail (subway) station in nearby College Park. Most days we would catch the bus, then take the Metro to where ever we planned to go that day.

 

The one day that was different was the first day when we took the Gray Line bus tour.  They came to the park and picked us up, again very convenient!

 

We started at the Capitol building

Inside the Capitol

It is a huge building

The next stop was the Air & Space Museum

The Emilia Earhart display was very cool, although I must admit that having gone to Kennedy Space Center and Kill Devil Hills on this same trip meant that we had seen most of this stuff already.

Next stop was to see our friend Barack.  Don't think he was home...

 Next stop was the World War II Memorial

 It is one of those places where you can sit by the fountain on a warm day and just enjoy...

From there we went to the Martin Luther King Memorial

"Out of the mountain of despair,

 A stone of hope" -- inscription on his statue

 Some of my favorite quotes from MLK

Our next stop was another museum, the Museum of American History. We only had about an hour and a half so we went through the Electrical Age and America on the Move exhibits.

 Had to check out the bikes

 These two are part of an exhibit that has Portland OR as the back drop.

Sunday we rode the Metro into DC and planned to start with lunch, then hit the memorials along the National Mall. We had no idea how long it would take us to get there and we got into town much too early to go to the brewery for lunch. So we stopped at the National Portrait and Art Museum.

 Very cool weather-vane

 The Preamble to the Constitution done in the license plates of all the states

 Wayne gave the beer a thumbs up, and lunch was marvelous too!

 From there we walked toward the White House, passing Lafayette Park.

 We stopped to see our friend Barack again.

 He's home today, as shown by the snipers on the roof, on the left side.

 Once again the inside of the Washington Monument is closed.  Three times I have been here, and all three times it's closed!

 We missed most of the Cherry Blossoms as a big wind storm came through last week and blew them all away.  Usually they last two weeks, this year? Four days.  Oh well, other trees are in bloom.

 Vietnam Women's Memorial

 Vietnam Veterans Memorial -- The Wall

 Three Servicemen

 The Lincoln Memorial

 The Korean War Veterans Memorial

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is new, and I think it is one of my favorites

 Signs of the times...

From the Roosevelt Memorial it is a nice walk around the Tidal Basin to...

 The Jefferson Memorial

It's easy to find where you are going on the National Mall.  These signs are everywhere to point you in the right direction.

 

From here we caught the train back to the park and made plans for Monday/Museum Day.

 We started by taking the Metro to Union Station. Originally the train station, it is now the hub of all transportation. Train, subway, bus and soon the new streetcars.

 First stop was the National Postal Museum. As a retired Postal Employee, I felt a need...

 The National Gallery of Art. We had planned to eat lunch here but the lines were too long.  Did I tell you that all the museums and monuments are free?  You can pop into any of them just for lunch, or to spend the day. We ended up eating at the Natural History Museum.  From there it was over to the American History Museum to spend the rest of the afternoon.  We managed to see the rest of the first floor and most of the third floor, but will have to save the rest for another time.

Dinner and beer at the City Tap House.  A nice benny of taking the Metro is that neither of us was driving!!!!

 

 

We took Tuesday off to rest our bodies, besides rain was due! On Wednesday we headed to Mt Vernon, George Washington's plantation in Virginia.  Again the train and bus system was our friend.

 Mt. Vernon stayed in the Washington family until the 1850's when it was purchased by a group of women from around the nation for the express purpose of preserving and allowing the public to have access. 

In Washington's day there were no hotels and not many inns so when you traveled you stayed with who ever lived along your way.  After GW finished his time as President many travelers decided that if they had to stay somewhere they'd stay with him.  One year over 600 people stayed there, some were friends, some complete strangers.

 They have done a great job of rebuilding and restoring the grounds.  They even have a working blacksmith who makes many of the metal work pieces.  They look so much like the originals that the new ones are marked with initials and dates so that people in the future will know which are original and which are not.

 The view from the Washington home.  The land across the river was turned into a park to keep development out of sight from Mt Vernon. GW often said that Mt Vernon was the most pleasant local, and the view was part of what he liked so much.

 Martha and George are both interred here in a tomb that George directed to be built.

We wandered around the rest of the property, and then caught the bus for the long ride back to camp.

 

Thursday was our last day in DC. We started by taking the metro to the Pentagon.

 We walked around to the side where the plane crashed into the building on 9/11/2001.

 The memorial is unusual, but I can see how it would comfort those that survived.  Each Memorial Unit is a cantilevered bench with a victim's name on the end over a lighted pool of flowing water.    They are organized by the year of their birth. Those of the victims on the plane face the direction from which the plane approached and those from the Pentagon face the building where they were when the plane hit. I bet workers come out here to have lunch with there fallen friends. Pictures of the Memorial at night are very striking.

 We then took the metro to Arlington Cemetery.

 Changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers

 This tree was so large and interesting that Wayne went up to read the name, it's a type of White Oak. that little piece of orange is Wayne. Notice the headstones.

 For some reason I thought Arlington only had this type of headstone.

 Jackie and JFK, and the Eternal Flame

 Above the Kennedys is the Custis-Lee House.  This was the home of Robert E Lee and his wife, the grand-daughter of Martha Custis Washington before the Civil War.  Lee quit the Union Military in favor of fighting for his beloved state Virginia.  Once Mrs. Lee and the children left, Union forces took over.  Cemetery space had run out and they were looking for a good place to bury the dead.  The decision was made to bury them in the garden around the house to make it uncomfortable for the Lee's in case they ever returned.  That was the beginning of Arlington Cemetery.  

 By the time we were done, we were hungry.  Not knowing what kind of neighborhood our next metro stop was in, we decided to surface at the Metro Center Station and hit the food trucks for lunch. Then we got back on the train, going to the station closest to the National Cathedral. (It was still a 1.3 mile walk)

This is a huge Episcopal Cathedral, built in the Gothic style.  The first chapel held a service in 1921, but the rest has been 80+ years in the making. My battery died at this point, so the rest of the day was picture-less...

 

After the Cathedral we walked down Embassy Row admiring the buildings and all the statues along the way. We were beat by the time we got off the bus back at Cherry Hill.  We had an amazing time in DC, I highly recommend it to everyone.  Even after a week, I still have a long list of things to see next time.  I hope there is a next time!