Aug 16th,17th,18th Washington, DC

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Richard pointing out the tunnels end





We left Virginia Beach and proceeded into Maryland via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, an amazing feat of engineering consisting of causeways, bridges and two tunnels crossing about seven miles of water. 

One of the double bridges



The first day in Washington we figured out the Metro System and took it downtown to catch the hop on, hop off trolley around the Capital Mall. Here we stopped at Arlington Cemetery, where we watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Very, very formal and moving!!! Interred here are an unknown from WWI, WWII, and Korea. The unknown from Vietnam was removed when his remains were identified in 1998 by DNA.

The Tomb is set in a Roman Amphitheatre and has a view of the Washington Mall and Capital Hill.

We've all seen this monument in pictures and movies, but seeing it in person somehow illicits an emotional response of awe and respect. We listened to a very articulate and knowledgable ranger telling us about different aspects of the monument. Lincoln is depited with one hand closed, symbolizing his strength, and the other open, symbolizing his willingness to forgive, specifically the South. Two murals high on the wall inside the monument, depict his two greatest acheivements, freeing the slaves, and bringing the North and South together. Below the murals are his two most famous speaches, his inaugural address and the Gettysburg address.






We then went to the Vietnam Monument; this statue is nearby, "Returning from Patrol". There was a group of Vets being brought in wheelchairs to see the Monument that day and Richard heard one say: "I wonder how they got that picture, we were never allowed to take our helmets off." We then got on the Trolley to see the Ford Theatre where President Lincoln was shot. And then on to Union Station, where we had dinner and then back to the hotel, tired and foot sore.





This is the house accross the street from the theatre, where Lincoln was taken, to die the next day. They did not take him any further as they knew, as did he, that his wound was mortal. 

The third day in Washington, we all took the Metro to the Mall again and went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. There is so much to see here from Space travel, to the Wright brothers, to planes used in all the wars and the stories of the men who flew them. One exhibit I found especially moving was videos of veterans talking about how they won their Medal of Honor. Another interesting exhibit was walking though a Space Lab to see how people live and work in Space. 

 From there we split up so each couple could focus on different interests. Steve and I walked across the Mall to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Again there is so much to see here that we had to choose what we were most interested in, as to see everything would take a whole day. 



Then we went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum and saw a very interesting exhibit on the use of propaganda by the Nazis from the early 1930's to the end of the war. We took so long in there it was closing by the time we got to any of the other exhibits.

On the trolley back to the Metro station we saw the Canadian Embassy, which has a place of honor in Washington because of our help to the Americans in one of their wars, sorry I can't remember which. Anyway it is the only embassy between Capital Hill and the White House.