September 21, 2006

September 21, 2006

This morning we take the Metro back down to the Mall. We head first to the White House Visitors Center. To get a tour requires you to go thru your congressman and wait for a six-month background check. We didn’t preplan this trip so we make do with the exhibits in the visitor center. We walk over to the White House for a pic from the faraway south lawn fence. There are barriers everywhere now and this is the closest you can get.

Since it is a beautiful sunny day we decide to do a little hiking and see all the monuments. They are pretty much in a circle around the Tidal Basin. We start at the Washington Monument. There is an elevator up the center but you need a timed ticket. We get one for about when we think we will finish. It is then on to the Jefferson Memorial. It is a large domed white temple with a huge standing statue of Jefferson inside. Next in line is the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial. This memorial is a very spread out structure of granite blocks, waterfalls and bronze statues from his life. We pass by the Korean War Memorial. Next is the Lincoln Memorial. This one is a huge Greek temple with a large sitting statue of Lincoln inside. By this time my feet are getting tired as these monuments are widely separated and my bones old. We have a hotdog lunch while sitting on a bench overlooking the Vietnam Memorial. The Vietnam Memorial is two black wedges set into the earth containing all the names of those who died. Refreshed we continue on to the World War II Memorial, which is a huge fountain surrounded by wreaths for each state.

Finished we make our way back to the Washington Memorial and hang out till our ticketed time. We take the elevator up the Washington Monument. It is bigger than I thought. It is the tallest stone structure in the world and was the tallest building when it was finished around 1880. (Amazingly it was started around 1833 but political in-fighting stopped construction several times!) At the top we get good views of all the surrounding Capitol buildings, White House, and monuments. On the ride down we notice the elevator has glass panels and that this monument is completely hollow. It is not as substantial a structure as I thought.