July 25, 2017

July 25, 2017

We took the Metro to downtown Washington DC to walk the Tidal Basin. Our first stop was the Constitution Gardens. On a very tiny island on the pond is a memorial to the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. This was a daring move for these rich colonialists. If the Revolution was lost, as was likely, they would have been hung by the British for treason.

Skirting the Reflecting Pool, we walked through the WWII Memorial to the new Martin Luther King Jr Memorial. I have seen photos but I was unprepared for its size. Besides his form popping out of a huge granite block, there is a granite monolith entry and two long wings with lots of his quotes.

We finished our long walk past the ridiculously large FDR Memorial, past the George Mason and Thomas Jefferson Memorials ending at the Smithsonian American History Museum. It was closed for renovation on our last visit. We started on the first floor breezing through the exhibits. We were shocked to have covered only half that floor in an hour. We stopped for a quick lunch but after three hours, we weren't done.

Overwhelmed we left, taking a stroll north through the Sculpture Garden, past a Navy Memorial (part of Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site) to Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site. A month ago we reserved an afternoon tour. At 3 pm we line up in a long line. As a group we enter the basement history museum. Aimee and I don’t spend too much time there as we have been to numerous Lincoln sites. We spend more time on the conspiracy that plotted the deed. A prime relic is the murder weapon, a single shot Derringer. We then move up to the theater where we listen to a nice ranger talk recounting the tragic day’s events.

Our group then moves across the street to the room where Lincoln was brought and died many hours later. In that building is another museum on the Booth manhunt and trial of the co-conspirators. If there was any question on the legacy of Lincoln, the art exhibit in the exit said it best. The 15,000 different books written about Lincoln fill the four-story stairwell.

After a long exhausting day, we head back to our hotel. For dinner we walk to the nearby Whole Foods Market. This is a first for us. A nephew gave us this idea for alternative food choices. It was surprisingly delicious.