Monuments – Day and Night

Our ambassadors treated us to a pancake breakfast this morning before we left. They were even kind enough to make me a couple of gluten-free pancakes.

That’s tail gunner Anne, tail gunner Bill, wagon master Ed and wagon master Michelle, our ambassadors on this trip.

We spent another day spent in Washington DC, this time visiting as many monuments as we could. We left later than usual, 1PM, and our first stop was the Lincoln Memorial.

The statue of Abraham Lincoln. To give you a sense of how big it is, if he were to stand up, he’d be 28 feet tall. I didn’t include a photo of the exterior because there was a lot of construction material around it.

We’re facing the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument is behind us. This was the wacky shot.

We used this location for another group photo.

If you park at the Lincoln Memorial, you can easily walk to the Vietnam Memorial and the Korean War Memorial.

It’s difficult to get a good photo of the Vietnam Memorial because it’s basically 2 long walls in the landscape. It has the names of all the soldiers who died in the war. When they dedicated the Memorial, they read off all 57,000+ names and it took them 56 hours.

The Korean Memorial is really spooky. There are 19 of these statues walking up the hill, and you can see the fear/concern, discomfort in their eyes. One of the signs quoted a soldier saying “We knew that war through our feet… we walked every inch of that country”.

This statue is to honor the Marines. It was based on a popular photo where they raised the flag on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II,

This is the Roosevelt Memorial. I was so impressed with the size and beauty and peace found at this memorial.

I’ve had to get a closer shot of Fala, his Scottish Terrier. He needs a haircut.

The Roosevelt Memorial was very big and had 4 “rooms” covering the issues of that particular term. This one covered the time of the Great Depression and Social Security.

There were many waterfalls in this monument. It was so peaceful and shady and cool – a nice respite from the hot sun.

“Men and nature must work hand in hand. The throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men.” Many of his famous lines were etched in the stone blocks.

The final memorial of the day was of Martin Luther King. This one is fairly new and another one I’ve not seen before.

We then went to dinner at a place called Carmine’s Italian Restaurant. What a feast we had, and they addressed gluten-free very well for an Italian Restaurant. This restaurant was build for a crowd with several groups having dinner there at the same time we were. The group next to us looked like a busload of high school kids all dressed up going to a Homecoming Dance. It sounded like a school cafeteria in there.

Some of my friends, and some of the ids at the other table.

After dinner, and now nighttime, we revisited some of the same monuments plus a couple more to see the monuments at night. First stop, Lincoln Memorial.