3rd Day of Washington DC Trip: Monday

Oh, what a day! It was everything I imagined, but also more than I ever expected. But let me start at the beginning…

First of all, I did not sleep worth a flip last night… kept imagining all sorts of bad things happening to us in the big city. So I was up early… I haven’t seen 6am in years!! LOL But it was good… we were not rushed this morning. We walked to the bus stop about 4-5 blocks away… When we were almost there, we started talking to a gentleman named Mr. Dupree who had retired from the Metro recently after 33 years!! He made me feel better about my mapping of the bus routes we needed cause he said I was headed to the right bus!

We rode the bus to Union Station (where we took pictures, of course!). We walked from there just a couple of blocks to the Capitol. We were taking pictures all along the way cause the Capitol can be seen from a long way off! We made it to the Visitor’s Center with time to spare and there was still already a line! We had to throw our water (even though it was frozen!) and crackers away! How do they expect people to get through a whole day in the city???? They don’t care! Anyway, we went into the Capitol and it is beautiful. They have two statues from every state of famous Americans; for example, for Georgia, they had Dr. Crawford Long and Alexander Hamilton Stephens (Vice President of the Confederacy). Anyway, we went on the tour. It started with a 17 minute film that was so good, it reminded you to be proud to be an American! Then we broke into groups, each with a tour guide. The information the guide shared was interesting, but they really rush you through. It was hard to take pictures or look around much at all. (Though the Rotunda, which is where prominent citizens lie in state, is really beautiful. From the marble floor to the paintings on the walls, to the statues of leaders around the room, to the painting on the ceiling!) For example, the Supreme Court used to be housed in the Capitol, and the guide took us through that courtroom. Well, there was another employee there that evidently her only job is to say over and over, “Keep moving. You must keep moving! You can take pictures, but keep moving.” !! Unbelievable! So I got two pictures and could not even tell you what the courtroom looked like.

After the tour, we visited the Exhibit Hall, which is full of documents, pictures, etc. documenting the history of the country and the government. They had dioramas of Washington through the years… it is amazing to see how it’s grown!

We left the Capitol and walked across the street to the Supreme Court. You can actually walk right in the front door there. You tour it on your own. It is a beautiful, marble building, also. We waited until 12:30 and were able to join a group that went into the actual courtroom (!!!) and listened to a 30 minute lecture. The lady who did the lecture was excellent! Mom was tickled to be able to sit in that courtroom!

We walked back down to Union Station and had lunch. The entire bottom floor is the biggest food court I’ve ever seen! We ate at Johnny Rockets (YUM!) and got to see a couple of girls leave without paying! We didn’t realize it at the time, of course, but it was soon apparent when the server went looking for them!

Then we walked down the Mall. It is massive! We just kept trying to imagine it full of thousands and thousands of people, like at inaugurations. We walked to the George Washington Monument. This was the only thing I had been unable to get tickets to. They were booked up until June. But we took plenty of pictures of it anyway! We walked past it to the World War II Memorial. This was my favorite stop of the day! It is so much bigger than I imagined and so, so beautiful. There is a pool with fountains, a column for each state in the Union, and engraved quotes from Eisenhower, etc. I can’t even describe it in words. Plus there is a VIEW from here down the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial. That was our next stop. We were pretty tired by then, so we took the elevator up… I stepped out, rounded the corner and saw that HUGE statue of Abraham Lincoln, and it literally took my breath away. I took pictures from every angle! It’s so massive and to be able to see something I had seen on TV all my life… it’s amazing. Plus it is so much larger than life in person! I cannot wait to see all of these monuments after dark tomorrow night!

For our last stop of the day, we walked over to the Vietnam Memorial Wall. There are over 58,000 names on this wall. I had heard about it… it’s all that I had heard and more. We didn’t see anyone doing a rubbing of a name, but we did see several grown men choke up and pictures of the soldiers people had leaned against the wall. It is a sacred place. They have books there with the names of every soldier engraved on the wall. Mom and I checked it for “Tapley” but there were none. My brother and cousin both served, but by the grace of God, they came home. So many did not.

We hailed a taxi on Constitution Avenue to bring us back to our condo. Mom said it was worth every penny!!

We rested awhile and then drove down to Chinatown, looking for somewhere to eat dinner. However, there was no parking down there, so we just picked up Subway, came back here and watched TV while we ate. We’re winding down now and will head to bed soon since we have an even earlier day tomorrow at the White House! Hmmmm, I wonder if Obama spent the day today preparing for our meeting tomorrow???