First Day of D.C.

We flew out at 6:40 this morning and landed in Baltimore. We only had 31 people on board so we had the whole back of the plane to ourselves. Nobody going to Washington today. They're all trying to get out of Washington. Still lot's of people touring today...waiting on their flights out. You could still see the tents, all the porta-potties and the Presidential viewing stand still outside the back of the White House.

We just drove around D.C. itself today....no parking you know...trying to get the lay of the land. Our Garmin wasn't much help. It kept telling us to turn down streets that were one way only (the wrong way of course) and blocked streets. We put in "The White House" and it wanted to us to pull up to the front door of course (which of course you can't...I'm sure First Lady Michelle isn't accepting visitors today).

We spent a little while lost in Georgetown...which is pretty....but I realized that the following 2 pix aren't in Georgetown (which is a little more "fancy") but in the outlying area which was on the way to Georgetown.





We saw some "Right to Life Protestors" on the steps of some building. We passed by the EPA bulding and the building where all our money goes to...The IRS....and the building that is printing bail-out money for Wall Street like crazy. We may tour that one later. We also saw some idiot carrying a Confederate Flag down the street. Still a free country I guess...nobody was bothering him at the time.

We drove by The Washington Monument. We'll visit it this weekend.




I have to say, I don't really care for busy, big cities. Toooooo many people and tooo many buildings. But I will enjoy the walking tours of D.C. I'm sure.

We left D.C. proper and went across the river and found Arlington Cemetary and decided to visit it today.






Robert E. Lee's House: The Arlington House (one view is from area around President Kennedy's Grave)



The first person we spoke to in the house...was a man in period costume who asked us "Where are ya'll from?" Of course his accent matched ours. He was from B'ham, AL too, but now retired in D.C. as a volunteer tour guide. He explained why the house doesn't have the furniture as shown in the pix around the building. The house is under renovation and they are putting in a fire suppressant system. They will finish completely in a couple of years...if Congress gives them any $$ that is.

I know everybody is all up in arms about the new President....because of his liberal values...not the color of his skin. But it was quite humbling to stand in the slave quarters and read the history of it all (along with an African American woman) and to know how far America has come in such a short time. You can walk outside the slave cabins and walk around the house to see the view of the Lincoln Memorial and then the Capitol Building. The pix of Mike and Me at the top of this blog shows this view. Politics aside...I understand the historical significance and the pride in the accomplishment.










This is probably very pretty in the Spring and Summer with the vines. I bet they're Wisteria.





View of Washington from President Kennedy's gravesite:


Lincoln Memorial












View of Pentegon from a hill. I wonder if someone was standing here when the plane hit on 911 and got such a view?




Man's Grave...He died in Ecuador. His tombstone looks like a blanket carved from the stone.











The back of the Amphitheater....where we stood to see the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier(s). I believe they have identified the Soldier....so it will be symbolic for all the Soldiers who die unknown on the battlefield.





















I realized after we left, that we did not see the section that had the crosses as grave markers. But, by the time we left, it was getting much colder and we had to get down the road.

When we left Arlington to go to Warrenton, VA for a couple of days, we missed a turn and accidently drove up to the Lincoln Memorial again. Right before we got there, suddenly police motorcycles blocked our way and several black cadillacs with American Flags and several big black SUV's swung around the bend with siren's blaring. About 8 vehicles, plus motorcycles in all. It all happened so fast, we couldn't get pix...but who knows....maybe the new President passed in front of us....or at least someone important in the government. A civilian SUV was following them with a guy hanging out the window taking pix....he must have thought it was the President too.