Showing posts with label Monuments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monuments. Show all posts

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Lett's see DC: Monuments, Memorials, and Trollies, Oh My!

I brought my Mom back to DC with me after Christmas. We spent a few days gallivanting around the Nation's Capital before a quick trip to the Big Apple. I coaxed Mom into writing up her experience, and what you will get is a six(?) part mini-series of the Mother Fish Out of Water. And let me tell you what, she was out of water! At some point along the series, I'll add my own brief recap of the events - you know, two sides to every story. Part three of my Mom's four(?) part mini-series of her trip to Washington, DC and NYC continues with her an evening trolly tour around the District.

We were really looking forward to round three – the night time trolley tour of Washington. We headed for Union Station, where we would catch the trolley. It didn't take me long to realize that distances are subjective. A "short walk" to Chelsea now is a foray from her home to the Lincoln Memorial and back. For me, not so much. I guess if you don't measure the ground covered in blocks or miles but elapsed time, you can fool yourself into thinking you can reach the destination. So we're walking and I can feel the beginnings of a blister on my right heel. No big deal. I brought blister pads; I'd apply one when we got home.

We make it to Union Station and go in to the Old Town Trolley desk for our tickets. We have a few minutes before departure, so we wander through Union Station. It's such a beautiful building. The barrel ceiling is so cool. We boarded the trolley and guide "Grumpy" got us under way for a three hour tour. As you can tell, we did not get marooned like those people on the boat tour (Gilligan's Island in case the reference went over your head). It was a very good way to get an overview of the city, well worth the money.

I'm sure I will forget some of the things we saw but bear with me while I describe as much as I can. We drove by the Capitol Building – so, so beautiful all lit up – the Library of Congress, and The U.S. Supreme Court. We went past the FBI Building, The Old Post Office Tower (more about that later), The White House – the Christmas tree was from Arizona this year – The National Archives, National Museums of American History and Natural History, and National Aquarium (which is really just a couple of small fish tanks in the basement of the Department of Commerce building - super lame).

We were able to get off the bus at a few of the monuments/memorials. We had about 15 minutes to take in the Marine Corps a.k.a. Iwo Jima War Memorial. This was a little hard to see in the dark but still impressive. What a tremendous moment that must have been for those soldiers, raising the US flag. We were also able to explore the FDR Memorial. It's spread out over quite a large area. It's near the Tidal Basin which made our time there colder than ever. And since it was so cold, none of the water features were running. Very good depiction of events during President Roosevelt's terms in office. This particular memorial would be better seen in daylight and any time other than winter! We didn't stop at the Jefferson Memorial but it was so beautiful, right on the edge of the Tidal Basin and brightly lit. We got back on the bus and went past Arlington National Cemetery, The Kennedy Center, The Watergate and then to the west end of The National Mall.







Located here are several spectacular sites. We had about 20-25 minutes to make our way to as many as we could. First we walked by The Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall). I've seen the traveling wall so I had an idea of what to expect. This also should be seen in daylight, but the impact is not diminished. We walked past the Vietnam Women's Memorial on our way to The Korean War Veterans Memorial. Next to Arlington National Cemetery, for me, this depiction had the biggest impact of all. Seeing this Memorial in the dark is a must. Statues representing soldiers toiling through rugged terrain is chilling – very powerful and unbelievably creepy. We then walked back to the Lincoln Memorial. We climbed the many steps to view Abraham Lincoln. This memorial is illuminated at night which makes Lincoln's face look very real. Pretty cool. Chelsea and I spent a few minutes looking at the two speeches carved on the walls. On the way back down the steps we had an amazing view of the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument at the far east end. Our time had expired so we headed back to the trolley. On the way back we drove past the National World War II Memorial, The Washington Monument, The White House, and the Botanic Gardens.

We made it back to Union Station, wishing Grumpy could drop us at our doorstep or at the very least the end of our street, but no such luck. He gave a very thorough and entertaining presentation. He couldn't pronounce Tecumseh, though. Chelsea and I headed for home, more slowly than she normally does, I'm sure. I'm doing my best to keep up. Many times Chelsea will call me when she is walking home from her Metro stop. Usually it's pretty late. On one hand, it seems like a very safe neighborhood, but on the other hand, I wonder if she should not talk on the phone and be more aware of her surroundings. Auntie J is saying "No! She should NOT talk on the phone!" Ignorance is bliss, yes? Anyway, we made it home. Chelsea reheated our uneaten dinner and we had some of Abigail's Apple Strudel – yummy – and some hot tea and off to bed. An early day was planned for tomorrow: museum day...
~ Susan
While I agree with Mom that the FDR memorial should be seen in the daylight and during a time of year when the water features are running, I would say that the Vietnam War memorial is better at night unless you're trying to locate a name. It's just really cool the way the Washington Monument reflects off the Wall.

Friday, May 15, 2009

One to Cross Off the To-Do List


The National Mall is a hub of activity. It is a place where runners are never scarce. I’ve walked to the Lincoln and back from my house several times and have found myself wanting to break into a run, but I repress the urge and continue with my pace. Tuesday night I suppressed the urge no longer and ran the National Mall in the rain.

Okay, when I say the Mall, I mean the Washington Monument. And when I say the Washington Monument, I mean 14th St. And when I say ran, I mean jogged. But I did it, and in the pouring rain!

Photo originally uploaded by banter.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Ch-ch-ch-cherry Blossoms everywhere

Spring in DC means Cherry Blossoms. Cherry Blossoms in DC means tons of festivities. Tons of festivities in DC means unfathomable amounts of tourists.


Two Saturdays ago, Mel and I battled the crowds and headed to the National Mall for the first weekend of Cherry Blossom Festivities: Kite Flying on the National Mall. We were just going to walk around for a few minutes because she had a massage appointment to get to and I had lunch plans with Julie. There were so many kites; it was awesome!!! I did a sudden flash to Mary Poppin's "Let's Go Fly a Kite." I was instantly a 7-year old child again.

We walked around for several minutes gazing at all the super cool kites in the air, on the ground, and in between. We walked past a group of ladies with some pretty hi-tech kites. None of them were in the air. As we walked past, they asked if we could take a picture of them. I of course said yes. As I handed the camera back, one of the ladies asked if I wanted to fly the kite. Ummmm, YEAH!!!! So I grabbed the reigns and put forth my most valiant effort t otry and get that kite in the air. I was succeeded for about 2 minutes. But it wasn't for a lack of trying.

I headed to Dupont to have lunch with Julie. I went to college with her and she's such a fun person to hang out with. It's a shame we go weeks between visits and we probably only live a few miles from each other. She'll be starting a new job with the Capitals (hockey team) in May. That should be good times for her.

Melanie and I headed back to the mall to check out the Cherry Blossoms. They're pretty awesome. I'm probably not as amazed by them as other people, but they are pretty cool to see juxtaposed against all the monuments. We walked all the way to the Jefferson memorial on the other side of the Tidal Basin to get a different view. Oh, and what a view!!!

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Story of my life


Apparently I was not meant to be best friends with Laura Bush. My chances of meeting her are slowly fading away, and my one sure fire chance vanished right before my sleeping eyes.

Michelle was in town to work on the White House Easter Egg role. She got me waived through. I wanted to be there by 9:00. As luck would have it, my alarm didn't go off and I didn't wake up until….you guessed it….9:00. I check my blackberry and have several emails from Michelle and Mel, "Where are you?" "When are you getting here?" "The President and First Lady are here." Of flipping course! There was no chance of making it over in time to even get a glimpse of the First Couple, so I got in the shower and tried to get over before I missed anything else. I made it by 10:00. Not only did I miss the first couple, but my camera is a piece of crap and drains the batteries the instant you put them in. Luckily, I was able to borrow a camera, otherwise this whole Easter experience would just be a memory with no visuals.

Michelle hooked me up with an early lunch from the staffers tent, which was very welcomed since I skipped breakfast in my haste. I met up with Troy and Karen on their way down to the Ellipse. Michelle's dad is a magician in his spare time and he's so awesome that he got to perform at this year's Egg Roll. We watched his show and he's quite good! We strolled back up to the South Lawn since Norm had another show to do. It was pretty much a repeat of the first show, but he's still good! Torrey got there around this time so I strolled around the White House lawn with him for a few minutes before he headed off to work. I stuck around for a bit longer since I didn’t have anywhere to go so I walked around the White House lawn for a few more minutes because I was there and I could. Plus, when else I’m I going to be able to freely meander across the WH lawn? Probably not for a while.



So who else did I miss? My favorite Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, football star Troy Aikman, tons of cool Sesame Street Muppets, the Jonas Brothers (a travesty for missing them, I know), and a slew of other WH officials plus I think the first dogs were out there. That’s alright. It was cool to go anyways!

I met up with Michelle’s parents, Troy and Karen at 4:00 to go to the top of the Washington Monument. Never done that before so it was way awesome! The view from the top is Ah-MAZING!!! Afterwards, we met up with Michelle, and we all went to Old Ebbitts for dinner. It was very good. They have the best peanut butter pie ever! We hung out in the bar for a few minutes afterwards and then parted ways.

Good times were had by all this Easter Monday. There’s still 9 more months to try and become best friends with Laura Bush. We shall see….

A double dose of Jesus

There aren't many people who I'll get out of bed for before six o'clock. Jesus is one of the few.

We decided that sunrise services on the Lincoln Memorial would be pretty awesome, so despite the ghastly hour, the roommates plus two stumbled out of the apartment at 5:30 to claim our seats at the feet of Lincoln. We were pretty early, but it was amazing how many people came for the event. The choir was amazing, the service was great, and the view was spectacular. Totally worth getting out of bed at 5:00 for. I'll just let the pictures do the talking.


The roomies plus two: Trey, Mel, Laura, Me, Tara, Sarah




Pretty much Ah-MAZING



We came home, made pancakes and chilled the rest of the day. Mel, Trey and I went to the National Cathedral around 5:00 for their Easter Services. The choir was seriously heaven on earth – literally brought tears to my eyes. The service was a bit liturgical for my tastes, but I certainly appreciated the tradition and awesomeness of what was being presented.

Quite a long day, but a double dose of Jesus is well worth it! Mel and I had planned on dying eggs, but we only got as far as boiling them. Maybe next year or some random day when we have egg-stra eggs. (haha I made a pun!)

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Visitors Galore

When people come to visit, they come to stay…with us. One roommate had a friend in town for a conference for a whole week leading up to Easter. Mel's buddy Trey, whom I bonded with over a DC United game last summer, came into town on Thursday and was staying through Monday. The house was full! Plus, Michelle and her fam, and Troy and his g-ma were coming in from AZ for a weekend of Easter festivities (they weren't staying with us!) With lots of people comes lots of good times! (Please note that there is a Trey and a Troy in this story so try to keep up.)

After Mel and Trey got back from dinner on Thursday, someone had the bright idea of walking the monuments at night, in the cold and the wind. So we (Mel, Trey, Tara, and I) bundled up and took the metro to the Smithsonian stop and walked the rest of the way. It was actually pretty awesome and I'd never seen the monuments at night. We walked all the way to the Lincoln singing patriotic songs because we're cool and we can. We talked about maybe one day streaking through a national monument area, but most of the time we're all talk and no action.

Torrey had organized a dinner Friday evening for Michelle, Troy, Karen (the g-ma), and me at this steak place which was featured in the Devil Wear's Prada. It took several brainstorms to settle on this place as our dinner local. Torrey wanted to take us all to a Mexican restaurant. Now I'm sure there are Mexicans living in DC making good Mexican food, but you don't come from Arizona to DC for the Mexican food. That's just dumb! It's as if I was going to North Dakota for the lobster. You just don't do that. So we finally all agreed on this place. I had the prime rib, and it was excellent! We wined and dined and eventually strolled back to the Mayflower hotel where Michelle and Troy were staying. For anyone keeping track, that's the hotel where NY Gov. Spitzer had his rendevouzs that got him in a lot of trouble. Torrey broke off and headed to Dupont. The rest of us just hung out in the hotel bar for awhile shooting the breeze. I eventually left and closed the books on another fine Friday in our great nation.

But I opened the books on a new and superb Saturday. Mel and Trey wanted to go to Annapolis and invited all the roomies to come along. All the roommates wanted to go, but indecisiveness and homework widdled them away leaving the three of us bound for a mini road trip to Maryland.

Our first stop was the state capitol building. It was pretty old and pretty awesome. There's a George Washington life size figurine that apparently spoke at one time, but GW was mute on our visit. But that didn't stop me from getting my pic with our first president. From the state capitol, we ventured on over to the Naval Academy, but we stopped into a little art shop en route. They had the coolest set painting ever. One was a picture of Republican presidents (Abe, Teddy, GWB, GWHB, the Gipper, etc) sitting around playing poker. The other was the same of Democrat presidents (Bill, JFK, FDR, Jackson, Carter, maybe LBJ). Melanie and I were both serious about purchasing them, but they were kind of pricy. We told the shop owner that we were in town for the day and might stop back in on our way through town. If I didn't have so many opera's looming in the future, I might've purchased the painting...maybe even the set. I guess that's the true bipartisan in me. :)

So the Naval Academy was cool. We went into the campus cathedral and it was pretty awesome. The view of the harbor was phenomenal, especially with all the sail boats out and about on the overcast day. We strolled up one of the streets and stopped off to get some icecream and then headed up to this famous historical house that is known for it's huge garden. It was big. And there was a stream that flowed through it. It would be cool to have an evening party there. We headed back down towards the harbor and popped into a restaurant for a late lunch. After lunch we headed back to the car and drove home to the district. We watched Music and Lyrics, probably one of the greatest movies ever! and then headed to bed. Not bad for a spur of the moment road trip!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Hoo-Rah!!!


I’ve wanted to hang out with Sam (high school Sam) since I got to DC. She lives in Virginia Beach, which is 4 hours and $100 away, which isn’t bad, but timing is definitely everything. I was hoping to get out there my first week here before I started work, but it just didn’t work out. So when Sam called and said that her, Steve and my godson were headed to Quantico to visit the in-laws, I said count me in.

Quantico is pretty much the USMC stomping grounds out here and only 45 minutes from DC. A lot more doable than the 4 hours to VA Beach. So, two weekends ago I went. We didn’t have much planned, but I rarely get a chance to just chill out with Sam, so a low-key weekend was welcomed.

First of all, little David is soooooo freaking cute. Obviously I’m a little biased because he’s my godson, but he is really cute. He’ll be a year at the end of June and the little kid is already pulling himself up in a standing position and Sam said he actually started to try and crawl the other day. The little bugger is definitely going to be a handful, but he’s such a character. I love him!

Saturday, Sam, Steve, and I left little baby David with grandpa and went to the USMC museum. It was pretty sweet. I’m not a museum person because I need hands on/interaction type stuff to hold my interest. I can’t just walk around and stare at stuff. Weird, I know. But this museum kept me enthralled and was very well done. I approve.

This part is crazy. I went grocery shopping with Sam and Steve and it was ridiculous how much food they got, but to be fair, they stocked up for four people, a baby, and a dog. It was Cuh-RAZY! I think one of the carts (1 of 2) was dedicated to baby supplies alone. So note to all you thinking about having kids, make sure you can afford all those diapers and have room to put them all.

Sunday we went to my homestead and walked the mall. I hadn’t ever really been to the Washington Monument before, a travesty I know, and it’s been over a year since I’ve seen the other memorials up close so it was cool to do that. Sam and Steve came to my office on Monday and I took them on a tour of the Capitol. I felt so bad because they were my guinea pig tourists. I didn’t have my facts memorized so I had to shuffle through papers, and I couldn’t remember all the cool stuff that I had been told. But I did get to take them into the House gallery, and we watched as the lady called the House into session just to call recess until 2:00. Sigh….gotta love congress…

I hope Sam and Steve enjoyed themselves. I really was glad to be able to spend time with them. And I’m so appreciative to Steve’s folks for making me feel at home. I really wish I was better about sending out thank you notes. What’s that saying that starts “The best of intention are wrought with…” and then I forget the rest. So maybe the best of intentions are just wrought. Well, whatever. Sam and Steve are welcome to come back whenever and I’ll try and redeem my tour guide skills. I’ll be tested again on Tuesday when I give a tour to Michelle and her folks. Soooo not prepared…..but shhhh.

Side note on the whole USMC thing, I kept my eye open, but most of the guys seemed to be paired off or sporting a ring, but I was looking.