Arrival and 3rd day of DC trip

We arrived at the Edmunds' home in Manassus, Virginia late Sunday afternoon. Snacks on the deck, dinner, a quiet evening of TV, and then it was time to collapse into bed.

Pastor Bob always helps with meals. Susan is still struggling to heal from her knee replacement so Bob is wonderful about saving her steps.

Susan was a history major in college and then worked as a staff member in the Capitol building. She is a fantastic tour guide!

We just happened to have a week of perfect weather...didn't need the air conditioning, didn't need sweaters. Keeping the bedroom window open at night created a good sleeping temperature.

My car didn't do much moving. Susan did the driving and timed our exodus from the house each morning to avoid the worst of the traffic.

This was our day to tour all the memorials in Washington D.C..

As we drove into the city, Susan pointed out the home of Robert E. Lee across the Potomac River.

Amazes me to think that for the Civil War, the South was over there, the North was where we were driving.

That's the Potomac River between us.

The trees aren't showing any signs of a changing season...it's a different world from Vermont.

The Lincoln Memorial

A statue representing the days when an honest man could be president? A testament to Americans being gun happy throughout our history?

So far as I know, there are only 2 statues of important men in a seated position...Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR had had polio and needed to be in his wheelchair. Lincoln...?

A week or so earlier some idiot had thrown green paint at Lincoln's statue. Fortunately Tea Party Republicans hadn't shut down our government yet so Park Service employees were on the job to get Lincoln cleaned up again.

I didn't count the number of steps it takes to reach this point, but we did find where Martin Luther King had stood when he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. Past the crowds, he would have been looking at the Washington Monument...

The Washington Monument was damaged by an earthquake. It now sports a shroud so that if any more of its face falls down, the pieces won't hit anyone. There is an exterior elevator that carries workmen up and down the monument. The World War II Memorial is at the far end of the reflecting pool. To the right of the Washington Monument can be seen a red brick building, the original Smithsonian Museum, with the Capitol building behind that.

Bob is in the foreground, Susan is in the green jacket, and the Vietnam Memorial stretches out as the wall in the background.

A wall of names...just the Americans who lost their lives in the Vietnam War, so it's not all the people who died in that conflict. What a waste of human life...and we still haven't learned the lesson.

Nearby is the Nurses Memorial

The Korean War Memorial speaks to the weary misery of fighting. It also includes a pool of running water nearby...

The trees around this pool have been shaped, similar to what I saw so often in France.

The FDR Memorial is relatively new. It is set up in four spacious outdoor "rooms" to represent his 4 terms as president. The second room shows some of the misery of the Great Depression. The statues represent men on a bread line. FDR fought for a lot of our safety net that our current oligarchy is working hard to destroy. We need another Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Obama doesn't make the grade.

There is a waterfall in each of the FDR "rooms"

This was, fittingly, the only chaotic waterfall.

When we left the FDR Memorial, we walked a short distance to the edge of the Tidal Basin, a man-made lake. Across the way we could see the Jefferson Memorial. We planned to drive to that next, but first we walked in the opposite direction to reach another new memorial...for Martin Luther King.

The Jefferson Memorial by the Tidal Basin

The water looks okay from a distance, but I wouldn't want to take a dip in it!

This is the Martin Luther King Memorial. Interesting that they used such white stone for a black man.

We managed to have him killed before too many people noticed that he was working to unite both black AND white Americans who were struggling in a society where the odds are stacked against the poor and middle class, no matter what their color.

Susan dropped Bob and me where we could walk to the Jefferson Memorial. Then she kept driving because there aren't any parking spots near this area. This is the back of the memorial.

Another huge statue, bigger than life.

Still within the rotunda of the Jefferson Memorial we could see the Washington Monument across the Tidal Basin. It really does seem to show up in every view.

Picture a cross. The Washington Monument is at the central intersection of the cross. Below this, at the bottom of the cross, is the US Capitol. At the top of the cross is the Lincoln Memorial. At the end of the right arm of the cross is the White House. At the end of the left arm of the cross is the Jefferson Memorial.

The Mall, bordered with Smithsonian museums, basically runs from the US Capitol to the Washington Monument. From the Washington Monument up to the Lincoln Memorial is the Reflecting Pool.

The Tidal Basin has an outlet into the Potomac River and the river also angles itself past the Lincoln Memorial.

The Japanese cherry trees that bloom each spring are planted around the Tidal Basin.

 We drove past the train station which is another historic building.

When I participated, many years ago, in the huge protest against going to war with Iraq, our bus got us to Washington D.C. hours before the protest and march was to begin. It was a cold day so many of us took refuge in the train station. We were able to order food, sit at a table, and find a clean bathroom. This place was a god-send.

Those three tails are the Air Force Memorial and are supposed to represent the vapor trails that planes create in the sky. I think the gate is the one that separates the Potomac River from the Tidal Basin.