Washington D

On Friday morning my friend, Tara, drove out to my place so we could drive down to Washington DC together for the weekend. We left at 12:30 in the afternoon and arrived at our hotel, L'Enfant Plaza Hotel, at 6:00. After checking in and settling ourselves we went for a walk. We walked down to the mall to take pictures and look around, and then had dinner. A security guard recommended “Elephants and Castles” and told us we should ask for extra tomatoes with our salads (neither Tara nor I are big tomato eaters). Elephants and Castles was reasonably priced and had good food.

After that we walked back to the hotel and took some night shots of the Washington Monument and The Capital.

The next morning we were up reasonably early and were on our way to the monuments by 9:30. Our first stop was the FDR Memorial. On the way a man stopped us and offered us a map, I’m usually quite skeptical of people like this, but figured an extra map would be handy. After giving us a bunch of info about the monuments and where to eat lunch he hit us up for money for the homeless shelter. So $3.00 each later (no, the map wasn’t worth $6) we were on our way to the FDR Memorial. It’s a very nice memorial with different “rooms” for each of his 4 terms in office. The only thing I didn’t like about it was the exit sign near the entrance that screwed us up a bit. I was interested in seeing this memorial since I remember when they were designing it years ago, it was nice to see the final product. I remember there was a debate regarding how to portray FDR, some felt that he should be shown in a wheelchair while others felt he would not want to be shown in a wheelchair. From the limited knowledge I have from when I studied him in school I remember that he was very particular about being able to stand, particularly early in his career, as he feared it would make him look weaker. For this reason, I think he would have wanted to be displayed standing, but that’s just my opinion.

After FDR we walked to the Lincoln Memorial, which I was eager to see since it is one of the few memorials I remember from trips to DC in High School. And it’s a very grand memorial fitting to Lincoln. Then we stopped at the Vietnam Memorial, where my camera memory card filled up. Tara and I decided this was a good opportunity to sit for a few minutes. We ended up on a bench with a guy who wanted to talk to me, but spoke with broken English. We made a quick exit from there over to the Korean War Memorial, which I thought was a well designed memorial. Then we stopped for drinks before we dehydrated to death.

After that we walked to the Washington Monument via the World War II Memorial, we did not walk along the reflecting pool as it looked disgusting. We had lunch and went to the Holocaust Museum. I had gotten tickets for 2:00 at the Holocaust Museum since I heard it wasn’t worth it to go to the museum if you couldn’t see the permanent exhibit, which I agree with. It took us a good 2 hours to go through the museum, though we could have easily taken more time there. You aren’t allowed to take photos in the museum, but there was a couple who weren’t shy about taking pictures there, and in there general behavior was disrespectful, do you really need to take a picture of yourself with the remains of the Holocaust? But I thought the museum was very well designed. The gift shop, which primarily sold books, was having a book signing. The author was a Holocaust survivor and the book told his story, I felt guilted to buy his book, but in the end decided not to.

After that my friend Terye met Tara and I. She took us on the Metro to see the Law Enforcement Memorial. Then we stopped at the Spy Museum store, we opted not to go to the museum because Terye had heard it wasn’t very good, apparently it’s not actual spy stuff, just replicas of what they think spies used. Tara and I were quite tired from all we had done during the day, so we weren’t up for another museum anyway. We did make a stop in the museum store though, which was good. After that we had dinner and walked by Ford’s Theatre, where Lincoln was assassinated. Then we had some ice cream and went back to the hotel to relax.

Sunday morning we made a quick photo stop at the Capital and went to see Arlington National Cemetery. We decided to spend the $6 for the Tourmobile tour. The tour took us to JFK’s resting place and the Eternal Flame, the Tomb of the Unknowns and the Changing of the Guard, and Arlington House. I have to say that I expected more from Arlington House, it wasn’t very big and it wasn’t very grand – it looks much better from the outside and from a distance. But there is a wonderful view of DC from the house. After the tour we made a quick stop at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial. It was now after 2pm and past time to leave for home.