Finally made it to DC!!

We finally made it in to DC on Tuesday! The bride's father gave all 10 of us a ride in to town (about 20-30 minutes). Actually, he took us to the outermost metro (subway) stop and from there we rode another 40 minutes or so in to Union Station. We were crammed in "the behemoth" as they called it and Don Deline, the bride's father and a personal friend of John McCain's, gave the Brits a lesson on American presidential campaigns. Now, being a Navy man, I'll give you one guess as to who got his vote, however, as he put it, "I'm ready to take the ride" meaning, of course, a democratic ride. He was very informed and explained things very well and they asked about everything from environment to taxes.
It would have taken me a good bit of the morning to have figured out that subway system, but those Londoners had it in no time, so I did what they told me to do and they had the public transportation mastered!

Self portrait in Union Station. It's so pretty!

Then we took a very expensive sightseeing bus to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. It was really cool and we exited it 2 hours later on the National Mall entrance to see...

...the Capitol Building. This was as close as I got.

We then walked in bitterly cold wind down to the Smithsonian Castle, but we didn't have time to go in. A picture will suffice for now!

We continued walking down the mall to get to the Washington Monument.

As we went around it we could see beyond it to the right the White House. I did take a picture, but it looks pretty miniscule, so we'll move on, shall we?

Oh, yes, there were beautiful fall leaves everywhere. This is only a preview of more to come!

World War II Memorial. Quite stirring. Along the left side of this picture you can see little black panels in the wall? Those are bronze looking reliefs of various vignettes of life during the war from bending over the radio hearing news of the war, to enlisting, to fighting, burying, and finally, celebrating the end. There are columns all around that pond each one topped by a wreath and written on it is a state or territory of the U.S.

Vietnam War Memorial. Along the bottom you can find little mementos and pictures and letters that people have left for their loved ones. Very moving. It still affects us today.

This is overlooking it all: the Lincoln Memorial. Grandiose in size yet simple inside.

At the very top and center of these steps lies an inscription in the granite to commemorate the very place where Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech. It gave me goose bumps to stand in that spot and look out over the mall and imagine it covered with people. Thoughts of possible coming presidential events weren't far from my mind, either.

There he still sits. On the wall behind me is engraved the Gettysburg Address ("Four score and seven years ago...") and on the other side is another famous speech (forgive me, I can't remember what it was). It is inspirational to read it there in that place with his "presence", if you will, and the solemnity of remembrance of so great a man in so difficult a time.

This was my favorite touring day. We had very little time, but we crammed in all we could and walked a whole lot in very cold, windy weather. So very worth it. I felt so American! And what was cool is that no one had to tell anyone to be hushed and respectful, it just was. Kids weren't playing around, people weren't laughing and joking. We remember. I hope we always do.