Washington DC - Day Three

We spent the morning at Arlington National Cemetery today. I had a tough time choosing pictures to put on the blog. This place is beyond words. Really awesome to look across the thousands and thousands of white tombstones and realize the price paid for our freedom. Reminds me of a cross... but that's another story.

The cemetery was started during the Civil War as an attempt to slap Robert E. Lee in the face, so to speak. President Lincoln needed a place to bury all the dead and assigned Montgomery Miggs to find a place. He was a fellow student at West Point with Robert E. Lee and was offended when he opted to fight for his state of Virginia rather than the United States. So, he chose Lee's home for the site of the cemetery.

This is Arlington House, Lee's former home.


Our first stop on the tour was the Kennedy Family grave site. The neatest thing about this site was the half-circle wall that had some JFK quotes engraved along it. He was truly a great speaker.



The next stop was the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The inscription says, "HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD".



We made it just in time to see the changing of the guard. Simple incredible. One of our tour guides mentioned that a couple of years ago Hurricane Isabella came through the DC area, and the guard was given the okay to stand down. They chose not to. They are the best of the best.

This guy was the narrator, for lack of a better word. He asked that everyone would stay and remain silent in respect during the changing of the guard. A minute or so into the ceremony he said it again. I thought that was strange. Then he actually said, "Young man, please stand." I guess someone was not standing, and he stopped the ceremony until the boy(?) stood.











I wish I knew the symbolism behind each thing they did.

A cool picture of Greg and Gerren watching the ceremony.


As we were leaving the area, we heard a band playing. Greg ran over and caught this funeral procession. There was a military band, and a caisson carrying a flag-covered casket. Certainly not every funeral gets this treatment? It was awesome to watch. Another tour guide told us there are between 15 and 25 funerals at Arlington every day. The flag is lowered to half mast 30 minutes before the first funeral and remains at half mast until 30 minutes after the last funeral.



We spent the afternoon at a few monuments. While we were waiting in line to go up in the Washington Monument, President Bush's helicopter, Marine One, came in for a landing. The guide had warned us that he would be landing, because there was a yellow fire truck parked in a certain place. ???


This picture was taken at an exhibit inside the top of the Washington Monument. We got some great pictures from the windows at the top, but there's just no room for them here.


We ate lunch at the Food Court inside the Reagan Building next and then walked down to the White House. Unfortunately, our representative was unable to get us a tour of the White House. It seemed to be very busy around there. Here we are in front.




As you can see, Carys was really impressed by all of this.


Then we headed for the park area where several memorials can be found. First we visited the WWII Memorial. I don't remember seeing this when I've been to DC before.


This is Landon in front of the Korean War Memorial, which is really unique.


It was almost dark by the time we got to the Lincoln Memorial. It gets darker earlier here than in Florida!


This picture of Chase was taken from the steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial.


We had a long walk to the nearest Metro station as we had missed the last tour bus back. I'm whipped! We hope to visit the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial one morning later this week. I think I will drive, drop the rest of the family off and drive around while they visit the memorials. That way we won't have to find parking, and I won't have to walk miles on my poor left foot which is so afflicted with plantar fasciitis!