We started off the day with a breakfast in the Mount Vernon Square Bed and Breakfast. They served sausages, toasted croissants, grits with cheese, scrambled eggs, home fries and fresh fruits. I had a couple of cups of coffee too. The food was enjoyable. This morning the other guests all talked only with their own couples so it was a quiet breakfast that passed by.
We got out to the streets and immediately took Keith's directions towards the National Mall as heading to 7th street and working our way down from there. You pass by the Verizon Center but on the way we found the Smithsonian National Art Gallery and Portraits Museum. It was just about to open for the day so we decided to wait the few minutes then entered
Inside the portraits gallery we barely made it through half of the first floor. We went through the modern portraits of celebrities which was mostly photography but there was a painting of Katy Perry (odd choice I felt). After you pass through that it is historical figures working their way forward from the colonial times into the American Civil War and all areas in between. There were portraits of many individuals from Massachusetts and I made sure to read the information beside the pictures for all of those. I did skip on some folks that made little impact to my memory from other places a bit. Even then with a fair amount of skipping we took around 3 and a half hours to get the distance we made and decided to get out and have lunch. We went simple and both of us chose to eat from different food trucks right outside the museum. I had a Philly cheese steak from Phamous Phillies. Daniela got a lamb gyro plate from a Greek food truck. My sandwich was really quite good. Daniela appeared to like her food a lot too. We got there just in time as the trucks were preparing to end their day.
From there we walked to the National Mall by starting out heading toward the Capitol building. We took pictures from several angles and postulated what was on top of the dome. It was a bit hard to see because of the work being done on the dome right now but apparently it is a bronze statue of "Freedom." That I know from Google (how else). I thought it looked like a skeksi from The Dark Crystal at the angle we could see it from.
We worked our way through the greens area and on to the Washington Monument. We found you can go up to the top but only a very limited number of tickets are issued in the morning and you have to get there very early to get any tickets later on in the day but at least it was nice to be up close to it. If I recall, on my last trip it was roped off because of damage from the recent earthquake.
On we headed to the World War II memorial which is newer in the grounds and in between the Washington and Lincoln monuments. It is quite large and different from other war memorials in the sense that it is one we can list as a total victory for the USA. WWI was too limited for us by the time we got into it. The Civil War has defeat coupled with victory in many respects so it also has some limitations. I think also there is some significance in the location. We circled that around then continued our way to the Lincoln Memorial. When we got there we found there was a tour starting at 6pm run by a US National Park Ranger so I ran up quick and took some pictures while Daniela waited at the sign. When I got back the ranger was there and she started a tour with maybe 8 of us. This tour is provided free of charge.
The ranger was named Joann and she was originally from Texas where initially she became a ranger at Carlsbad Caverns. She has been in DC as a guide for 4 years she said. She took us up and around the Lincoln monument and explained about its design and purpose and about the significance of the statue of Lincoln itself as well as the two quotes on the walls inside the monument. I think Lincoln was a tougher subject for her because she struggled a little bit but she did a good job all the same.
From Lincoln we traveled to the Korean War Memorial. It was already dark by this time and the statues almost looked like ghosts in the darkness. There are 19 statues and 19 panels of etched images on stone in the monument to signify the 38th parallel that was being protected in the Korean "police action" which never officially had the US declare war. She definitely picked up steam in explaining about the statues and the quotes in the monument.
Then it was on to t he Vietnam War Memorial which is of course the giant list of names of all the soldiers who died of wounds from the Vietnam War. It is capped off on either end by statues of soldiers and of nurses and is meant to be set in a circle. The beginning and end of the war are both in the middle of the large wall that contains all the names. It was a bit dark and there were few people around but it is still significant to see it right in front of your eyes. There were gits left to names there that the guide said are being housed until a museum is complete to display the items. She said one person left a Harley Davidson motorcycle there in tribute to someone fallen in the Vietnam War.
We finished off her tour at the World War II memorial she explained the ordering of the state and territory names in the monument as the order the states and territories joined the US. Of course Massachusetts was one of the Original 13 states so very close to the center which is the seat of honor as it were. The seat of honor being the stars that each represented 100 dead soldiers in WWII. That means that there were over 4000 stars in the monument. When she finished we had lost maybe one or two but still there were 6 of us. She radioed on to a guide at the Martin Luther King jr monument who was going to start an 8pm tour and he waited for us to get there.
This ranger's name was Lowell and he was an elderly man that was so very enthusiastic and entertaining that he captivated more than the official 4 of us that were on the tour at every stop we took. He told his stories in such an animated fashion that you couldn't help but listen to him. He preached a little bit but in a good way about the responsibilities of the individual to keep moving forward those things that were started by people like Martin Luther King jr, FDR and Thomas Jefferson which were the three monuments on his tour.
He explained about the monument of MLK jr first. This is the newest monument in the Mall and was dedicated late due to earthquake and hurricane causing slight issues in its year of opening which was 2011 I am pretty sure. The moment consists of a mountain which had MLK as part of it but broken free. Also there are two wings with many of his quotes running up and down each side. It is definitely more interested to enter through the mountain and come around to see the statue of the man than if we had seen it from the other direction I think.
From MLK we moved on to FDR. He was quite funny through FDR which is a rather large monument that is spread out over a fair distance as it has "rooms" that express the different terms of Roosevelt as president. From election through the Great Depression and the New Deal and on to WWII and to his death. Lowell most definitely liked FDR as a character in history and had many stories and quotes to share. He said something at each room and as I said he picked up large crowds that stayed until he was done. He was like a born entertainer.
Between Roosevelt and Jefferson we found out he had degree in history and said the was embarrassed they paid him to do his job he loved it so much. We chatted about a few different things as the walk between the two monuments takes a few minutes. He knew the proper greeting in Quechua which shocked Daniela (at the end of the our I recorded him saying it for her). On to Thomas Jefferson which is a single round Roman Pantheon style building he brought us in and explained a bit about the man whom he said he didn't like because he had no sense of humor. Again we picked up a large crowd of folks who listened to his speech. He had a few people come over and thank him for what he did while there. It was very funny but I get the feeling the park rangers consider him like that strange uncle you have that needs a little but of caring but is really great to have around. They sent another ranger to help him get back to his car but he said he was all set. He helped us got on track to head back to the hotel as well. We really were fans of him as a guide and he is among one of the favorites I've ever had.
Daniela was freezing by this point because Lowell had loaned her his inner fleece jacket for the duration of his tour and she had to give it back. So we took a taxi back to the hotel and she got her own jacket then walked back down to Busboys and Poets (because it was already past 11pm to get something quick to eat. Daniela had a chicken barley soup and hot chocolate and I had a bacon cheeseburger and a beer. After we finished eating it was straight back to the hotel to crash for the night from exhaustion. It was a very long day with a very large amount of standing and walking.
No comments:
Post a Comment