Washington D.C., Arlington Cemetery and War Memorials

The return from Annapolis took us into Washington DC where there were still more monuments for us to find and photograph.  Driving and parking in our nations capitol is not for the faint of heart -- but we are persistent. 

Sometimes I wonder how we got around before the days of GPS -- we located our intended destinations and flew around, parking where we could, eating in the car and walking the sites quickly so we could see everything on our list.

Being in Washington reminded me how much I dislike large cities.  They're good for young people, but the older I get, the more I like small towns. 

Here's what we saw...

Wayne saw President Grant ... more dead generals.



Me in front of the capitol building --
yes, it's cold



At the Lincoln Memorial. 
No, we did not walk up all those steps to see Mr. Lincoln in that chair.

I was eating when Wayne took this one of me along the Mall corridor. 
Notice all the trash everywhere. The protesters are trashy, I suppose.

The Jefferson Memorial is getting a repair

From "political wonderland" we drove across the Potomac River to see Arlington National Cemetery. We saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of  The Unknown Soldier.  We also saw the graves of  John, Robert and Ted Kennedy, Joe Louis (the boxer), Military hero, Audie Murphy, the Mast of The Maine, Monuments to the Astronauts of the Challenger and the Columbia Space Shuttles, and others. 

Guarding the Tomb of The Unknown Soldier

Mast of the Maine



Grave of Audie Murphy



Tombstone of Heavyweight Champion, Joe Louis

Monuments to Astronauts who died in service

John F. Kennedy grave

Grave of Robert Kennedy

Grave of Ted Kennedy. 
Arlington, home of General Robert E. Lee, is in the background.
The farm was taken by the federal government, at the insistence of General Meigs,
after the end of the Civil War. A mere $92 in taxes were owed to the new government.
The land was made into a national cemetery so it could never be repurchased by the Lee family.
Confederate dead were not allowed to be buried here.

Later we saw the memorials to the Korean and Vietnam war dead.  This was particularly special to us both.

The Korean War Memorial -- eerie.
They look like ghosts in the photograph.

The Vietnam War Memorial

Bub at the Vietnam Wall.
This was our first time to see the wall.

The Vietnam War Wall is in the background.
The Vietnam War Memorial statues to his left.

Old Glory