Monuments

I loved taking Nathan to our nation's capitol. I have been to Washington D.C. two other times, but this was his first time. It was so fun to plan and so exciting to actually be there. My first memory of D.C. was a nighttime bus tour of the monuments. I wanted that to be his first experience as well.
We turned in our rental car, took the subway into town and ran from the subway to our hotel. Then, we sweated in our hotel lobby while waiting in line at our overbooked hotel for nearly an hour to check in, only to be told that instead of our King Deluxe room we had booked, we would be privileged to have two full beds. Oh, and we would still have to pay the King Deluxe price, unless we would like to cancel our reservation, but good luck finding an empty room in this town this weekend. Then we ran back to the subway and got off at Union Station, hurried to grab a wrap for dinner, found a bathroom and were re-navigated three times to where our bus departed from, ending up at the proper location with 1 minute to spare. Thankfully, we persevered, and it all worked out wonderfully.

The bus driver was informative but still had a great sense of humor, there were interesting people to talk to, and it was a nice rest after all the running we had done. It was worth all the work to get there. I had never seen the Korean Memorial before. It felt eerie and powerful all at the same time. I liked it better at night. The stone at their feet reflected the light and looked like swamp water next to the plants.

I also liked it during the day.

The best part of the night tour was that at 11 pm when we were wiped out, instead of having to go back through all that to get to our hotel, the bus driver dropped us off a block away from our hotel.
The next day we got to see the monuments in the light.

The Vietnam memorial is sobering.

Somebody left a couple rolls of toilet paper with a note to a fallen friend.

I took a lot of pictures of the WWII memorial for Andrew. They have a tower for the Pacific and Atlantic theaters of the war. Etched in the stone are the names of all the battle locations. There are also bronze wreaths for all the U.S. states and territories.

There is a wall of gold stars behind a fountain.

There were a lot of lives lost.

The monuments were beautiful and impressive to see. It was a great part of our trip.

What I learned at Gettysburg

I must admit, that the only reason I went to Gettysburg was for Nathan's sake. I've never been much of a history buff, and I tend to have different interests. We spent our second day at the battlefield and went on the driving tour after going through the museum, cyclorama, and film. There were a few things that I have thought about since the experience. First, it took me back to see the faces of those who died on both sides of the battle.

They were real people whose families mourned their loss.

This display of two fused bullet captured my attention. I don't know why, but for some reason the thought of two people on opposing sides shooting at the exact moment and creating mutual destruction was haunting.

We stood on the spot where Chamberlain held the high ground. It was extremely rocky and such a small space. They must have twisted ankles and felt so vulnerable in holding the high ground. It was awe-inspiring.

When I saw the wheat field of Pickett's Charge, I understood Lee's pride and folly for the first time. How he thought they had any chance of winning this charge is inconceivable. He must have known that there would be slaughter.

Later that night we drove into Washington D.C. where we went on a night bus tour. We saw this:

I re-read the Gettysburg address and the Emancipation Proclamation, and realized that there are some things that are worth fighting for.