In the morning we walked to the White House and were just about to take a picture when the Secret Service shooed us away so that the "White House lawns could be mowed." Riiiiiight...
We decided to continue on to the mall and check out the Washington Monument (phallic), the new WWII Memorial (vainglorious), the Lincoln memorial (rock-awesome), and the Korean War Memorial (appropriately morbid). We noticed that the United States is a bit obvious with its symbolism. Just a titch. When there are X number of pillars, they represent the number of states in the union at X time. As if the labeling did not illustrate this fact clearly enough. And you can pretty much count on the murals representing liberty, freedom, and charity.
This was disappointing, as Logan and I were hoping that the experience would more closely resemble National Treasure. Fortunately I was able to check Wikipedia on my phone for some trivia. One fun bit of "denied symbolism" is that Abraham Lincoln's hands are vaguely positioned in the American Sign Language "A" and "L" for Abraham Lincoln. Also, some theorists insist that Robert Lee is carved into the back of Lincoln's head looking toward his home across the Potomac. But these people have been deported.
After visiting the monuments we decided to go to Arlington National Cemetery. It was, after all, just across the river. So we walked. And once there we walked all around the cemetery--hitting the highlights like the Lee Home, the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, and the Kennedys' (rather ostentatious) resting place. At this point, we realized that we had walked no less than 6 miles total, and were once again exhausted. We just can't get enough sleep on this trip.
We took the metro to George Washington University area, counting on the collegiate nature of the area to provide us with cheap dining options. One peanut curry later we were off to our hotel and fell asleep within the first ten minutes of TV watching. Tourism is so tough. My life is just so hard, you know? :)
1 comment:
Did you go up the Washington Monument? The view is lovely and the elevator ride is pretty cool too, especially on the way down when they show you all the cool engravings in the wall.
I've been to D.C. and STILL have never been to Arlington. But, honestly... I've been absolutely everywhere else, it seems. Next time... next time.
The GWU area is great. Em and I stayed there in August and had a fun time walking to a show at the Kennedy Center and finding a nice little Italian place hidden along the way. Good times.
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