Sight-seeing around DC

We have friends visiting from out of town and did some sight-seeing around DC on Saturday. We grabbed some donuts at the Fractured Prune and then headed in to town. Our first stop was at the Iwo Jima Memorial.

Blunoz self-portrait at Iwo Jima Memorial.

(It's too bad our guests didn't come in June-August so we could attend the Sunset Parade by the USMC band and drill team).

Then we went to Arlington National Cemetery. I've been wanting to take the boys here for a while, so I was glad our guests wanted to go there this weekend.

ES at JFK's Eternal Flame.


ES walking toward Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

ES watches Changing of the Guard

Panorama Shot of LW, S, C, & the boys.
(Click on photo to enlarge)

YB at Arlington National Cemetery

Oh, and it's not everyday that you get to see General Lee walking up to his old house in Arlington. (Photo by LW)

Next, we grabbed some lunch in the food court at the Pentagon City Mall and then walked over to see the Pentagon Memorial. This was my first time visiting the Pentagon Memorial since we moved back to DC seven months ago. It was a really nice memorial and I was very glad we went to see it. There is a lot of symbology here in the way the memorial was designed.

(Disclaimer: Although there are signs that say "no photography" all around the Pentagon, there are signs at the entrance to the memorial that state photography IS allowed INSIDE the memorial.)

YB at the Pentagon Memorial


Panorama shot (click to enlarge)

Another Panorama Shot (click to enlarge)

There is a reflecting pool under each bench.

So a little bit about the layout of the memorial... There's one bench for each person who died in the Pentagon or on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. The benches that point away from the Pentagon are for the people who were in the Pentagon looking out. The benches that point toward the Pentagon are for the people who were on the plane looking in. The name of the person is on the end of the bench, so as you look at their name, you see where they were that day (in the Pentagon or in the sky). For example, LTC Taylor's bench above shows that he was killed in the Pentagon that day.

The birth years of the victims marked in a timeline on the side of the memorial.

The benches are organized by the age of the individual. On the far right (south side) of the pictures above, are the youngest, and on the far left (north side) are the oldest. One bench forms the first row for a three year old, then there was like one eight year old and a couple of 11 year olds, then there was a big gap between there and the first adults.

Trying to get creative with the panorama feature in my camera.

Next we hopped on the Metro over to DC and walked the Mall.

Me and YB on the escalator down into the Metro.
(Photo by LW)

ES on the Metro

S, C, LW, YB, ES on the mall

ES & YB at the WWII Memorial

Graffiti on the WWII Memorial (not really graffiti)

Walking toward the Lincoln Memorial

There were a LOT of baby ducklings in the reflecting pool.
(Photo by LW)

Once again, our timing was perfect. We arrived just in time to hear this AWESOME park ranger tell us all about the Vietnam War Memorial. Hearing his description of the meaning behind the memorial and the symbology used by the architect really gave THIS visit to the memorial much more meaning to me than previous visits.

YB at the Vietnam Memorial

Tired Mommy & YB on the Metro ride going home

We stopped in Tyson's Corner for dinner at CPK on the way home. Man do I love their carne asada pizza! :-9 It's been a while since we've been to CPK. There aren't any conveniently located to our house here, but it was on the way home from DC and our guests expressed a desire for CPK since there aren't any in Indiana.

Overall it was a great day. I used the route feature on the Buckeye Outdoors website to figure out how far we walked. We walked at least 7 miles. My legs and feet were pretty sore. The boys did a great job through the day, although they got several piggy back rides and rides on the shoulders along the way.