The second day of our trip involved quite a bit of walking. We stayed in Arlington, Virginia. It was about a ten minute walk to the Metro Station. From there, we rode five minutes to the front of Arlington National Cemetery. For the rest of the day, we walked everywhere to see the White House and five different memorials. Our first memorial was dedicated to the work of the Sea Bees during world War II.
From there we walked about a mile across the Potomac River to the Lincoln Memorial. We had a great view of the Potomac River from Memorial Bridge.
After we crossed the Potomac, we were at the Lincoln Memorial. The Lincoln Memorial is much larger than these pictures indicate. The columns in the picture below are over seven feet across at the base. The building is ten stories tall. It is massive.
Inside the building, the statue of Lincoln sitting in a chair is 19 feet high and 19 feet wide. Several of Lincoln’s speeches are engraved in the interior walls. It was surprising how quiet it was inside and around the memorial, even though there were numerous people there.
The Lincoln Memorial is at one end of the National Mall. From the front of the memorial, you can see all the way to the US Capitol. The Washington Memorial is right in the middle of the mall. Here is the view from the Lincoln Memorial at one end of the mall.
From the Lincoln Memorial, it was a short walk to the Vietnam Memorial. The Vietnam Memorial is different than any other memorial we had seen before. It is essentially a wall that is half underground. It is not tall, it is not particularly large. But it still grabs your attention with the details of all the US military personnel that were killed or missing because of their service.
After we visited the Vietnam Memorial, we had a long walk to the White House. Even though it was a long walk, there were lots of amazing buildings and parks along the way. In the last twenty years, security in Washington DC has been increased immeasurably. This was most obvious as you approach the White House. Our selfie of the White House shown below demonstrates how far from the White House the security begins.
We had to arrive quite early to get through security. There were at least four separate security checkpoints. It took almost as long to clear security as the amount of time we got to spend on the tour. While we could have a camera with us, we were not allowed to have backpacks, food, or water.
The tour was fun, but short. It was not hard to know what room you were seeing. Many were named for the color of the walls and the furniture. Others were named for what was in them, the library, the theater room, etc. We got to see two levels of the White House. Here are a couple of pictures of places we could see from the White House.
We had lunch after the White House Tour. We lost some time on the way to lunch because it was hard to figure out how to get out of the secure area and back onto regular streets from the White House. After lunch, we walked to the World War II Memorial. The World War II Memorial is between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.
The memorial is actually numerous monuments to different aspects of the war. It includes a section for each of the theaters of the war. It also recognizes that the war was fought on land, in the sea, and in the air. In addition, each state is recognized by a separate monument. Here are a couple of pictures from the World War II memorial. (The Lincoln Memorial is visible in the distance.)
The last place we visited was the Washington Monument. Unfortunately for us, the Washington Monument was being cleaned and the elevators were being repaired so we could only see it from the outside. Since the Washington Monument is the tallest structure in the city, it has great views of the area. If you go online, you can see the views being streamed for all to see. We just missed our chance to see the views in person. Here is the best close up picture we got of the Washington Monument. It was taken from the World War II Memorial.
We had also planned to visit the Jefferson Memorial, but decided to cut the day short. It was hot and Marlene was suffering from heat exhaustion – partially due to the fact that we didn’t have our water bottles because of the White House tour restrictions. We would have had a long walk to the Jefferson Memorial and then back to the Metro Station, and we would have gotten back to the hotel after dark. It was still a full day of walking and sight seeing in Washington DC.
PS from Marlene: My heat exhaustion was bad enough that I was not thinking clearly. At the metro station, I was trying to feel air from a wall fan and almost backed off the platform. I was backing up and felt a push from behind. I turned around, thinking I had backed into someone, but there was no one there and I was about one foot from the edge of the platform and a six foot drop to the rails. God was definitely watching over me.