I Hope You Brought Your Walking Shoes

Weekends just don't seem to ever last long enough...or maybe time just flies when you're having fun.  Josh's parents and the 4 other couples they were traveling with made it safely to D.C. Thursday night.  We met them near their hotel for supper at a burger joint called Big Buns Gourmet Grill.  With the looming threat of a government shut down just a day away, Josh took off work and joined the group for a whirlwind tour of several Smithsonian museums on Friday.  If the government would have shutdown on Friday night at midnight all of the Smithsonian's and national parks would have been closed to tourists.  Thankfully the shutdown did not happen and we were able to enjoy our weekend together visiting the national museums, monuments and memorials.   

Saturday morning we met at Arlington National Cemetery.  Josh and I did a short walking tour of the cemetery while the rest of the group did one of the bus tours that allows you to see more of the sites.  We visited the Kennedy grave site and the Tomb of the Unknowns.  It was a very humbling site.  Tour groups of older citizens were abundant; with many of the men wearing their WWII veteran baseball caps and navigating the grounds in their motorized wheelchairs and rolling walkers.  What an experience it must be for them to visit Arlington and pay tribute to the veterans they served with. 

We took the Metrorail back to the National Mall area and viewed the Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Korean Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and the White House.  I wish I would have worn a pedometer...we had to of walked 10 miles over the course of the day!

If you click on the photo above, you should be able to enlarge it and see the sniper standing on the top left corner of the White House roof.  I didn't realize he was there when I took the photo.  In desperate need of a rest, we headed back to the hotel and ate an early supper at Potbelly Deli.  In honor of the Cherry Blossom Festival that was going on that day, they were serving a Cherry Blossom Shake.  Of course we had to try one. 

Susan had a wonderful idea to do a "Twilight Tour" of the memorials.  A tour bus picked us up at 6pm for a 4 hour evening tour of the illuminated memorials.  If anyone is in D.C. I highly suggest touring this way.  Less tourists out and about, you get to ride on a comfy bus, cooler temperatures, and the memorials seem to have a more profound affect on you at night. 

At the Capitol

The Lincoln Memorial is my favorite.  Maybe I feel connected to 'ol honest Abe because we share a birthday, who knows.  There's something about the lighting that just takes your breath away. 

One of the women traveling in Roy and Susan's group sent a camera phone picture of Lincoln to her 8 year old granddaughter and said "Guess where I am?"  The granddaughter text back, "Is that God?"  Diana wrote her back and said, "Where do you think I'm vacationing? Heaven?"  Haha. 

Tired and sore from a long day of walking we crawled back into the hotel and said goodbye to the Roy and Susan and their group.  It was so great to see them!  But I'm sure Washington D.C. was glad to see that rowdy group of troublemakers from Kansas head back home.  :)