Washington DC

We stopped in DC on the way to our cruise in 2008. This was the first time my wife or myself had been here and we were looking forward to getting to see some sites. We weren't in DC for long, so we had to do a lot in a short period of time. We really didn't have enough time to do all the things we wanted to see.

We stayed at a great bed & breakfast called Swann House. It is located near Dupont Circle in a nice little area of the city, and it was close to the metro station so you can get anywhere in the city fairly quickly. We stayed in the Parisienne Suite which was very nice. 

 

Our first outing was to see the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. It is the largest Roman Catholic church in North America and 8th largest religious structure in the world. The Basilica is the nation’s preeminent Marian shrine, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception. It is oftentimes referred to as America’s Catholic Church.

Byzantine-Romanesque in style, its massive, one-of-a-kind superstructure is home to over 70 chapels and oratories that relate to the peoples, cultures and traditions that are the fabric of the Catholic faith and the mosaic of our great nation. The Basilica also houses the largest collection of contemporary ecclesiastical art on earth.

Open 365 days a year, the Basilica is host to nearly one million visitors annually, attracting pilgrims and tourists alike from across the country and around the world.

The Basilica offers six Masses and five hours of Confessions daily, as well as Guided Tours, a Catholic Gift Shop, a Catholic Book Store, and a Cafeteria to accommodate its visitors.

That night we met my cousin and her husband for dinner at a nice little Italian place not far from Dupont Circle and after dinner we hit this great little ice cream shop that had its own custom flavors of ice cream. Delicious!

One of the highlights of our time in DC was our night walk down to the National Mall & Memorials Park to see all the monuments. We asked the guys that run the B&B if it was close enough to walk and they said sure it isn't far. Boy were they wrong! It was quite a trek. Once we got there we did enjoy it but we were very tired when we got back. First stop on our walking trip was past the White House. I had a hard time getting a shot here at night because you aren't allowed to use a tripod to steady the camera so I had to hand hold this shot to get it.

Next up on our walk is the Washington Monument. I lost one of the feet off my tripod at this stop.  It fell off in the grass and without a flashlight there was no hope in finding the black foot in the grass. No matter I still got some great shots without the foot on the tripod. The Monument is shaped like an Egyptian obelisk. The monument is made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss. It is both the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing 555 feet 5 1⁄8 inches offering views in excess of thirty miles. It was finished on December 6, 1884.

A short walk from the Washington Monument is the WWII Memorial. I think this was one of my favorites. It consists of 56 granite pillars, each one 17 ft tall arranged in a semicircle around a plaza with a pair of 43 foot tall arches on opposite sides of the plaza. Each pillar is inscribed with the name of the 48 US states of 1945,  as well as the District of Columbia, the Alaska Territory and Territory of Hawaii, the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The northern arch is inscribed with "Atlantic"; the southern one, "Pacific."
The Freedom Wall is on the west side of the memorial, with a view of the Reflecting Pool and Lincoln Memorial behind it. The wall has 4,048 gold stars, each representing 100 Americans who died in the war. In front of the wall lies the message "Here we mark the price of freedom".

After the WWII memorial we continued our tour down past the reflecting pool toward the Korean War Veterans Memorial. This one is particularly moving at night I think with the statues all lit up. The memorial is in the form of a triangle intersecting a circle. The walls are of highly polished "Academy Black" granite with more than 2,500 photographic, archival images representing the land, sea and air troops who supported those who fought in the war are sandblasted onto the wall.

Within the walled triangle are 19 stainless steel statues designed by Frank Gaylord, each larger than life-size, between 7 feet 3 inches and 7 feet 6 inches tall; each weighs nearly 1,000 pounds. The figures represent a squad on patrol, drawn from each branch of the armed forces; fourteen of the figures are from the U.S. Army, three are from the Marine Corps, one is a Navy Corpsman, and one is an Air Force Forward Air Observer. They are dressed in full combat gear, dispersed among strips of granite and juniper bushes which represent the rugged terrain of Korea. When reflected on the wall, there appears to be 38 soldiers, representing the 38th parallel.  

Located next to the Korean Memorial is the Lincoln Memorial. The building is in the form of a Greek Doric temple and contains a large seated sculpture of Abraham Lincoln and inscriptions of two well-known speeches by Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address.

The last stop on our walk is just down from the Lincoln Memorial. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The Memorial Wall, designed by Maya Lin, is made up of two gabbro walls 246 feet 9 inches long. The walls are sunk into the ground, with the earth behind them. At the highest tip (the apex where they meet), they are 10.1 feet high, and they taper to a height of eight inches at their extremities. Stone for the wall came from Bangalore, Karnataka, India, and was deliberately chosen because of its reflective quality. When a visitor looks upon the wall, his or her reflection can be seen simultaneously with the engraved names, which is meant to symbolically bring the past and present together. Inscribed on the walls are the names of servicemen who were either confirmed to be KIA (Killed in Action) or remained classified as MIA (Missing in Action) when the walls were constructed in 1982. The wall listed 58,191 names when it was completed in 1993; as of June 2010, there are 58,267 names, including 8 women. Approximately 1,200 of these are listed as missing (MIAs, POWs, and others), denoted with a cross; the confirmed dead are marked with a diamond. If the missing return alive, the cross is circumscribed by a circle (although this has never occurred as of March 2009); if their death is confirmed, a diamond is superimposed over the cross.

The next day would take us out to visit Arlington National Cemetery. The cemetery is situated directly across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. It was formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna (Custis) Lee, a great grand-daughter of Martha Washington. In an area of 624 acres, veterans and military casualties from each of the nation's wars are interred in the cemetery, ranging from the American Civil War through to the military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. Pre-Civil War dead were reinterred after 1900.

The Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery is also known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It stands on top of a hill overlooking Washington, D.C. One of the more popular sites at the Cemetery, the tomb is made from Yule marble quarried in Colorado. It consists of seven pieces, with a total weight of 79 short tons. 

It was initially named the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier." Other unknown servicemen were later entombed there, and it became known as the "Tomb of the Unknowns", though it has never been officially named. The soldiers entombed there are:
Unknown Soldier of World War I, interred November 11, 1921. President Warren G. Harding presided.
Unknown Soldier of World War II, interred May 30, 1958. President Dwight D. Eisenhower presided.
Unknown Soldier of the Korean War, also interred May 30, 1958. President Dwight Eisenhower presided again, Vice President Richard Nixon acted as next of kin.
Unknown Soldier of the Vietnam War, interred May 28, 1984. President Ronald Reagan presided. The remains of the Vietnam Unknown were disinterred, under the authority of President Bill Clinton, on May 14, 1998, and were identified as those of Air Force 1st Lt. Michael J. Blassie, whose family had him reinterred near their home in St. Louis, Missouri. It has been determined that the crypt at the Tomb of the Unknowns that contained the remains of the Vietnam Unknown will remain empty.

The Tomb of the Unknowns has been perpetually guarded since July 2, 1937, by the U.S. Army. The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment ("The Old Guard") began guarding the Tomb April 6, 1948. There is a meticulous ritual the guard follows when watching over the graves:
The soldier walks 21 steps across the Tomb. This alludes to the 21-gun salute, which is the highest honor given to any military or foreign dignitary in America. His weapon is always on the shoulder opposite the Tomb (i.e., on the side of the gallery watching the ritual).
On the 21st step, the soldier turns and faces the Tomb for 21 seconds.
The soldier then turns to face the other way across the Tomb and changes his weapon to the outside shoulder.
After 21 seconds, the first step is repeated.
This is repeated until the soldier is relieved of duty at the Changing of the Guard.
The mat is usually replaced twice per year: before Memorial Day and before Veterans Day. This is required due to the wear on the rubber mat by the special shoes worn by Tomb Guards. The guards have metal plates built into the soles and inner parts of their shoes to allow for a more rugged sole and to give the signature click of the heel during maneuvers. The guards are issued sunglasses that are formed to their faces due to the bright reflection from the marble surrounding the Tomb and the Memorial Amphitheater.

On the ground not covered by the mat, a wear pattern in the tile can be seen that corresponds to the precise steps taken during the changing of the guard. On the mat itself, footprints worn in by hours and hours of standing guard are also visible. During the day in summer months from April 1 to September 30, the guard is changed every half hour. During the winter months, from October 1 to March 31, the guard is changed every hour. After the cemetery closes to the public (7 p.m. to 8 a.m. April through September, and 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. October through March), the guard is changed every two hours until the cemetery reopens. The ceremony can be witnessed by the public whenever Arlington National Cemetery is open.
The guard change is very symbolic, but also conducted in accordance with Army regulations. The relief commander or assistant relief commander, along with the oncoming guard, are both required for a guard change to take place. The guard being relieved will say to the oncoming guard, "Post and orders remain as directed." The oncoming guard's response is always, "Orders acknowledged."
Other frequently visited sites in the cemetery include the grave of President John F. Kennedy, who is buried with his wife and two of their children. His remains were placed there on March 14, 1967. His grave is marked with an eternal flame. 

The remains of his brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, are buried nearby. His grave is marked with a simple cross and foot stone.

Our last stop in D.C. before heading on the New York City was the Washington National Cathedral, officially named the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church. Of neogothic design, it is the sixth largest cathedral in the world, the second largest in the United States, and the fourth tallest structure in Washington, D.C. The cathedral is the seat of both the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church and the Bishop of the Diocese of Washington.
The pulpit was carved out of stones from Canterbury Cathedral; Glastonbury Abbey provided stone for the bishop's cathedra, his formal seat.

The west rose window was dedicated in 1977 in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II and President Jimmy Carter.

There are many other works of art including over two hundred stained glass windows, the most familiar of which may be the Space Window, honoring man's landing on the Moon, which includes a fragment of lunar rock at its center. 

Most of the decorative elements have Christian symbolism, in reference to the church's Episcopalian roots, but the cathedral is filled with memorials to persons or events of national significance: statues of Washington and Lincoln, state seals embedded in the mosaic floor of the narthex, state flags that hang along the nave, stained glass commemorating events like the Lewis and Clark expedition and the raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima.
Also located in the church is The Pentagon Cross. The cross was made from fragments of the face of the Pentagon attacked on 9/11/2001. The cross was presented by the Chief of Chaplians of the U.S. Army in recognition that we are united in memory, freedom, and faith; and in hope and love for God, our nation, and all mankind.


We were here the day before the funeral of Tim Russert, moderator of NBC's Meet the Press, and the media was already getting set up for it.

Due to our limited time here we didn't have time to see all the memorials so I would love to return to see the rest of them. We also didn't have time to do any of the museums or tour the Capitol building. I would love to come back here and spend more time.
To see all the pictures from D.C. please visit Partridge Pictures.