Washington D.C. - Day 1

I was up at 5:45 to try to snag tickets over the internet for the Holocaust Museum.  I had read that a few tickets are available on line each day beginning at 6:00 a.m. so I wanted to secure those tickets.  I got on line but before I could make my choice, the tickets were all snatched up.  That would mean that we would have to stand in line at 9:45 a.m. and hope to get tickets.  I got the boys up and we headed west for the New Carrolton Metro Station.  When we arrived, we discovered that the station was closed but we could take a shuttle bus to the blue line which goes into Washington.  With no other option, we boarded the shuttle and rode the blue line.  We got off at Federal Triangle, a stop at which we had never been.  It was in the middle of beautiful stone buildings one of which was the headquarters of the EPA.

 It was a short walk to the Holocaust Museum.  There was a long line for tickets but we were told that if you were a veteran with a valid VA ID you didn't have to wait in line but could receive tickets for entry any time.  This was a bit of good luck so we got our tickets and went into the museum.  We spent two hours there.  It is a sobering and thoughtful museum.  I tried to tell Hunter that one thing we should learn from the historical event is that we need to be aware of what the right thing to do is and to do it even if it is hard.  Hitler was definitely doing the wrong thing but no one stopped him and he ended up ordering the death of 11 million people of which 6 million were Jewish.

We jumped on the Big Bus for the Pentagon Memorial and Arlington.  By the time we got to the Pentagon we realized that it would be better to go onto Arlington and finish the day at the Bureau of Engraving.  I took this quick picture as we were passing the Pentagon.  The is the first time we had seen the Pentagon.  Hopefully, we will have time to return to the Pentagon.

First stop at Arlington was JFK grave.  People were throwing coins on the headstones.  This was the first time we had noticed that.  A couple of people had even thrown dollar bills on the graves. 

This was taken from the bottom of the hill looking up at the tomb and the Custis-Lee Amphitheater.  After the WWII and Korean War unknowns, there will no longer be a soldier buried in the tomb.  DNA testing is able to identify all remains.  The soldier buried in the Vietnam tomb has been identified and his remains were removed by his family and buried somewhere St. Louis area.

We always enjoy watching the changing of the guard ceremony.

While the Changing of the Guard Ceremony was going on these four planes flew over in the missing man formation.  There were 28 funerals scheduled at Arlington today.  An Air Force Lt. Colonel told us that the missing man formation had probably be done in honor of one of the funerals today and that the man having that formation would have to have been a general or other high ranking soldier.

It is hard to see but the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial and Capitol building can be seen in this shot.

A quick shot of the Iwo Jima Memorial taken from the bus.

Another quick shot of the White House taken from the bus.  We are scheduled to tour the White House at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow.  We received a list of items not allowed into the White House.  Hunter is bummed that on that list is an I-Pad.  Because there are no lockers in which to keep things while you tour the White House, he will have to leave his I-Pad in the car and take no pictures.  That is a shame because he has taken some great pictures with the I-Pad.

Washington Monument.

No pictures allowed inside the Bureau while we took the tour so we had to settle for this shot of the building once we finished the tour.  We did see billions of dollars being printed.  No free samples were available.

This was taken at the back of the Holocaust Museum.  This piece of art depicts the broken Swastika of the German Army.  We had never seen this piece of art but the back of the Museum is next door to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing building.

A final picture of the  Washington Monument taken as we were heading back to camp.

This is what we had for supper.  Finding a place to eat in this part of the city is nearly impossible.  We asked a guard for suggestions and he said he was not aware of anything other than ice cream trucks and small refreshment stands.   The ice cream was good and tided us over until we got back to camp

Tomorrow will be another long day.  We have to be at the Capitol at 10:00 for a tour, followed by the White House at 12:30 pm.  We are also going to try to see either the Pentagon Memorial or the memorials on the mall.  We could end the day with a two-hour night tour on the Big Bus.  If we do all of that, we won't be home until late.    As Carol says, we can rest when we get home.