It’s Sunday morning and the beginning of Day 10 of the Great Adventure. We are in Washington DC beginning our second day of sightseeing. Grandma Chrest and Aunt Alona arrived on their flight last night just before the bad weather really settled in from Hurricane Earnesto. It was very windy with lots of rain. Their flight was almost diverted to Philadelphia, and the next flight into DC wasn’t going to land. They arrived on time and made it to downtown on the metro.

Yesterday we had breakfast at the hotel and then went to see the sites:

The White House

We didn’t go in the grounds or anything – that requires security clearance from your state senator (really!). Just took the usual pictures from in front, etc.

Washington Monument

Several comments about the phalic nature of this national monument followed by me saying “But I really like it” and then Tammy saying “Go figure.”

National Holocaust History Museum

This museum leaves you awe struck at the horror and misery of what happened during the holocaust. It was pretty hard with Mazie. She wasn’t too excited about sitting in her stroller that long and with subject matter like the holocaust you really don’t want your kid disturbing everyone else. Not a great place to go with kids, but if you can go, go. It’s a must see.

World War II Monument

This is one of the newest monuments on the mall. It is at the opposite end of the reflecting pool from the Lincoln Monument. It is also a really good monument. There was a group of WW II veterans there when we were there that made the monument more impactful. Seeing three vets with a picture of one of there friends that didn’t make it taking a picture of themselves at the location of their state makes it all much more powerful.

Korean Monument

I hadn’t seen this monument before and I really liked it. I wasn’t able to see it at night, and this one would strike me as amazing at night. There are scenes engraved into rock that appear to float in the dark at night. There are also a number of statues of soldiers on patrol in the monument. It feels like you are on patrol with them.

Lincoln Memorial

I hadn’t visited this before, so it was nice to spend some time here. Lincoln was such an amazing president. Reading the excerpts from his addresses makes me sad at the state of political discourse in the country these days which essentially boils down to “terrorism, scary!”

Vietnam Memorial

The Vietnam Memorial struck me more on this visit than the previous times I had seen it. I’m sure because my Mom was with me and she actually knew someone who’s name was on the wall. What an amazing monument really. No other monument actually engages the visitor in an activity. Mom got a rubbing of the name off the wall. Powerful stuff really.

We had dinner at the Capitol Grill (not the steakhouse) in downtown and then took it easy in the evening.

Still making our plans for our final full day in DC. Hopefully the weather is better. We are probably heading to the Smithsonian for part of the day.

Go to day: 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 27, 28, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37 or East Coast Adventure collection.