World United States District of Columbia Capitol Hill

OUR RETIREMENT TRAVELS 2007

Washington, DC Jun 6, 2007

We were able to leave Newport News, Va with mail in hand. It took five days for our mail to get to Newport News from Sioux Falls. It arrived the day were scheduled to leave. We had Plan B ready to extend for one more night, just in case but that wasn't necessary! It was a short driving day for Gene to Reston, Virginia, which is about 15 or so miles from Washington DC. We are staying in the lovely Fairfax County Park. There was some miscommunication with the park about water hookups and after looking at our site there were no water hookups. So, Gene took the coach to the dump station where there was potable water and we filled our fresh water tank. We had expected WiFi internet but wouldn't you know it, the day we came in the internet server quit working and they can't guarantee when it will be up and running. We will have to find a local library so we can do our business and I can keep the web site updated. We have settled in for a week. Got up early this morning and were at the metro bus park and ride station and purchased a couple bus smart cards for metro and rail travel. We got on the express bus at 0730 and were on the ground running around 0900. We walked from the bus station to the Capital Mall area and walked from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue to the other, all of Constitution Avenue and many side streets. We hit all the major monuments since it was only in the 80's and tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 90's. The Lincoln Memorial is quite impressive with his Gettysburg Address and Second Inaugural Address engraved on the walls. What I hadn't realized was that this inaugural address was delivered on March 4, 1865; he was assassinated April 14,1865, died the next day, which was just six days after General Robert E. Lee surrendered his troops at the Appomattox Court House in Virginia. I wonder if he died, believing the healing of the Civil War was beginning. So sad................ The memorial is 19 feet all and 19 feet wide. It was made with 28 marble blocks. There are 36 columns around the memorial that represent the states in the Union at the time of his death. When the memorial was finished the names of the 48 states at the time were carved in the outer attic walls. There is a plaque in the plaza that commemorates Alaska and Hawaii as well. The Thomas Jefferson Memorial is made in a classical style that Jefferson brought to this country from his time abroad. After our time in Williamsburg I feel I know this gentleman. He was an incredibly educated man who spent most of his adult life in public service. He started as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses; was on a committee to write the Declaration of Independence and became the principal author; was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates that was involved with rewriting state legal codes to do with landholding, inheritance and criminal law; drafted the Virginia stature for religious freedom with the help of James Madison; was Governor of Virginia for two years; Ambassador to France for 5 years, where he studied architecture which shows in the Virginia State Capitol, the University of Virginia and his home Monticello; he was Secretary of State for four years under President George Washington and helped create a Federal Territory for the new capital along the Potomac River; he was Vice President under President John Adams for four years and then ran against Adams and became President for the next eight years. What a life, wouldn't you say? During his tenure as President he sponsored the Lewis and Clark Expedition, oversaw the Louisiana Purchase and worked to keep the peace between Great Britain and France. He lived out his life at Monticello and died on July 4th, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The Washington Monument is the one monument that is visible from anywhere in the DC area. The monument is 555 feet, 5 1/8 inches tall. The first cornerstone was laid on July 4th, 1848 and the ceremony was attended by President James K. Polk, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. It took years to finish it due to lack of funding. Parts of the monument were financed by popular subscriptions collected by the Washington National Monument Society. It was unfinished for 18 years and finally, President Ulysses S. Grant, in 1876, approved an act authorizing the Federal Government to finish the memorial. Finally, it was finished and dedicated on February 21, 1885. This goes to prove that the government takes it's own sweet time. The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Monument was quite different. This man served 12 years as President, during the Great Depression. He started the social security program, initiated the New Deal that created jobs, etc. His monument is a series of five outdoor rooms that have waterfalls and carved quotations on the granite walls. There are statues of him in a wheelchair from his polio that he contracted when he was 39 years old, statue of him and his pooch named Fala, sculptures of a breadline at the time of the Depression, a rural couple and a man listening to a radio fireside chat that President Roosevelt started. When you left his memorial you knew this man was loved and served the people well. I don't know how many miles we walked, but by the time we got on the commuter bus to come back home we were exhausted! We saw all the major monuments and spent a couple hours in the Natural History Museum and ogled at the Hope Diamond. Way too flashy for my taste (for which Gene is very grateful) but beautiful just the same. We will head back to the DC area soon and spend quality museum time, as the temperature outside is supposed to hit the 90's. So much to see and do........the good thing is that all the museums are free! We even got a bargain at a sidewalk hotdog stand............a hot dog with sauerkraut and diet Coke for $3. More to follow. History 101 just keeps going, doesn't it??????

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