The White House 1.20.13

The White House.  'Nuff said.  :o)

Arlington National Cemetery 1.20.13

Next up on the agenda for today was finally making it to Arlington National Cemetery.  So, we jumped on the subway and arrived in time to not only see the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier and to see a wreath laying.  I've seen pictures of the cemetery before, but I had no idea just how massive it is.  The graves went on for miles.  Seeing Kennedy's grave was sad and impressive.  And it was hard not to get teared up when the guard changes at the tomb of the unknown soldier.  Again, I could have spent much more time here as well, unfortunately, we had to meet up with the rest of the group and we wanted to swing by the White House on our way.  This will definitely need to be a place I stop at again.

Holocaust Memorial Museum 1.20.13

At this point in the day, Darrick decided to have our group break off from the larger group. Darrick took Izel and they ran up to the Capitol to meet with Patty Murray's office to get our tickets for the inauguration.  While they did that, the rest of us went to tour the Holocaust Museum.  Unfortunately, it took almost an hour for us to get in, which left us only about an hourish to tour the museum until we needed to meet Darrick and Izel at the Smithsonians.  On a regular day, it would take at least a couple hours to tour the museum, but add the crowds that were in town for the inauguration, and it was crazy in there.  It was so crowded that at one point, one of the workers had to remind people to step to the sides while looking at the displays, so other people could actually move.  It was a very impressive museum, we just didn't have nearly enough time to appreciate it all and it was incrediably hot and crowded.

WWII Memorial 1.20.13

After our presidential sighting, we headed to the World War II Memorial.  Yet again, I was amazed.  I wish I could come up with better ways to describe the feeling of seeing all these memorials.  I feel like I'm being very repetetive, but for the most part I was simply in awe and pretty speechless.  We may be a young country but we've been through a lot.  And the detail that went into these memorials was so impressive.

A Surprise Sighting 1.20.13

The first thing we were suppose to do yesterday was go visit Arlington National Cemetery.  Unfortunately, because of the delay we didn't get there.  So, our illustrious leader Frank decided that we should start the day today by visiting the cemetery.  And yet again, our group from Arizona was running behind schedule so we left about 45 minutes later than we intended to.  So, we're finally on the road and headed to Arlington when Sierra gets a text from her aunt that says the news is reporting that the president is heading to Arlington this morning to lay a wreath.  About 20 minutes later we come to a stop, because low and behold the president's motorcade is passing us.  It was SO cool!!! And in retrospect, I guess we should thank the Arizona group for being a bit tardy.  :o)  However, due to the president's visit, we decided to postpone the Arlington visit yet again because of security issues.  But it was worth it to have a front seat view to the motorcade.

MLK Memorial 1.19.13

The last stop of the evening was the MLK Memorial.  Again, a very amazing tribute to an amazing man.  Having seen all these memorials at night, I would really like to go back and see them during the day as well.  It was a ridiculously long day, but what a way to begin our trip.  I look forward to seeing even more tomorrow.  I can't imagine it getting much better than today!

Korean War Veterans Memorial 1.19.13

After the Lincoln Memorial we headed to the Korean War Memorial.  This was another place that I could have stayed longer and didn't have a clue as to how amazing it was going to be.  I'm just so impressed with how this memorial was laid out and the time and dedication it took to make it a reality.  We didn't have a lot of time at this memorial, but what I was able to see was throughly impressive.  I especially liked the wall with the engravings on it.  Amazing.