This is a shot of the cemetery and in the distance is a caisson? They say about 28 funerals happen every day. Except for Sundays.
This is looking from Arlington to the east across the Potomac over the Arlington Memorial bridge to the Lincoln Memorial. So we walked from this point (the cemetery) down the avenue, across the bridge to the white building in the distance which is the Lincoln Memorial. It seemed like a couple of miles.
While we were at the cemetery, we saw the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. There are three graves which you can see in the picture below. This is as much ceremony as I've ever seen by our government. A soldier marches back and forth for one hour at a time. Then he switches with another. This continues 24 hours a day every day, all year long. Even through the night, on holidays, and in terrible weather. It was very impressive. The guard in the middle is the commander and he inspects the gun to see if the next soldier is ready for duty. It was good to see this ceremony.
This picture below is of the back side of the tombof the unknown soldier. There is a big amphitheater where speeches are given on memorial day, and other special times. It is a beautiful place. We are standing at the front of the amphitheater and you are looking out area in back of us.
This picture is of the Washington Memorial from the Lincoln Memorial steps. Remember in the movie Forrest Gump, when Forrest is at the peace rally and Jenny hears his voice and jumps into the reflecting pool screaming "Forrest, Forrest." And then Forrest runs down the steps and jumps into the pool and runs to Jenny and they hug each other in the water and everyone cheers. Between these two monuments it is so cool to see it in real life. I was struck by how many foreigners there were coming to see our beautiful capitol and surrounding monuments.
Here we are at the Lincoln Memorial. Probably my favorite so far. It was beautiful. I wish there had not been so many people there. It was very crowded, we had to really be quick to get a picture without someone walking in front of the camera. The outside of this building is beautiful and around the top of it are the names of all the states in order of their statehood.
As we walked toward the Washington monument, we veered off to the left and walked through the Vietnam War memorial. This is the statues of our soldiers who fought in Vietnam. I like this
monument a lot.
This is the Vietnam memorial. All the names of the soldiers killed or missing are engraved on this monument. I'm standing right in the middle of thelist of names.
This is the World War II memorial. It was beautiful. Very nice tribute to our servicemen who fought during that war. Each state's name was engraved under a wreath. Utah and Idaho were next to each other. We got some good pictures of this one.
Zack and I standing at the Washington Monument. This is taller than you think and bigger at the bottom too. Zack is being a poop and is insisting that I turn off the light so he can go to sleep. I wish you could all be here with us and enjoy this with us. Hopefully you will all have this opportunity to come here.
Here is another view of the Washington monument. Tomorrow will show more pictures. Love Shelley Alan and Zack
6 comments:
I was once again hoping that you would have a post that I could see before I had to go to bed. What a busy and very interesting day. I love to see the pictures of the monuments. Someday I will get there.
It sounds and looks like you are all having a good time! I really like the picture of the soldiers guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. One day I will be able to go over there and see everything for myself. :)
oh that zack: falling asleep during what sounds like an absolutely riveting update by the staff on the farm bill, death taxes and more. how could he? alternative energy tax incentives weren't even enough to keep him glued to the proceedings? oh well, to each his own.
i must admit i'm with zach. that staff update stuff sounded a little dry compared with all the wonderful sights you've been seeing and apparently photographing. in fact, when you said the update was 'very interesting' i thought alan must be writing this blog, but then you went into detail about forrest gump and i knew that wasn't alan.
the pictures are wonderful, great to see all those historic and important places. i show them to dennis and he says he's already seen that. you know how dennis is. they hadn't even built the viet nam monument in 1977 had they? well, keep posting pics and don't forget all the fascinating meeting notes. love liz
haha. I think that's funny what Liz wrote. Um.. it sounds like you guys are doing great and seeing things that we only see on TV or movies. I am glad to see that zack looks a little more thrilled in the pictures. The world war 2 places look really interesting and beautiful. So how big is that monument of president lincoln really? It looks massive! It kind of reminds me of Planet of the Apes where the guy thinks he's coming back to real time but he looks at lincoln and he's an APE!!! anyways we look forward to day 3!
That sounds so fun, I bet it's exhausting though. But I'm glad that you guys have the chance to see all those important things.
I am reminded of a trip my band took to D.C. when I was a Freshman in High school. We went around and saw all the same things. I later went as an adult and went to the temple. Have a great trip!
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