Washington DC

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Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - DC3	The Spirit of St. Louis	Wright Brothers Flyer
Smithsonian Natural Science Museum - Lois feeding dinosaur?	Capitol Building	Vietnam Memorial 1959 - The beginning
Vietnam Memorial 1975 - The end	Faces of Honor	Women's Memorial
Korean Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
Washington Monument		Vietnam Wall - Washington Monument
White House		Ford's Theater
House where Lincoln died across the street from the theater		Lois on her quest to visit all the nation's bathrooms

We made our first trip to DC by driving part way, parking at one of the outlying subway stations and then taking the subway into the middle of DC; it lets you out right outside the Smithsonian Castle. As home of our national capital, DC has so many things to see that is hard to know where to start. Of course, I did not take long to vote on the Air and Space Museum. It is two stories tall, covers several blocks and has all types of aircraft included. It is hard to imagine how they get the items into the museum, a DC-3 is not a small airplane, but there it is hanging from the ceiling. The only thing missing is a modern glider

Right across the Mall we visited the Natural Science Museum where you can see elaborate displays of dinasour skeletons and even the smallest of butterflies. Next door is the Museum of American History. This museum has artifacts from every phase of life, old radios, old cars; just about every facet of Americana. We actually went back to it on our second day. This musuem was more interesting than the Natural Science Museum because the things in it reminded of the simpler days of life.

We wore ourselves out on the first day so we took a day of rest and returned a couple of days later. On the second day we took the Metro Train from Perryville, the location of our RV park. That was much better than the combination truck/subway trip we made the first day; I did not have to drive back home in rush hour traffic.

The second day began with a stop at the Lincoln Memorial, such a beautiful building, very simple in design, but overwhelming in the way people got quiet as they approached the gallery area where the large sculpture of Lincoln is found. The walls are inscribed with his Gettysburg address and his second inauguration speech.

From the front of Lincoln Monument, the reflection pool leads the way up to the Washington Monument, a very impressive site.

The next stop was the Vietnam Veterans Wall that holds the names of the 58,209 American lives lost in that wasted war. I grew up in that era and feel very strange that I do not know a person that died there. Some towns in American lost most of a generation in those rice paddies; I feel very lucky. The memorial starts in the middle with the first people lost in 1959 right next to the last ones that died in 1975; the names are all on panels that represent the year that the soldiers lost their life. It is hard to look at. There are two other sculptures in this area, one of three men and then another one devoted to the women of the Vietam War.

Right across the reflection pool is the memorial to the veterans of the Korean War. It is individual sculptures of a squad of soldiers walking up a hill with their packs and equipment on their backs. This monument is kind of spooky because the guys are all covered with their ponchos to shield them from the harsh cold. Korea was in very cold conditions where Vietam was hot and humid. I had never really seen the numbers from Korea, but American lost over 53,000 men and women in that war also. Including the UN forces, there were over 1,000,000 killed or wounded during this war.

With our dogs barking (feet), we got back on the subway and headed back to the trailer. It sure was nice to let the engineer drive the train while I slept.

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