Washington DC - Day 1

Well, I finally worked up the energy to download our vacation pictures. The first stop on our vacation was Nick & Jess's house. We drove up Monday night and hung out and they let us crash for the night. We got up the next morning and started on our long drive. We drove to Roanoke, VA, about 7 hours and stopped there for the night. We ate dinner, did some shopping, and went to the movies. We got up and drove the rest of the way to DC, about 4 hours. The drive through the outskirts of the Mountains was really pretty. We listened to the book "The Host" on CD for most of the trip, but we didn't finish it. I've already read the book, but it's interesting to hear it narrated.

So our first day in Washington was monument day. We rode the metro(subway) everywhere. The Smithsonian stop on the metro brought us right to the National Mall where all the Smithsonian Museums are, hence the name of the stop. There was a folk festival going on at the Mall as you can see in this picture.

We didn't hang at the festival long, just long enough to get a lime fizz and it was delicious! We trekked up to the Washington Monument next. It was really cool. We didn't want to stand in line to get tickets to go inside to the top, so we just walked around the outside.

Here I'm reading to John all the interesting facts about the Washington Monument in my travel book. Oh, the benches around the monument were really comfy and cool!

Next it was on to the WWII Monument. It was really impressive, there were quotes and etchings everywhere on the walls and the fountain was cool, literally.

Seeing everyone dipping their feet in the fountain made my tired feet burn to get in that water. Ah, sweet relief . . . the cold water felt amazing!

John enjoyed it too!

We went to the Lincoln Memorial next. There were so many people on the steps and none of them were speaking English! It was so cool to see all these monuments up close.

Here we are resting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. When it's just the two of us on vacation we hardly ever get pictures that have us both in them. We took this one by just holding the camera out in front of us.

We went to the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall next. It was so amazing and touching. There were notes that people had stuffed into cracks and corners. There were also pictures, jewelry, flags, and trinkets left along the bottom of the wall. It was sad seeing all the names on the walls. The atmosphere here was different than at the other monuments, more respectful and solemn. I didn't take any pictures there because I didn't want to disturb that feeling.

It was getting late by then, so we had dinner and headed back to the hotel. Pictures of the rest of our trip will be coming soon . . .