10/24: Washington D.C.

Most of my memories of Washington, D.C. from this trip are of exhaustion. Alyssa and I had been on the go for quite awhile by this time without much down time to relax...and our bodies hit a the point of exhaustion melt down. Thankfully we were able to summon enough energy to make good memories from our time. (Even so, the underlying exhaustion does tint the memories quite a bit!)

Entering the city took some endurance since many of the roads were closed for a walk. We finally found a place to park in a 2-hour spot, but this meant returning back there instead of leaving the car in one spot for the whole day. Oh well!

Then we hurried to Ford's Theater before our ticket time! We were both thrown off when we were brought to the downstairs and then dropped off at the museum to wander around. It was so crowded with so much information that I absorbed very little of the information in the museum. Thankfully we signed up for a time when we could attend a ranger talk in the theater itself. Again, sitting in a place where important history took place brings up so many emotions. Neither of us had heard all of the details of Lincoln's assassination, so hearing all of the details in order was eye-opening. Staring at the box where he sat made me sad...and wonder how our country would be different if he had survived. We had the best intentions of going to see the house where he died, but, alas, had to move the car!

After re-parking the car at the cheapest parking structure we could find (that was a tricky, confusing venture!), our quest was to discover where to meet up for a national parks tour some of the monuments. When we finally made it to the location we discovered that few people know about the treasure of the free tours that the national parks service provides in D.C.! There were only 3 of us plus the tour guide. Our guide showed us the Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, and World War II Memorial. He shared with us a wealth of information about the meaning behind the structures as well as stories about the creation of them and response of the people. We learned so much!!

The sun was beginning to set as we finished the tour, so we decided that we should head to our host home in Maryland shortly. But first! we made the last minute decision to stop by the White House. There was security and barriers everywhere (so different from my last time there!) which made getting a good picture difficult. Thankfully we did a "picture swap" with a couple other people which turned out great!

Now that we had seen the most that we could in a day, it was time to bring our tired bodies to a home to rest...and not do much for a couple days...

(Btw, for someone who grew up in Washington State, the east coast term of "Washington" for what I have called "D.C." for years is very confusing!!)