D.C. at night

After fighting our way through D.C. traffic we made it to the hotel. After dropping our luggage off and grabbing a quick dinner we decided to go walk around and see the sights of D.C. at night since it was so balmy outside. Our first stop was the White House (literally a block away from our hotel). Jess carried along my full size tripod and was taking a bunch of pictures and after about 5 minutes a guard came up and said tripods weren’t allowed on the sidewalk. I guess you can have a tripod on the street, but not the sidewalk. I think the guards were more concerned with the protestors so that’s why she got away with it for so long.

We had only planned on going to the White House because it was so close but the night was so warm and everything looked so pretty lit up at night that next thing you know we ended up at the World War II Memorial.Consisting of 56 pillars and a pair of arches surrounding a plaza and fountain, it is located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on the former site of the Rainbow Pool at the eastern end of the Reflecting Pool, between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.

When I was last in D.C. in 2001, the WWII Memorial was less than a month away from the ground breaking so it was nice to see it completed. The water features are really nice.

We caught sight of the Lincoln Memorial and decided why not walk over since it looks so nice lit up at night?

Interesting fact: The statue of Lincoln, originally designed to be 10 feet tall, was later enlarged to 19 feet to prevent it from being dwarfed by its huge chamber.It is surrounded by 36 fluted Doric columns, one for each of the 36 states in the Union at the time of Lincoln's death. The columns, like the exterior walls and façades, are inclined slightly toward the building's interior. This is to compensate for perspective distortions which would otherwise make the Memorial appear asymmetrical.There’s a great view of the city from the steps. We rested on the steps and got a few shots framing the Washington Monument that I really like. While sitting on the steps I noticed this thing that looked like a stain on the ground. People kept walking up and looking at it and I was wondering what the heck it was when I heard a guide pointing out that this was the spot where Martin Luther King had given his “I Have a Dream” speech. Upon further inspection, the stain turned out to be a little commemoration of the exact spot where he stood.

We then had a very looong walk back to the hotel and I was hobbling along in pain by the time we got back. I think I need better shoes. Despite my pain, I am so glad we wandered around though because the next day the temperature quickly dropped 30 degrees and the rains and winds came.

To Serve

Our last stop of the day was at Arlington National Cemetery. We immediately walked up to The Tomb of the Unknowns to witness the changing of the guard. The Tomb of the Unknowns has been guarded continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, since July 2, 1937. There is a meticulous ritual the guard follows when watching over the graves:

1. The soldier walks 21 steps across the Tomb. This alludes to the 21-gun salute, which is the highest honor given to any military or foreign dignitary in America. His weapon is always on the shoulder opposite the Tomb

2. On the 21st step, the soldier turns and faces the Tomb for 21 seconds.

3. The soldier then turns to face the other way across the Tomb and changes his weapon to the outside shoulder.

4. After 21 seconds, the first step is repeated.

This is repeated until the soldier is relieved of duty at the Changing of the Guard.

Right behind the Tomb is the Memorial Amphitheater which looks like the stage for a Greek play. We wandered around the cemetery and I was quite impressed by how pretty it was. There are beautiful gardens and gorgeous flowering cherry trees. The Arlington House was once the home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and it overlooks the Potomac River, directly across from the National Mall in Washington, D.C., providing a great view. I wondered how the cemetery came to surround his house and found out the following story: By 1864, the military cemeteries of Washington and Alexandria were filled with Union dead, and General Meigs quickly selected Arlington as the site for a new cemetery. Meigs, a Georgian who had served under Lee in the U.S. Army and who hated his fellow Southerners who were fighting against the Union, ordered that graves be placed just outside the front door of the mansion, to prevent the Lees from ever returning. Meigs himself supervised the burial of 26 Union soldiers in Mrs. Lee's rose garden.

We also saw the graves of the many of the Kennedy’s

Edward:

Robert:

John:

Arlington is most famous for the grave of John F. Kennedy and the Tomb of the Unknowns but as you're walking around amidst the rows and rows of graves you can't help but wonder about the stories of the many soldiers there.

To Protect

Our first stop in D.C. was Fort Foote. It was just a tiny community park but it had these two massive cannons that Jess decided to play around on. Fort Foote originally composed a portion of the wartime defenses of Washington, D.C., by helping defend the Potomac River approach to the city. It operated from 1863 to 1878, when the post was abandoned, and was used only briefly during the First and Second World Wars.

Right down the road from Fort Foote was Fort Washington. I really loved this place. I thought it would be similar to Fort Foote but it was huge! I've been to a lot of forts and they all start to look the same after a while but this one was really cool because of the variety of different buildings that were there. At this point in the day it was closing in on 90 degrees in the blazing sunshine and Jess was suffering so bad that she bought a freakin bonnet at the gift shop. I’m pretty sure that’s the only time an adult has purchased one of those bonnets. Fort Washington was for many decades the only defensive fort protecting Washington D.C. During the War of 1812, the fort was destroyed by its own garrison during a British advance to prevent it from being captured and occupied by the British. Kind of cutting off your nose to spite your face I think. I had no idea it was such a big place. There’s even a moat and a drawbridge! Did you know that Fort Washington is the only permanent fortification built to defend the river approach to the Nation's Capital? We explored many of the buildings and climbed all over the Fort until the heat got the better of us.

Visitor Center:

Officer's Quarters:

More quarters:

Looking out to sea (well the Potomac):

I think what I liked most about Fort Washington was the fact that no one else was there so we had free rein to explore. This place was pretty big and had tons of rooms to check out. It's always nice to have free rein at a National Park site.

"O Say Can You See"

Monday we left Philadelphia for D.C. I was most excited about driving through Delaware so I could cross another state off my list. I’ve now been to 35 of the 50 states and expect to hit 3 more this year: California, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Granted we were only in Delaware for less than 20 miles but it was still worth it. When I was driving through I was thinking about how crazy it is that some Eastern states are smaller than most counties in Western States. I was disappointed in Delaware however because I wanted to stop at a Hampton Inn for a key card but when I showed up at the address, it didn’t exist! Instead a Holiday Inn was there. I collect the Hampton key cards because they say “Welcome to [STATE]”. I started this tradition on the GAT and I would grab one key card for myself and send one back to the coworkers at the Hampton in Denver so they could display them behind the front desk. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to find some reason to go back to Delaware in the future. Did you know it’s the only state in the U.S. without a National Park Service site? Doesn’t our first state deserve some sort of recognition from the NPS!? Anyway, on to Maryland!We continued on into Baltimore where we went to Fort McHenry.

This was the birthplace of our National Anthem. Jess and I were walking around the visitor center when she asked a lady if she would mind taking our picture. The lady agreed so we turned around and stood next to each other when the lady suggests “don’t you want to act like you know each other?” We started cracking up because in many of our pictures, it always looks like we both just happened to end up in the same place at the same time. We tried her suggestion and it ended up looking like I am trying to abduct Jess.

While we were walking around learning about how the National Anthem came to be, a short informative film started so we sat down to watch it. At the end of the film, the Star Spangled Banner started playing and everyone stood up and started singing while the shades on the window rolled up and we were greeted with the site of the American flag flying high over the Fort. It was so emotional! If you want to learn much more about the story of the National Anthem, check out Jess’ dissertation: http://adventureswithjessica.blogspot.com/2011/04/fort-mchenry.html

We decided not to pay the $7 entrance fee into the Fort and instead walked around the outer path along the water. At the end of the path, we came across a random statue of Orpheus. I had no idea who he was but he definitely left an impression on me. He was definitely the most…blatant statue I have ever seen at a NPS site. He only had a very strategically placed fig leaf!

We made our way down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway on the way to D.C. Interestingly, some of the exit ramps on the Parkway are heavily marked “Employees Only” for various government agencies. We were both wondering what would happen if someone accidently exited on one of those ramps (but not crazy enough to try and find out).

Philadelphia's Fighting Side

Since Eastern State is so close to the Pennsylvania Museum of Art we decided to walk over to see the statue of Rocky and the famous steps. I've never seen the Rocky movies but I learned that the 72 stone steps have become known as the "Rocky Steps" as a result of their appearance in the triple-Oscar-winning film Rocky and four of its sequels. Poor Rocky was stuck wearing this pink sweater on such a warm spring day. The steps had an amazing view of the Ben Franklin Parkway and Philadelphia City Hall. It was one of the first nice days of the year and it was a great place to rest our feet and soak up the sunshine. A nice gentleman took our picture (actually it was more of a photo shoot, he was really funny) and then proceeded to tell us “you know ladies, I do this for tips” and wouldn’t leave until I gave him a dollar. I didn’t care though because I loved my “model” pose.

Because I planned this trip, we still had one more stop to see before we could call it a day. We drove out of the city to Valley Forge. I was a little wary because it still seemed to be the city to me but once we drove into the place, you couldn’t even tell you were in a city. There were wide open fields and rolling hills and scenic vistas aplenty.

Valley Forge in Pennsylvania was the site of the military camp of the American Continental Army (led by George Washington) over the winter of 1777–1778 in the American Revolutionary War.

Undernourished and poorly clothed, living in crowded, damp quarters, the army was ravaged by sickness and disease. Typhoid, jaundice, dysentery, and pneumonia were among the many diseases that killed 2,500 men that winter.

The National Memorial Arch has the following inscription by George Washington:

"Naked and starving as they are

We cannot enough admire

The incomparable Patience and Fidelity

of the Soldiery"

We did the auto tour stopping at a church, a monument, a house and a cannon artillery field.

At Valley Forge women averaged 1 to every 44 men, adding up to around 500 women. These women (and children) also provided the emotional support to a soldier, allowing them to remain at camp and continue on training and soldiering during the winter months. These women gained half the rations of soldiers, half the wages of a soldier as well as a half pension after the war—if they had done enough work.

So severe were conditions at times that Washington despaired "that unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place ... this Army must inevitably ... Starve, dissolve, or disperse, in order to obtain subsistence in the best manner they can." It was a long 6 months.

There was even a really pretty church there. One thing I found really interesting was the Justice Bell that was at the Washington Memorial Chapel.

An active suffragist devised a plan to call attention to the battle for women's suffrage. She commissioned the casting of a duplicate of the Liberty Bell, except this one has "Establish Justice" in the inscription. The bell’s clapper was chained to its side and the message was clear: the Bell would not ring until women won the vote.

I really enjoyed Valley Forge and it was a great way to end our time in Philly.