No JC Penny On This Mall

The NukeFamily spent the weekend in DC.  We went to the Mall.  The one without the stores.  It was my first trip, but it won’t be my last.  Although the weather was overcast with light rain, it actually kept the crowds down and made navigating the monuments easier.  The Smithsonian was having their Annual Kite Festival at the foot of the Washington Monument.  Every other spot of grass was occupied by kickball teams.  No, it wasn’t Ms. Thrankston’s 3rd grade P.E. class, it was about 2,000 grown ups.  Apparently, kickball is quite the “Thing” in DC for young professionals.  A google search brought me to a DC Kickball blog (no, I’m not kidding-Read the comments; you’ll thank me later) that grades the local bars on their drink specials and treatment of kickballers, and a pari-military anti-kickball site that just raised enough money to “free” their founder who was incarcerated for disrupting kickball games all over the District.  If you’ve got some time and want a good laugh, peruse this site for a while.  It’s the best laugh I’ve had in a while.  The good thing about it?  It makes me feel infinitely better about my whole dodgeball fiasco.  Even my ACL is laughing.

We could have spent 4 days trying to see everything and not even come close, but we did pretty well for a one day tour with 5 kids.  We saw: The Vietnam Memorial, The Lincoln Memorial, The Korean War Memorial, The World War (WWI) Memorial, The WWII Memorial, The Washington Monument, The White House, The dead grass left by the Inauguration crowds, and The Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian.  Whew!  Talk about some tired legs.  We’ll tackle them all; one at a time.  I’ll try to be brief (cough, cough).

The Wall

Overwhelming.  I don’t know how else to put it.  The emotion that is in the air is palpable; you can feel it before you even enter the grounds.  I knew that it would be a humbling experience, but I had no idea how humbling until I saw the letters sealed in sandwich bags to protect them from the rain.

Or the school composition book left by a grandchild for their grandfather.

The flowers, the trinkets, the t-shirt made by a local elementary school; all of it gathered and catalogued everyday; and, when possible, given to the families of the fallen soldiers.  I lost it about halfway through and had to backtrack because NukeGirl didn’t understand why Daddy was crying.  I don’t know anyone who died in this war, but I do know men who served.  The stories that they told of coming home to taunts of  “Baby-Killer” and being spat upon by protesters fueling my emotion as I read name after name after name.  I don’t know how they made it through, I really don’t.  God Bless them all.

The Lincoln Memorial

This was awesome.  The view from the top of the steps is incredible, or, it would have been, if it hadn’t been overcast.  We could barely see the top of the Washington Monument because of the clouds.

On a clear day we would have been able to see the US Capitol building beyond the Washington Monument.  Today the best I could do was sit where Ben and Riley sat in National Treasure contemplating the theft of the Declaration of Independence, and stand where Forrest Gump stood before Jennie came traipsing through the reflecting pool.

I still had to marvel at the detail of this statue; it’s almost like they carved the air blowing across his jacket and pants.  Amazing.  NukeGirl was upset that he didn’t have his hat on, and NukeBoy2 thought he should be shirtless like in the Mountain Dew TV commercial.

The Korean War Memorial

The detail on the statues was precise.  They had scouts, radio-men, infantry.  It captured the hell on earth that they experienced battling the elements as well as the enemy.

The far side has a Vietnam Veterans Memorial like wall with reflected pictures of the men who served; be they American, Korean or any of the other Allied soldiers.  The footpath had granite stones with the names of each country who helped fight the war.

The World War Memorial (DC WWI Memorial)

This was upsetting.  This memorial sits on the right side of the mall between the Korean War Memorial and the WWII Memorial.  It sits back off of the path, and they say that in the summer when the leaves are on the trees that you could walk right by it and never even notice it.  It was originally built to honor those from DC, but there is a push to restore it and expand it to include all of the 4,734,991 veterans who served, and the more than 116,000 that died.

It’s shameful that this monument has been allowed to deteriorate so badly.  Frank Buckles, the last surviving veteran of WWI is the Honorary Chairman of the WWI Memorial Foundation that is seeking the refurbishment of the monument, and it’s establishment as the National WWI Memorial.

The WWII Memorial

This is the newest of the battle memorials.  It opened in 2004 and is bigger than most of the other monuments.  It sits at the end of the reflecting pool between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument.

Every state has it’s own pillar and wreath, and the 2 opposing arches are labeled “Atlantic” and “Pacific”.  Each arch has a large bronze wreath inside of it being lifted by 4 bald eagles.

The Washington Monument

Or, as NukeBoy2 likes to call it; “The big tall pointy thing” was evident everywhere we walked.  We couldn’t get inside of it (tickets go out in the morning, and they go quick) and you’ve already seen it in some of the other pictures, so let’s move on.

The White House

I knew the grounds were big, but to see it in person is to realize that you were thinking small.  It’s about 18 acres.  The funny thing is, whenever you see pictures of the White House, you never see anything around it, so to see large tall buildings all around it was strange indeed.  I guess the “transparency” of the new administration has worn off: instead of 1 fence to keep the riff-raff off of the south lawn, there are now five. You’re all the way on the other side of the street beyond the sidewalk even.

Then the cop that’s assigned to sit in front of the White House parks his car smack dab in the middle of the best camera angle.  I think he used his GPS to place it in maximum piss-off position.  It worked.  Must be a Garmin.

Trampled Underfoot

The Mall between the Washington Monument and The Capitol building took a beating during the inauguration.  Stands to reason when you have over a million people walking on it.

The Air and Space Museum

Unbelievable.  I love planes and space craft, so to be able to see some of the most historic aviation specimens in history was nirvana.  See that up there?  That’s not a model of the Spirit of St. Louis, it’s THE actual Spirit of St. Louis that Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic.  Whoa.

The Apollo 11 command module that went to the moon and brought Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins safely back to splashdown?  Right here.  Not a model, not a simulator, but the real deal.

It’s amazing how small that thing actually is.  Every square inch was spoken for.  They didn’t even have room for a cup holder.

Asides

I could have posted some more of the 200 pictures I took, but I’ll spare you; thank you for indulging me this much.  We’ll definitely be back to explore some more in the near future.  There is the Airsho at Edwards Air Force Base coming up, we still need to get to the Capitol building to see how our tax dollars aren’t working and the Smithsonian could be a 2 week trip in itself.  I also need to tell you about the bald eagle nest 2 blocks from Wil and Nancy’s house.  Very cool.  It’s bigger than my bed.