Friday, March 22, 2019
This was the longest day of the trip so far. As far as transportation goes it would be a combo drive/metro day. We took off from the house at our normal time of 9am. With the traffic it took about 45 minutes to get into town. We parked the van and walked to the nearest Metro station, Foggy Bottom / George Washington University (GWU). We charged the Metro cards with some money and we were off.
The weather was still challenging today. The rain had let up from he day before for the most part. But the wind was crazy and the temperature was still in the low-mid 40s. Once again we were ill-prepared for walking around in the elements.
Off to Arlington National Cemetery! We were all looking forward to seeing this site. We watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier accompanied by a flyover (F-14s? I’m not a plane guy either), and John F. Kennedy’s gravesite which was very inspiring with the engraved words that he spoke. I also realized too late that I was just feet away from Admiral Rickover’s grave (the father of Naval Nuclear Power). All in all it was a nice visit and very humbling.
From Arlington, we took the Metro to Pentagon City (which I didn’t even know existed) to snarf down some lunch and head to The Pentagon for a tour.
Captain Philip Yu is a former shipmate of mine from the USS Louisville from 1995-1998. He now works at the Pentagon as a Foreign Affairs Officer working as a Chinese advisor. He agreed to give us a tour. It was so good to catch up with him and get his perspective on his work and the state of world affairs.
When leaving the Pentagon, Phil gave us directions to the 9/11 Memorial, which I really wanted to see. However, just as we were walking out a storm rolled in bringing buckets of rain and snow, high winds, and (unfortunately for us) colder temperatures. Eli and I made it about half way there but had to turn around to reconnect with the rest of the group which was waiting on us.
Off to our next stop. Back to the Pentagon Metro station and the subway to the Foggy Bottom / GWU station. The wind and rain were still a threat so we decided to camp out at a Starbucks at the GWU Hospital with a round of expensive drinks and wait to see what the weather did.
Once we were satisfied that it had let up enough to walk around we headed south to the DC monuments. The thought was that we wanted to see as many of them at night as we could.
Still on the GWU campus, Eli, The Brave, still proudly wearing his red MAGA hat received a point-blank one-finger salute to the face from a tolerant runner by. I didn’t see it happen. He told me about it after it had happened. So sad that this is what will bring happiness to this person’s life – flipping off a 16 year old boy. TDS is real, people.
The walk from the GWU campus down to the Jefferson Memorial was a healthy one. We made it there just before dusk. The wind and the cold made it a fairly miserable walk. But once we got there it was worth it. Just an amazing monument. Much larger than it looks from a distance.
Up inside the dome around the circumference of the base was an inspiring quote:
I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. – Thomas Jefferson
Also, not exactly sure, but we think that we saw Marine One.
Still very windy and cold we started to head north. It was dark now as well so the monuments would be beautiful.
My normal walking shoes were wet from the day before so I had to go with an alternative pair. Not a good result. The dogs were barking loud. I started walking pretty slow behind the rest of the family.
It was about a 15 minute or so walk up to the Lincoln Memorial from the Jefferson Memorial. All the things I’d heard about seeing the memorials at night were true and then some. So beautiful!
Just a quick walk to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall). Very impressive. Very pretty, but I wish I’d seen this in the day time. Still, a very humbling tribute to the Vietnam dead.
Okay. We’re done. Everyone. Done. It was a long day and we were all pretty tired. Once we’d made it back to where the van was parked we had walked between 12-13 miles today. We found a Chick-fil-A on the way home for dinner and it was back to the house a little after 10:00 to crash. Hard.
The McCauley Family (Originally) From Greenwood, Indiana 