Our first trip into Washington DC

Mike and poki arrived at our hotel in Capitol Heights MD about 4:30 on Wednesday afternoon (I can't help but think back to an old movie "If this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium! - our days have run together recently, but I believe this morning is really THURSDAY, May 29) Since we arrived early enough we decided to go to Union Station and take the Monuments by Moonlight trolley tour.


Getting to Union Station (since I didn't really expect it to look like it does) was quite an adventure, but with the aid of our trusted friend "greenie" we were finally able to make our way to the parking garage at Union Station. We saw a LOT of downtown Washington DC before we saw the sign that got as to the parking garage. There is definitely LOTS of traffic in DC, and not much parking!


Union Station is amazing - three levels, a city all it's own. Shops, restaurants, and one extremely beautiful building! We found our way to the Main Hall, and the Old Town Trolley ticket booth, got our ticket and had to wait about 30 minutes for the tour to begin. Mike and poki filled the time with picture taking - we SHOULD have eaten supper but didn't!

Our first "pause" on the trolley tour was between the US Capitol Building and the US Botanic Gardens. Since we probably won't get to the Capitol early enough on Thursday to get a ticket to tour (there are only a limited number distributed for the day, beginning at 9:00 a.m. until they are gone!) we decided that visiting the US Botanic Gardens would be a pleasureable photo op for us instead, so that will be our first "stop" on Thursday morning's tour! Around the corner are the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. I hope we will have a little time at each before we venture on to other "stops" Something interesting that we learned the S Museum of American Indian building was built with no 90 degree corners, since America Indians feel the "evil lurks in corners!" The building is a beautiful piece of art! (as are most of the buildings in DC)

Next we rode over to the Tidal Basin and actually stopped for about 30 minutes. We were able to get some beautiful pictures of the Washington monument reflecting in the pool, the Capitol building, and the FDR monument. The FDR monument is really a "history of his time in America" with tributes to the Great Depression and FDR's reaction and solution to it. There are some beautiful fountains and waterfalls as a part of this monument. Our tour guide was quite knowledgeable about Washington DC sites, and we really did appreciate her input about what we were seeing.

Our next "stop" was at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. We followed the crowds (there are 1000s of school age children in DC on field trips) over to the Vietnam Memorial with over 60,000 names carved in it. There were roses and notes left at the base of the monument - I can't imagine how long is must have taken to find the name of the person for whom the memorial was left. It is an amazing piece of artwork, and very startling to see all those names from MY GENERATION! (I do know at least two men whose names are on that memorial somewhere- unfortunately I knew many more who came back and were never the same!) The Lincoln Memorial was beautiful bathed in the soft glow of sunset, and the lights that shine there nightly! We got several good photos there, and I believe a beautiful shot of the Washington Monument with the Capitol Building to the left flooded in lights, and reflecting in the Reflecting Pool! We spent a 45 minute stop here, and were really glad to see Jazzy Jan, our trolley guide, when she was able to get back from her trip "around the block" to pick us up! The loop around the Memorials was crammed with tour buses - to take those 1000s of school age children around to see exactly what we wanted to see too!

Next we rode out to Arlington National Cemetary, to see the US Marine Memorial (the statue of the Battle of Iwo Jima) It was amazing bathed in lights! - the largest bronze statue ever made! Since we are not planning on taking the Arlington Cemetary loop on our Thursday morning tour it was nice to see this monument (It is not typically on the Downtown Loop, so we would not have seen it otherwise!) Jazzy Jan, our tour guide, told an interesting story about how the US government acquired the Arlington House and the acreage where the cemetary stands - for a total of $92 owed in back taxes. During the early days of the civil war, taxes were owed on the Arlington house - and the US government sent word to the owner, General Robert E. Lee, that only he could pay the taxes in person in Washington DC, no one in his family could do it. Of course, had General Lee crossed the line into Washington DC to pay the taxes, he would have immediately been arrested (which is what the US government really wanted to do) General Lee just moved his family to another residence farther south, and gave up the Arlington House for the taxes owed.

There was one more short "pause" near The White House (Mike and poki decided to add that photo op to our Thursday list since good photos are harder to get after dark!) and we arrived back at Union Station about 10:30. Since we hadn't eaten dinner before the tour, we were extremely happy to find that the UNO Chicago Grill was open in the Main Hall (until midnight) and they have really great food! (not your typical airport/station food!) We had dinner and got on the road - with directions provided by our waiter who lives in the same area as our hotel! - to get us back "home" to Capitol Heights. Once the GPS was able to find us, and we found US 50, the trip was easy, and we plan to use that route back to Union Station on Thursday morning. I think we can do it!

It was an amazing evening!