Saturday, January 2, 2010

City of Memorials

Washington DC has three airports that are considered local:  Baltimore (40 or so miles from the city), Dulles (30 miles out), and Ronald Reagan (a mere four miles away).  We planned to spend our time there without a car, and, while my brother would have been happy to pick us up from whichever airport, he had also told us that we could actually take the Metro straight from Reagan into the city, and we bought our tickets accordingly.

Thus, our very first stop in Washington DC was an airport named after the late great President...our first memorial!

As we arrived before my brother got off work, immediately after deplaning, we headed for the subway.  With the help of a nice Metro worker, we bought four fare cards and were zipping into Washington DC before we knew it.

The McPherson metro station, a ten-minute ride away, was about a three-block walk from our hotel.  In case you didn't know, Washington DC hotels are notoriously expensive.  I have a theory that, since so many sights are free in DC, the hoteliers and restaurateurs figure that it's OK to gouge visitors for lodging and food!  However, when searching for a hotel, I somehow stumbled across a limited-time special rate at the Washington Plaza and managed to book us for under $100 a night, a bargain by any estimation for in-town accommodations!

While this wasn't by any means a luxury hotel, it was very nice, with a doorman, nice-sized modern rooms, an on-site restaurant (which we never patronized--too many better restaurants elsewhere!) and a really good location, about five blocks from the White House and an easy Metro ride away from all of the major sights.  We arrived around lunchtime and were lucky to find our room already available, as check-in time was 3:00.  We dumped our bags and headed right back out.

On the ride to the hotel, Jeff had checked the forecast and saw that snow, snow, and more snow was expected on Saturday.  My original plan was to visit the National Archives or go up the Washington Monument, then visit other nearby memorials, and then walk to the National Christmas Tree on the White House lawn.  But, as most of these things could be seen well with or without snow, we opted to head out to Arlington Cemetery instead, figuring that we wouldn't see much of anything there if the weather was inclement.

So, it was back to the metro, with a quick stop at Subway to grab some lunch on the go.  Arlington was halfway back to the airport, so we retraced our route and exited the station about a five-minute walk from the Arlington National Cemetery Visitors' Center.

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Visitors to Arlington have basically two options at the cemetery, as random tourist cars are not permitted.  The first is to hoof it around the 600-plus acre cemetery, using a map to find the famous sights.  As I was five months pregnant and it was December, this was really no option at all for the Wilkes family.

The second is to buy tickets for the Tourmobile, a sightseeing bus that made three stops: the Kennedy grave sites, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Changing of the Guard, and Arlington House, the family home of Robert E. Lee's wife before the Union appropriated the property during the Civil War.  As I was five months pregnant and it was December, this option was the winner!

This was actually my fourth visit to the capitol city and my third to Arlington but the first time for Jeff and the kids.  In spite of my previous visits, I was surprised at how moving Arlington is.  So many of the sights in Washington DC are so familiar from TV and history books that they are almost cliched, whether or not one has actually visited.  But I'll tell you, seeing the rows of graves and thinking about the number of people represented there who served our country or made the ultimate sacrifice for it cannot help but make an impact.

Add to that the knowledge that Arlington averages...yes, AVERAGES...27 funerals a day?  Wow.

Several sections of the cemetery were decorated with beautiful wreaths from a company in Maine who donates them every year; the sections change from year to year, and evidently school groups come in and place the wreaths.  The green on the white stones was lovely.  I suppose this was a bonus for visiting at Christmastime!

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The Kennedy grave sites were the first stop on the Tourmobile.  We found John F. Kennedy's tomb, decorated with the eternal flame.  Jackie and two children lost in infancy flanked it.

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A little bit away from his more famous brother, Robert Kennedy rests under a simple white marker and cross.

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After the Kennedy grave sites, we reboarded the Tourmobile and were dropped off at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  As we had a bit of time before the Changing of the Guard, we visited the nearby Challenger memorial and the USS Maine memorial (from the Spanish-American War).

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In the winter, the Changing of the Guard occurs every hour on the hour.  I think that every American should witness this at least one time.  It is beautiful and sober and moving.  Even the kids were riveted!  We had them counting steps and seconds, as each guard walks 21 steps, stops for 21 seconds, and repeats, in honor of the 21-gun salute.

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Our final stop on the Arlington Tourmobile was Arlington House, which I don't think was open the previous times that I visited.  While the house has a fair museum of General Lee's wife's family and times, the best thing about the house was the view of the city.

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As far as memorials go, it is hard to beat Arlington National Cemetery!  But we had many more to see and continued our memorial visits by walking across the Potomac toward the Lincoln Memorial...which I'll tell you about next time.

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