Today we ventured out on the subway system. Since we had ridden the tour buses Fri. night, and most of Saturday, we felt that we had "seen" most that they had to offer, although today is included in the pass we purchased. There are lots of buildings and museums that we don't have time to tour, including the White House which takes some advance planning to get a visitor pass, so we narrowed our agenda down a little for today, hoping to make it an easy day. Hah!
We wanted to go to Arlington Cemetery and the Washington National Cathedral today, both off the beaten path on the bus tour. The bus will take you there, but it involves some transfers and some timing, so we decided we would ride the subway directly to the Cemetery, and pick up the bus from there. So that all worked, we found the right subway connection, it was a short walk to the Cemetery, and we took the tram tour there.
We got off the tram at the Kennedy plot, with the eternal flame. We both visited this site 50 years ago, but Jacqueline has since been added. I don't remember if the two Kennedy babies were in it back then or not. This was a big event when we were here in 1964/65, still fairly new and we were still raw from the pain of that assassination.
Bobby Kennedy's grave is nearby.
Overlooking these Kennedy plots is the Arlington House, a mansion built as a living memorial to George Washington by his adopted grandson, and later purchased by Robert E. Lee, who lost it during the Civil War because his wife was unable to pay the taxes in person.
Our next stop was the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a very moving process.
Memorial Ampitheater at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
On the way back to the Visitor Center, we passed the graves of some Four Star and Five Star Generals.
But when we were ready to leave the Cemetery, that was the first hitch. A couple sitting at the bus stop said they had already been waiting
a half hour and hadn't seen a bus yet. After another few minutes, they
left to head for the subway, so we found the phone number for the bus tour and
Joe called them. Well, due to the triathlon down on the Potomac River, right
at what I call Monument Mall, the buses were not on schedule, and it would be
at least 45 minutes before one would be heading our way. So, back to the
subway we went, for a connection to the Cathedral. Here's where we
screwed up. One guy told us to take a metro
bus from the subway,
but we didn't know how to do that, so we just stayed with the subway.
When we got off, we found a place for lunch, then headed out. We asked a
pedestrian and he directed us the other direction, but said it was a little
ways, maybe 5 blocks. Well, it was at least 1 1/2 miles! We didn't
think we would ever get there. And that wore us out. But we finally
arrived, and the church is awesome. It is huge, I have no idea how many
it seats, but it is definitely huge. Choir practice was underway while we
were there, so that was an added feature.
The ceiling with the lights on it shows up prettier in these pictures than it did with the human eye.
The inside was all concrete and the columns were enormous.
The children's choir was also practicing with the adults, and the voices were pretty awesome. I think a docent said there were 10,600 pipes to the organ.
We even went to the observation
tower on the 7th floor and got a good look of D.C. as well as the countryside
around.
When we finished here, we were able to find our bus stop, right down the
street, and we finally connected with our bus. But we were pooped!
But we did pass by some new sights -- we caught just a glimpse of the Vice President's residence through the trees, then we went down Embassy Row, where we saw embassy after embassy, on both sides of the street. We got just a few pictures.
Continuing on our way, we got a better look at the White House on this part of the trip. We also passed some protesters walking along the street, a daily event here.
We got off at the Washington Visitors Center to look at souvenirs, then got
back on the bus to a closer subway stop that would get us home. That was
just a short walk, too, so we finally made it back to our car.
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| MASTERS OF THE SUBWAY |
On the
drive home, we drove through the University of Maryland campus, which is right
by one of our turns back to the campground. It was quiet on a Sunday, a
beautiful campus.
Once we got home, we rested. Then we rested some more. Joe
finally fixed himself a bologna sandwich, while I kept dozing off on the
couch. Then he decides to walk over to the hot tub again, so even though
I had already put my nightgown on, I changed into my swimsuit and we walked
over to try to soak out some of our sore muscles. We didn't stay long,
but it was nice.
A long hard day. This touring is hard work. I think we will do
one more day of D.C., then move on down the road.
