A Brief, but Nice Day in Washington, DC

Can't remember if I ever talked about this trip in previous entries.  I had decided that I wanted to drive over to DC and take the train up to New York City one more time before Chris's assignment there ends and he very generously agreed to get me my train ticket as a birthday present.  When I mentioned this to my friend, Jamie, she said she was jealous and wanted to come cause it was her birthday too (ours are three days apart).  I said that would be great, never thinking she would go through with it but she did!  I am totally impressed - this is her first trip to a large city.  I think prior to this, Cincinnati was the biggest.

So, we left last Wednesday, had a very easy, hassle free drive over, got in nice and early, stopped by my Chris's to pick up a couple of things he forgot to take to NY on his last trip home and then when over to January and Maggie's to have dinner with them and spend the night there.  January doesn't have to teach on Thursdays and had kindly agreed to get us to the train station and give Jamie a quick tour of the National Mall to see all the monuments and get some good photos (Jamie is really getting into photography).  I should have her supply the pictures for this post, but I only have mine so they will have to do.  We ended our sightseeing with enough time for a quick lunch before our train left and then it was off to New York!

So here are my D.C. pics...

I thought this was the Smithsonian Castle, but Chris tells me it is not so now I'm not real sure what it is.   But, I'm very sure this is the Washington Monument with its circle of flags.

On the left is a large section of the WW II Memorial which we really enjoyed.  It is beautiful and very impressive.  Way in the background, you can just see the Lincoln Memorial.  On the right, is the monolith for West Virginia.

On the left, the Washington Monument viewed from the WW II Memorial and on the right, President Lincoln.  I must admit I think his memorial is much more beautiful than Washington's.

Although when seen with its reflection in the reflecting pool, it isn't too shabby, either!  And this is a nice shot of the White House, I thought.  You can't get at all close to it anymore, but with some zooming and cropping, it turned out pretty well.


















We also saw the Korean War Memorial which is very unique - almost sort of ethereal when viewed "in person" but I couldn't get a picture of it that I liked. And we saw the Vietnam War Memorial but, again, no picture.  Wouldn't it be nice if we never had to erect another war memorial??

This last one was on the way to the train station - it's the entryway to Washington's Chinatown:

 So all in all, a short trip, but sweet.