Always present in my mind in DC was minimizing the cost of parking. Using Spot Hero was definitely the way to go most days. I think most of the spots were less than $16/day. And I really like having a definite address to navigate to, instead of driving around hoping to find a place. But on our second day, I decided to have us park at Arlington, which is only $12 a day. I thought, no problem, we can see the cemetery, then just walk across the bridge to see the monuments and museums on the mall, then walk right back. Which is all great, and it is mostly what we did, but walking straight from the cemetery to the Natural History Museum, which is where we ended up, is 2.5 miles. That's without all the walking we did at the cemetery, and wandering around the mall. It was a lot of walking! And it was hot and bright. We were very tired.
It's always so amazing and solemn to watch the Changing of the Guard. Miss R felt pretty grateful she wasn't there with a school trip. The cemetery was full of them. And while I think it's amazing that it is still common for kids to be taken to Arlington and (hopefully) taught the importance of this place, many of the kids were quite rude and disrespectful. It seemed easy to tell the groups that had good leadership. The kids were quiet and respectful, and the grown ups were teaching them about the place.
We went through the house; such a complicated, bittersweet place. I feel so sorry for General Lee, who I think did the best he could in an impossible situation. In case you may not know, the Union quartermaster, during the war, claimed the Lee house and estate for a national cemetery. Wanting to make it so the family could never use the house again, he started the burials steps from the house. His son had just been killed campaigning against Lee's army.
After the morning in Arlington, we set out across the Potomac.
We made a quick detour to the Lincoln Memorial.
After the Lincoln, we headed to the World War II monument. It's so beautiful and thoughtfully designed. I love that it is sunk down, so it doesn't interrupt the view down the mall.
Guam will always be special to us.
We ate a late lunch at the cafeteria in the bottom of the Natural History Museum. We were most grateful for the free refill drinks! We were absolutely hot and tired and done, and those icy sodas tasted amazing. Our great friend from Portsmouth, AK, came up to meet us at the museum. He is a great friend of B's, so they enjoyed catching up while we wandered the museum.
Of course we hit up the gemstones and geology section first. Above is some raw copper, below is some amethyst.
Glacial striations above, columnar jointing below. Rocks are just the best...
One of my favorite quotes.
I'm always on the lookout for nice fabric! This was part of an exhibition though, and unable to come home with me.
It was a fun, and very exhausting, day. We girls were very fortunate in that B and AK offered to go get the car from Arlington and come pick us up.
Here is my travel journal for day 2, and part of day 3. Arlington had great stickers, the Natural History ok. Better than the big Air and Space at least. You can get all the National Park stamps for the whole mall there at Arlington.
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