Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery is one of over 100 National Cemeteries. It is by far the most famous National Cemetery. Arlington and the U.S. Soldiers' & Airmen's Home National Cemetery are the only two National Cemeteries maintained by the Department of Army National Cemeteries. There are also handfuls of National Cemeteries that are maintained by other organizations such as the National Park Service. I thought this was interesting. I couldn't find out why exactly this was the case, but alas, it is. There are approximately 4 million visitors each year to the cemetery and over 310,000 people buried with a range from the Revolutionary War dead to those that have died in Iraq and Afganistan. There are also many notable civilian figures buried in the cemetery.

I decided we were going to cheat and take the tourmobile around the cemetery. I think it was one of the best decisions I made, that day anyways. Don't get me wrong, there will be a day I walk the cemetery, but it wasn't going to be that next to last day of a vacation where I'd walked between 7 and 10 miles each day already. Below you can see Josh in the mirror while we were waiting for the bus to fill up.


Even though I've seen hundreds, if not thousands of pictures of the cemetery and headstone, it doesn't feel real until you see it with your own eyes. I was in awe of the row and rows and that expanse of land that these headstones were spread out on. I was also surprised to see headstones that differed from the typical white ones you see below. There are many in certain sections that aren't this size and shape.

One of the most visited graves in the world is that of President John F. Kennedy. He was buried at Arlington three days after being shot and killed while in Dallas, TX. He is only one of two US Presidents to be buried in the cemetery, the other being Taft. President Kennedy is buried with his wife Jackie O and two children, one son who died two days after birth and a daughter that was stillborn. This is the location of the Eternal Flame requested by Jackie Kennedy and inspired by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris.

View of the Arlington House, also where Robert E Lee and Mary Custis, the step great-granddaughter of George Washington lived. The house has an interesting history, much of which I can't recall from the tour, but that you and I can read here. We eventually ran out of time to go to see Arlington House and the Robert E Lee Memorial...something to add to my list for the next time I visit DC. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful building to see from below at the JFK gravesite.

The Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

While visiting we witnessed the changing of the guards twice. It was an interesting moving ceremony to see. The Tomb has been guarded by the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year since July 2, 1937.

The Memorial Ampitheatre

Memorials to the Columbia, the USS Maine, and the Challenger.

The Tomb of the Unknowns from below it.

Josh and I with Arlington, the Washington Monument and Capitol Building in the background.

After spending some time, but not enough time to see everything, at Arlington, we headed over to the Marine Corp War Memorial, aka Iwo Jima Memorial. It depicts 6 Marines raising the US Flag at Iwo Jima. To read more about the flag raisers click here.

After the Iwo Jima Memorial we headed back to Josh's for Easter dinner, his request-corned beef and cabbage with potatoes and carrots. Yummm....it was delicious.

Spy: (verb) : to watch secretly usually for hostile purposes

I wouldn't readily, or openly admit this to my brother and dad. At least not a few years ago, but alas, here I am in a public venue declaring..."yes, I like James Bond." That is a direct quote, from me, by me, and in the future it can and will be used against me. You see, when we (brother and me) were younger he and my dad would have James Bond movie marathon weekends. I refused to watch. I didn't like Bond (or told myself that). A few years went by and voila, I was in college and you know what?! I decided to take summer courses one year and I took a class all about James Bond...yes it was a college level class. Surprised? I was too. That class, during which we watched a James Bond movie 4 nights a week for 3 weeks (minus one or two evenings when we'd watch documentaries on Ian Fleming or espionage) fostered my appreciation for James Bond. I would sort of like to read some of Flemings work...I didn't do that for the class and wish I would have.

Imagine my brothers surprise when I asked him if we could go to the International Spy Museum while I am here in D.C.! Because of his work schedule, we were restricted to the weekend to do things together. So, we started off our Easter morning by hopping on the Metro and making our way to the Spy Museum. We arrived early and they let us in early. This was great. The same thing happened at the Washington Monument. Timing worked well for both.

While we were at the Spy Museum we saw all kinds of cool spy gadgets. There were bugs, lock pickers, cameras, and disguises. You can see the handy pigeon camera and lipstick pistol below.

We spent a substantial amount of time in the museum and I in particular learned a lot. I was reminded of the Cambridge Spies, which I had learned about in that James Bond class. I think I even wrote a paper about them. There were exhibits about Renaissance espionage, women in espionage and the influence that espionage has had on pop culture. It was a fascinating time and I will most definitely go back at some time. As I said with the Holocaust Museum, there is just too much to see in one visit. I also imagine I will do some reading on espionage and learn some more about some of the people I read about while we were there. This museum comes recommended by me. It also appears in 1,000 Places to See in the USA and Canada Before You Die.

Makes me want to go watch James Bond now...

"Today is history. Today will be remembered...

...Years from now the young will ask with wonder about this day. Today is history and you are part of it. Six hundred years ago when elsewhere they were footing the blame for the Black Death, Casimir the Great - so called - told the Jews they could come to Krakow. They came. They trundled their belongings into the city. They settled. They took hold. They prospered in business, science, education, the arts. With nothing they came and with nothing they flourished. For six centuries there has been a Jewish Krakow. By this evening those six centuries will be a rumor. They never happened. Today is history." ~Amon Goeth: From Schindler's List (1993)
After spending time at the Washington Monument we headed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was a very moving tribute. We both picked up little booklets that told who we were for the exhibit and we both lived through the end of the war and moved to the United States. The woman who took our tickets was a survivor of the Holocaust. She was a sweet lady.

The shoes, brushes and kitchen utensils in part of the exhibit were haunting. The video footage was mesmerizing. The photos and information about countries not wanting to aide the the people suffering during that time were surreal and sickening. The number of people at the exhibit was overwhelming. Josh made it about half-way, I made it about three fourths of the way. Then we were both done. There was so much to see, to read and only so many people we could both handle. I have decided that there are just certain museums that require multiple visits and each visit needs to be dedicated to a floor or wing. Indeed. I will go back again and start midway through and go to the end. I highly recommend going when you have a chance. Another recommendation--get tickets online before you go. It will save you massive amounts of time, it did for us!

Washington Monument

Courtesy of History.com On December 6, 1884 : The Washington Monument was completed. Workers place a nine-inch aluminum pyramid atop a tower of white marble, completing the construction of an impressive monument to the city's namesake and the nation's first president, George Washington. As early as 1783, the infant U.S. Congress decided that a statue of George Washington, the great Revolutionary War general, should be placed near the site of the new Congressional building, wherever it might be. After then-President Washington asked him to lay out a new federal capital on the Potomac River in 1791, architect Pierre L'Enfant left a place for the statue at the western end of the sweeping National Mall (near the monument's present location).It wasn't until 1832, however--33 years after Washington's death--that anyone really did anything about the monument. That year, a private Washington National Monument Society was formed. After holding a design competition and choosing an elaborate Greek temple-like design by architect Robert Mills, the society began a fundraising drive to raise money for the statue's construction. These efforts--including appeals to the nation's schoolchildren--raised some $230,000, far short of the $1 million needed. Construction began anyway, on July 4, 1848, as representatives of the society laid the cornerstone of the monument: a 24,500-pound block of pure white marble.Six years later, with funds running low, construction was halted. Around the time the Civil War began in 1861, author Mark Twain described the unfinished monument as looking like a "hollow, oversized chimney." No further progress was made until 1876--the centennial of American independence--when President Ulysses S. Grant authorized construction to be completed.Made of some 36,000 blocks of marble and granite stacked 555 feet in the air, the monument was the tallest structure in the world at the time of its completion in December 1884. In the six months following the dedication ceremony, over 10,000 people climbed the nearly 900 steps to the top of the Washington Monument. Today, an elevator makes the trip far easier, and more than 800,000 people visit the monument each year. A city law passed in 1910 restricted the height of new buildings to ensure that the monument will remain the tallest structure in Washington, D.C.--a fitting tribute to the man known as the "Father of His Country."

While in the monument a Park Ranger was asked about the law of building height. She stated that that was in fact a myth. The DC law actually states that no building can be taller than twice the width of the street that borders it.

When I first arrived in DC the Washington Monument was the first recognizable site I saw from a distance. And, like I thought, it was pretty much amazing to see. I was so surprised that I could so distinctly see the place where the monument construction had been halted and then later restarted.

Looking up towards the top from the 500 foot level, once inside the monument.

Us at the top! The view is phenomenal!

The White House! Can you imagine having a backyard like that?

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There are pictures of the view above each window that points out buildings of importance, etc. The next sets of pictures show the labeled photo and the one I took.

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In the above pictures you can see the WWII Memorial in the picture I took, but it hadn't been completed when the labeled photo was taken.

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Lincoln Memorial above
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WWII Memorial below

In the picture below you can see the Cherry Blossoms on the Tidal Basin and where there is a construction project going on. This is where there will be a memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. To see more information see the Build the Dream website. I'll have to return to see it when it is complete.

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Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Holocaust Museum is in the center of the photo below.

Josh asked me if I'd seen all the blankets on the lawn getting ready for the concert we thought they were going to have. I hadn't, but it looked cool one I saw it. Looks a bit like a patchwork quilt.

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Model of the cap on the monument that is made from aluminum, meant to be a lightning rod.

Between the years of 1998-2001 there was a construction project going on to check the monument, add an elevator, create a information area just below the view point floor. The picture below is for my dad. That is all scaffolding surrounding the monument. :)

There are all kinds of "plaques" on the interior of the monument dedicated by each state to Washington. You can see some of them when you come down in the elevator, which doesn't stop, just slows so the pictures are a bit blurry.

Floor tiling.

Carving in the monument.

Once we got down we headed over to see the concert. It wasn't a concert. The "blankets" were actually yoga mats and there were massive amounts of people doing yoga. Pretty darn cool to see.

Josh and I both loved going up in the Monument and because I got tickets online early we didn't even have to get in line, or on line as they say in the east, at 5 am like lots of people did. Woohoo for pre-planning!