Washington DC 2008

When we bought our motorhome, the dealership was having a special promotion. For buying our motorhome at just the right time, we got a $2,000 credit towards a Fantasy RV Rally or Caravan. Fantasy is a company that organizes long distance RV Caravans and single location Rallies. The only event that fit our schedule was a week long Rally in DC. We will camp in the same campground for the week and the company will bus us around to various events and sights in our nation’s capitol. The timing worked out very well. The kids flew home on the 5^th and we drove to DC on the 6^th.

Still groggy from the whirlwind week with Scott and the boys, we drove south towards our nation’s capitol. First stop was Bellingham where we returned the Schultz’s van they had graciously lent us for the week. With all of our stuff repacked in the CR-V, we drove to College Park, MD with only a brief stop for lunch. Once at the Cherry Hill campground we moved the coach out of storage and into a site with the other rally participants.

The rally does not officially start until this evening so we used the free day to visit the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was sad, sobering and thought provoking, especially the emphasis of continuing genocides in Rwanda and Darfour. We were challenged to not narrowly apply the “Never Again” mantra to Jews alone. Back at the campground we had our rally orientation and met the 26 other participants. There were folks from Wyoming, Ontario, Louisiana and Pennsylvania. Three of the 14 rigs have South Dakota plates but none of us spend much time there ;-).

The bus picked us up at 8 AM and we spent nearly ten hours driving and walking through the central parts of DC. The tour guide, George, is a bit of a character and he filled our heads with interesting facts, vignettes and descriptions of the places we visited. In the fact department were: Maryland has 4,000 miles of coastline second only to Alaska and Washington DC was the NINTH capitol of our country.

Our favorite vignette while we were walking through Lafayette Park near the White House was the story of how the British Ambassador was having an affair with the wife of the Spanish Ambassador and after a late night meeting in Lafayette Park, found themselves locked in. A tall, slim bearded man walking by heard their cries for help and got a ladder to help them get out of the locked park. No one would have known about this event except that President Lincoln kept a detailed diary! After the White House, we toured the FDR Memorial, a fairly new (1998) tribute to the only President to serve more than two terms. The seven acre site is arranged in four large outdoor “rooms” one for each term of Roosevelt’s presidency. We then walked along the Tidal Basin under the cherry trees with views across to the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial. Next it was lunch in the hustle and bustle of Union Station followed by a tour of the capitol grounds and Supreme Court building. Our final stop was at the National Cathedral with more than its fair share of stories. It was begun during the administration of Teddy Roosevelt and George Bush senior presided over placement of the last stone. During those 83 years our country changed a lot and the design of the building kept pace. In addition to the traditional gothic gargoyles, there is one in the likeness of Darth Vader. One of the stained glass windows is a tribute to Apollo 11 with depictions of earth, the moon and within the image of the moon, an actual piece of moon rock. As Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins walked his daughter down the aisle at her wedding, Collins stopped, turned and saluted the window.

Another long but wonderful day. In the morning we went to Mount Vernon to see the home of George Washington. Construction of this family home was begun in 1735 when George was only 3 years old. While it has been expanded many times since then, the central part of the house includes that 1735 section. The house setting is magnificent, high on a hill overlooking the Potomac River (at a spot where it is much, much too wide to throw a silver dollar or anything else across to the other side.) Down the hill from the house, we visited the tombs of George and Martha. Adjacent to the site they have built a huge underground education center with lots of fascinating, informative displays and videos. After our tour we had lunch at the on-site restaurant. Back in the bus we headed to Arlington National Cemetery. On the way we drove through the old section of Alexandria where Washington had an office and Robert E. Lee had a home. At Arlington we visited the Kennedy Gravesites and several monuments commemorating the loss of the Shuttles Challenger and Columbia and individual graves of military heros like Audi Murphy. Next we went to the tombs of the unknown soldiers in time for the impressive guard changing ceremony. As the changing of the guard completed, we heard cannon fire, indicative of the funeral of a very important person. Soon after, we saw a procession including a Navy band and honor guard and a caisson pulled by a team of black horses. There was also a flag with three stars indicating it was the funeral of a naval Vice Admiral. On the bus ride back to the campground, we used of iPhone to search the web and learned we had seen the funeral of Vice Admiral Earl Fowler, a 43 year naval veteran and former head of Naval Sea Systems Command during the Regan era “600 ship Navy” days.

Today we experienced a withering sequence of monuments and memorials. There were so many that even right after lunch it was hard to reconstruct the morning and by the time we started back to the campground on our bus, getting the whole day in sequence was a challenge. First stop was the World War II Memorial. This is a recent addition (1998) created when Sen. Robert Dole, Tom Brokaw (The Greatest Generation) and Tom Hanks (Saving Private Ryan) joined forces to bring it about. It is a huge oval spanning the width of the reflecting pool at the end closest to the Washington Monument. Large Towers representing the Atlantic and Pacific theaters are connected by a series of smaller columns, one for each state and territory. All of these columns are knit together by two large strands of bronze rope. The whole area is adorned with scenes depicting the various services and famous quotes about the war, courage and bravery. At the east end is a panel with a huge array of gold stars, 4,000 in all, representing the 400,000 allied men and women who died during the war. During the war, the gold star was used to symbolize families who had made the ultimate sacrifice. Next we went to the Korean War Memorial, a set of 19 larger than life, cast, stainless steel soldiers, representing a platoon on patrol. The platoon is spread over about an acre, backed by a black marble wall with images of hundreds of real participants in the war. The marble wall also creates some symmetry with the Vietnam Memorial across the mall. The Lincoln Memorial was next. The Parthenon shaped structure has 38 columns, one for each state in the union at the time. The imposing statue of a seated Lincoln fills the center and the end walls are adorned with the Gettysburg address and his second inaugural address. The Vietnam War Memorial was next; arguably the most emotional monument in the city. With over 58,000 names of troops killed in Southeast Asia from 1959 to 1973. Of course many visitors do not come to see 58,000 names but rather to see only one. It was gut wrenching to watch young children and even some adults making a crayon rubbing of a name from the wall or to see some of the many, many notes, letters, flowers and other memorabilia left at the base of the wall.

After lunch we visited a series of service memorials, starting with the Navy Memorial. Centered on a huge map of the world, the memorial has a magnificent series of bronze panels in extremely high relief, depicting all aspect of the Navy such as aviation, special operations, Seabees, corpsmen, chaplains, EOD etc. To one side is a life-size statue of the lonely seaman, hunched under the collar of his “pea” coat standing next to his sea bag. Across the river in Arlington, we visited the very new (2004) Air Force Memorial. The centerpiece of this memorial is a set of three towering arches curving away from each other, suggestive of the “starburst” maneuver executed by the AF Thunderbirds. An engineering marvel, the towers were built by the same people who built the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. To one side is a huge glass panel depicting a flight of F-16s in the “Missing Man” formation. Behind this is a marble wall listing all AF Medal of Honor winners and some famous quotations. This memorial is in a stunning location, on a hill above Arlington Cemetery and the Pentagon with all of Washington DC spread out behind. The Marine Corps Memorial, more commonly known as the Iwo Jima Memorial was next. The photograph of the flag raising on Mount Suribatchi is familiar to most Americans but the scale and detail of the statue is an extraordinary tribute to the brave men depicted there and all Marines. Each man in the statue is 32 feet tall, their carbines are six feet long. It is the largest, heaviest bronze statue in the world and yet the sculptor has rendered it in exquisite detail. Actually, the sculptor, Felix W. de Weldon, brought the three surviving marines to his studio to get casts of their faces and bodies. If you look closely you can see musculature under the uniforms and even the camouflage patterns. Next, our guide told us we were going to the JFK Memorial. Having been to the gravesite yesterday, we were not, at first, sure what he meant. Turns out, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is, indeed a memorial to JFK. We toured the building, learned about the many gifts from foreign countries eager to be part of the memorial and then a trip to the roof for another awesome view of the city. One of the most impressive facts about the Kennedy Center is that the entire Washington Monument would fit, lying down of course, in the lobby with 85 feet to spare. Though we were wilting, there was one more stop, the Jefferson Memorial. Where to start about Jefferson? He was our second Vice President, third President, a writer, inventor, visionary and sponsor of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. He authored many sections of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. In particular, we have Jefferson to thank for the religious freedoms written into the constitution. Those of us who practice minority religions owe Tom a huge debt of gratitude. Thank you Tom!

Today we went farther afield with stops in Annapolis and Baltimore. Annapolis was our nation’s capitol in 1783. During that time, all of the major founding fathers were present and we got to walk in their footsteps past the state house where Washington surrendered his military commission to become a private citizen again. This reinforced his belief that governments should not be run by the military. We then walked past a seemingly endless series of old building where Jefferson slept, Madison’s daughter was married and even the building where George got his hair cut! It was interesting but perhaps a bit too much of it. Then we toured the grounds of the Naval Academy including several outdoor monuments, Bancroft Hall, the huge dorm where all 4,400 midshipmen are housed, the chapel and the crypt of John Paul Jones. We were there in time to watch the Mid Day formation when all of the midshipmen line up then march to lunch with drums and bagpipes. Quite a spectacle. After lunch we headed for Baltimore where we visited Fort McHenry where Francis Scott Key was wrote the Star Spangled Banner during the War of 1812. Next we drove to Federal Hill with great views of the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Next Stop was Camden Yard where the Baltimore Orioles play. Our last stop was at the grave of Edgar Allen Poe. Back at the campground we had supper, did laundry and went to bed early to try to shake the colds that have been plaguing us. Well, perhaps that’s too strong a word but that’s how it has felt at times.

Today was a free day and we had hoped to visit several of the Smithsonian museums. However, we still felt crappy so we stayed in the coach and took it easy.

Today starts with a 9:45 departure for brunch. We are both feeling so-so but decide to go. Brunch is at the 94^th Bomber Squadron at College Park Airport; the oldest continuously operating airport in the country. It is a delightful replica of an English country manor that served as a base for flight operations during WWII. Both the food and ambience were excellent. Next we headed to the Air and Space Museum Annex at Dulles Airport. This huge hanger has hundreds of aircraft and spacecraft and with very few exceptions they are the real thing, not replicas; the real shuttle Enterprise, the actual Enola Gay, the first Concorde to enter commercial service, the last SR-71 to fly an operational mission, the Boeing 707 prototype and on and on. Carl especially, enjoyed it a lot but even he admitted that this kind of museum is best done in multiple, smaller doses. Back at the campground we had our farewell dinner which brought our rally to a close. Tomorrow we drive back to Massachusetts.