Speaking of DC

Rob and I lived in Maryland for ten years. We made occasional trips into Washington D.C. and we've been watching the news coverage leading up to today's inauguration with interest.I dug out some pictures of the landmarks that impressed us most.

We've always been history buffs and living where we did, with so much access to Civil War battlefields, we were especially interested in that period. We are members of the Surratt Society
and took part in one of their John Wilkes Boothe Escape Tours. A group of about thirty boarded a school bus one cold October morning at 5 AM and for the next twelve hours we followed the exact route taken by JWB. The trip started, of course, at Ford's Theatre in DC.


We sat in the audience and looked up at the Presidential box where Lincoln was sitting when he was shot.


Directly across the street is the house where Lincoln was carried after being shot. He died there several hours later.


I think my very favorite monument in DC is the Lincoln Memorial. Having only seen it in pictures, I was overwhelmed at the size and the solemnity of the structure.


This is a very moving monument.


Probably one of the most popular and most heartbreaking of the monuments is the Viet Nam Wall.


To actually see all those names and to see the gifts and letters left at the wall caused me to reflect on those times still so painful to this country.


Looking across the Reflecting Pool we saw the Washington Monument, beautiful in it's simplicity.


Here is the home of our new President and his family.


One of the most breathtaking buildings in Washington is the National Cathedral. The inside is as beautiful as the outside and the rose window is worth the visit.


There are gargoyles and carvings all over the Cathedral and we managed to find one with dogs. This one is of Huskies.


There are street vendors all around Washington selling coffee, hot dogs and popcorn. The birds fill the trees around the carts and wait patiently for someone to share with them.


The Obama girls will undoubtedly visit the National Zoo. We spent a whole day there and still didn't see everything. What a wonderful place.