Today, Pam got up early and went to the grocery store while the rest of us (eventually) got out of bed and got ready for the day. We had breakfast in our hotel room, packed a snack, and then headed out. Our first destination was into town for the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. There was a limit on our stay there because our next stop at the Pentagon was a scheduled tour. The Air and Space Museum had an entire room dedicated to the Wright brothers, one for WWI fighters, another for WWII airmen and planes, one for WWII aircraft carriers and their battles. Plus lots of planes suspended from the ceiling, as well as three space modules. One of them was John Glenn’s. In short there was too much to see and not enough time to see it all.
Had Brian gone with us, we never would have pried him out of there. Pam noted how much Brian would enjoy it if we gave him money for lunch, dropped him off at the door when it opened and picked him up when it closed in the evening. I’m sure he would have loved it, and asked to do it again the next day. Brian has decided that he wants to be a pilot for his career, and that seems to be the primary motivating force for him. I mention that mostly because finding things that motivate Brian has occasionally been challenging.
The Pentagon tour was great. Lots of walking, of course, and we did not see more than a small fraction of the building. We did see the two memorials for those who died on 9/11, one inside, in the rebuilt section that was destroyed, and one outside that is accessible to the public.
After the Pentagon, We all went back to the hotel for lunch. Her dad and I went to Arlington National Cemetery right after that, and the girls joined us there later on. We were able to see the Kennedy graves, as well as the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. The Lee Mansion/Arlington House was closed before we got that far in the tour. Some other well-known people whose graves I saw were William Jennings Bryant, John Foster Dulles, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Omar Bradley, and Thurgood Marshall. I tried to follow the guide’s waved hand to see Audie Murphy’s headstone too, but I was not able to locate it.
While we were walking through the cemetery, Pam heard about a Marine Corps parade at the Iwo Jima/Marine Corps Monument every Tuesday night. It was a bit of a hike to get there, and it had started before we arrived. It didn’t finish, either. High winds, rain and the possibility of lighting caused the cancellation of the end. We did get to hear the Fife and Drum Corps and watch the silent rifle drill, both of which were amazing.
When the parade ended, we braved the weather to spend a good bit of time at the monument. This was one place that Pam’s dad had wanted to visit for a long time, and we wanted to allow him time to process the moment.
When we finished there, we walked north to the nearest subway station, and stopped for dinner at Baja Fresh on the way. They were in the process of closing up because the restaurant was empty, but we stayed and ate there at their insistence. There was still a half hour before closing time when we arrived.
By then we decided it was too late to go back into DC to look at monuments, so we headed for the comfortable beds of the Radisson.
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