A Day at The Mall...

Washington DC, USA

January 9, 2008
N 38°53.375
W 077°02.100

At the beginning of our trip, as we were traveling through South America visiting the capital cities, we reminded each other we had never been to our own country’s capital, so we decided to work a visit into the itinerary. Since New York City was already on the agenda; it would only be a quick hop to DC.

I’m proud to report that we’re not disappointed. In fact, the capital city of the United States of America is the most impressive capital city we’ve visited on our trip.

The weather was unseasonably perfect, in the 70’s and clear, so we decided to take advantage of the sun and spend our day outdoors. We walked and walked and walked some more as we tried to hit as many sites as possible along the The Mall. Our first stop was the White House, and then we visited the Washington Monument, the Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial and Korean War Memorial.

The impressive World War II Memorial, which was dedicated in 2004, was a perfect way to complete our World War II history tour after our visit of Europe and the Beaches of Normandy. At the same time, after visiting Vietnam in June and gaining a Vietnamese perspective of what they term the “American War”, we were filled with sorrow as we walked by the 58,256 names engraved in the polished black granite of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

We continued down the mall towards the capitol, passing numerous museums, crossing huge lawns, until we finally came to another large reflecting pool in front of the Capitol Building. We sat in front of the capitol for awhile admiring the massive dome (designed after the Roman Pantheon), watched children feed the ducks and seagulls, before circling around the building, passing the House and Senate offices, until we found ourselves standing on the stairs of the Supreme Court.

We finally made it back to our room, rested for a little while and headed out for a tour of the beautiful neighborhood of Georgetown to buy my much needed jeans. I think we logged at least eight miles for the day, if not more. It was all worth it to see the amazing capital!