DC Day 2

This morning I woke up and checked out of the hotel. I grabbed a quick bite and hopped the Metro to work. I plan to leave here in about an hour and make my way eventually to the Airport. I’d like to go to Arlington Cemetery to see that – that looks really cool.

After leaving work, I walked around to try to find something to eat. Not able to get the Ollieburger out of my head, I strolled back to the Trolley and had another one. Soooo good.

I got on the Metro and headed past Foggy Bottom to the Cemetery. I entered the Visitors Center and got my map – then ponied up the $7.50 for the tour bus. Normally I would just walk the whole time but I had my (very heavy) backpack on my…well…back and I knew I’d get tired out quickly.

First stop was the tomb of President Kennedy. It’s simple and magnificent at the same time. The view from his tomb of DC is phenomenal.

I got back on the bus and headed up to the Tomb of the Unknowns. They were having a changing of the guards at 3pm and it was getting close to that time. It was on this short drive where the magnitude of the Cemetery started to hit me. It’s actually quite moving to see all of the stones, perfectly in line, stretching on and on over the gorgeous grounds.

The Changing of the Guards was cool. I was surprised to see that the guard on duty actually had a little guard shack, like he was going to collect a toll or something. The ceremony of the changing was great to see. Very precise…at times a little overboard. Like dude, he looks good, let him guard.

After the guard finally changed (they really started to milk it) they had a wreath-laying ceremony. Some dude from Greece was there and I guess he wanted to lay a wreath. They didn’t really explain all that much, but there was a Greek flag.

The ceremony for that was long, with frequent pauses. Most of the time my mind was taking in this whole scene – wondering how much they drilled for that, or what it would be like to be in the band. Other times though, my mind was wondering what would happen if I ran up to the wreath that they were laying down, or if I ran to the tombs. Would they do anything? Would I get shot or just stabbed with the bayonet? Did they have snipers watching?

After the almost 40 minutes of ceremony were done I decided not to get back on the tour bus but to stroll around. I made my way past the mast of the USS Maine (To HELL with Spain!!!) and on to the Confederate area of the cemetery. That was quite interesting…seeing CSA on the tombstones.

From there I wandered around – there are a LOT of Unknown Soldiers buried there. I came upon the Tomb of the Unknowns for the Civil War. They took the remains of some 2,000 soldiers found at the site of the Bull Run Battles (and another site too) and buried them there. That was quite moving. From there I walked to the Arlington House, which is where Robert E Lee lived with his wife, the Grand-daughter of Washington (or Great grand daughter…and Washington had step kids…). I was able to tour the house, which was cool, and then went in the back to the old Slave house. Again, powerful stuff. I’ll tell you this – Robert E Lee had a FANASTIC view of Washington DC. Amazing. The designer of DC is buried there too, right in front of the house.

I started to make my way down the mountain towards the grave of President Taft. I have a feeling that JFK is stealing a LOT of his thunder in that cemetery. From there, I walked back out of the Cemetery to the Metro, and hopped the blue line to the airport, where I am enjoying a delicious clam basket as I type this.

The flight back to LGA was quick, but could have been quicker. We came up the west side over the Hudson, then went up and around like the pilot had never flown to NYC before and wanted to see the sites. We circled up around Yonkers then around over the Bronx and back into Queens.

It was a quick 2 days in Washington, but it was, as always, a lot of fun.