Tri-City Blitz Day #3 - Washington, D.C.

Side note: having 4 separate parts to my tri-city blitz makes it so nice for post-title purposes :). I don't have to wrack my brain for a nifty title more than once, because I just tweak it to reflect the day and city :). But anyway...

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Well, due to the fact that we'd had such an early morning on Friday, we decided to leave later in the morning for D.C. I had spent Friday night at Katherine's house, so I was woken up by her cell phone singing "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In." She was in the shower, so I just informed her of the call when she came downstairs. She said it was probably our moms calling to make sure we were awake because they were on their way over (which would have been earlier than planned). It turns out that it was our moms, but they were just calling to check on something and hadn't left home yet -- oh, I just remembered what they were checking on: food. They wanted to know if we wanted them to bring the extra cheese olivettes and the pretzels I bought (the misspelled ones) to snack on on the way down. And just so you know, food was a large part of our trip :). Oh, and if I haven't mentioned it before, my aunt lives only 7 minutes away from my cousin. Okay, so Katherine and I finish getting ready and our moms pull up around 8:20 and we pile into the car. And away we go! We stopped at Wawa on the way (yet another different one, so this makes Wawa #4). Katherine had to fill up the gas tank, and check this out: They have the gas station attendants in New Jersey! They do the work for you! Pretty nifty. And wonderful day! This Wawa wasn't out of hot chocolate!!! So, I took my opportunity to have fabulous hot chocolate and got a 20-ounce cup of it. With vanilla steamer mixed in. Oh yum. Oh, and I bought a boston cream doughnut. So yummy. So we get back into the car and on our way again. And we are driving along yakking up a storm when all of a sudden Katherine's hot chocolate spills everywhere!!! She'd picked it up by the lid and it wasn't on very well, so the whole 16 ounces of delicious hot chocolate spilled all over her. Which, in my opinion, is totally tragic, because that is some good hot chocolate. That might have been enough to make me cry at the loss of that stuff :). Anyway, so we pulled off the road so Katherine could clean up her seat and put a towel down. And then we had to stop into Wal-Mart so she could buy a new outfit, because the other one was soaked in hot chocolate. Katherine is amazingly upbeat and happy, even when things like that happen. I was impressed. I usually get frustrated at situations like that ;)!

So after that little adventure, we got on the road again. We talked and laughed the whole way. We listened to some of the Christmas culture of the Northeast. And quite frankly, because I would be willing to bet that most people who read my blog have never heard this before, I'm going to share it. So you must click here and listen to one of the most popular songs in the Northeast at Christmas-time. And FYI, while driving down to D.C., we went through Delaware (we actually stopped there to use the restrooms) and Maryland. And even though we made a couple of wrong turns on the way, we used them to our advantage so we could change clothes (since we decided to go to the Washington, D.C. Temple before the monuments). So as you are driving along on the Interstate (I think it's I-95 South), you round a bed and this is what you suddenly see in front of you:
It's just beautiful. And the grounds surrounding it are very beautiful, even in the winter. We all went through and did a session, which was a neat experience, us all being together. And afterwards, we took a lot of pictures. For the sake of time, I will only post a couple. But suffice it to say that, among our 4 cameras, we easily took 30 or more pictures. And for the record, I was not trying to be cute in the second picture. I had the camera set on something and on timer, so I didn't know if it would cut off my head if I stood up straight :). We went into the Visitors' Center to see the Christmas displays inside there. They had Nativities from around the world, which was really neat. They also had Christmas Trees decorated, and each tree was decorated according to a different region of the world. So they had a tree for the Americas and the Caribbean Islands. And it had a pollera from Panama on it! It was so cool:
And the Visitors' Center in D.C., like the one in Salt Lake City, UT, has a Christus statue. It has to be one of the most peaceful statues I have ever seen. The implications of the statue , the idea that the Savior is inviting all to come to Him, really are amazing and offer so much hope and comfort.
After leaving the Visitors' Center, we went to the bookstore and spent money (ah, such a fun thing :) ) and changed clothes, since we knew we'd be hoofing it around D.C. And we were back on the road. But by this time, it's getting to be dusk, so we pretty much know that we're going to be walking around D.C. in the dark. So as we drive down there, Katherine says, "Well, the good thing about going to D.C. at night is that all the traffic will be leaving!" Just keep that comment in mind for future reference :). So we do manage to make it into D.C., but it looks like we're going through a relatively bad part of town. So we try to not look like tourists by closing the road map and turning off the dome light in the car. Oh yeah, we werehungry clear back before we went to the bookstore, so by this point our stomachs "have started digesting themselves" (as Katherine so eloquently put it). Hahaha! So we swing into the first thing everyone can agree on, which is Wendy's. We finally get our food there (and they left out the granola for Katherine's much-anticipated yogurt and granola - she was quite disappointed) and get back out into traffic. And we eat while we drive. At first, we see signs for the monuments. But then we see a sign telling us to turn left, but we weren't in the right lane, so we had to keep going straight. And for some reason, we just kept on going straight. And there are people everywhere!!! So we eventually decide to pull out the map again and figure out where we are. And so we have to turn around, once we've discovered the route to get to the monuments. So I'm navigating and Katherine is driving and our moms are in the backseat. Katherine tells them to help us look for a certain road sign, and they are doing good for a while. And then they get off topic and start talking about something else. And then Katherine and I are trying to figure out if we're still on the right track, and Aunt Hila says, "Okay Debbie (my mom), start singing." Because her philosophy was that if they were singing, they couldn't get in trouble if we made a wrong turn because it wouldn't have been their fault. Or something along those lines. It was so funny. I can't really do the story justice by telling it. But it was so hilarious.

Okay, so to explain D.C. and actually the Northeast: they have these things called circles. For anyone from Dothan, these are not huge circles like the Ross Clark Circle, where you actually can turn left. In a circle, your only option is to turn right. They are kind of like a wheel and the roads coming off the circle are like the spokes on a wheel. If that makes sense. And actually, as luck would have it, I found a picture of the perfect example (in fact, I think it was the one in question during our trip):
Please disregard the green arrow, because I don't know what it's pointint to. However, we were on Connecticut Ave the whole time and we were trying to get to Massachusetts Ave. If you'll notice the circle, you see that there are no left-hand turns. So Massachusetts Ave. will pick up on the other side of the circle as well as the one you see on the map. So we start going around the circle and Katherine says she thinks we need to take the first right. But we don't see a road sign, and I'm looking at the map and I see other little roads that seem to be connecting to the circle as well, and I think those little roads are the roads we are seeing at first, not the one we should go down. So she listens to me and we keep going around the circle. And then I see the sign for Massachusetts Ave. So I say, "There, that one." And she says, "No, we'd be going the wrong direction, we want the other Massachusetts that we already passed." And I'm like, "No, we can't have passed it, we just started going around the circle!!" And she's like, "No, there was another Massachusetts at the beginning." But I'm telling you, I have no clue how we went around that circle so quickly that we passed Massachusetts twice by the time we were having the conversation. And at some point in my brilliant conversation (oh yeah, because she did turn down the road I told her to turn down, but we were going the wrong way) I said, "But you have to take this one, because you have to turn right onto Massachusetts!" And she said, "Hila, it's a circle. You always have to turn right!" And in the backseat, we start hearing Aunt Hila singing, "Laaaaaa." So that way she was absolved of any guilt :). Hahaha... We laughed so hard. Anyway, so we made our way back onto Dupont Circle and took the correct right turn onto Massachusetts and we were going in the right direction.

Okay, so FINALLY make it down to the monuments and there are masses of people and cars parked everywhere. Remember Katherine's earlier statement that I told you to remember for future reference? Well, now is the future. Seriously, cars everywhere. It took us about 30 to 45 minutes to find a parking place (not to mention the time we spent going in circles... literally). And I'm not even sure how we ended up back where we ended up when we finally did get a parking place. But it was several blocks away from the monuments, so we were walking again. Oh, and we had to have a potty break, so we had to find an open building. Would you believe coffee shops in D.C. close at 7 on a Saturday night? That's worse than Dothan! Who'd have ever thought it? Oh, and coincidentally, as we walked closer to the monuments, we saw more and more parking places that we had somehow missed on the first trek around. So we ended up sending Aunt Hila back to get the car while Katherine and I found a potty and my mom waited for us. And then we realized we probably should have sent Aunt Hila with one of our cell phones, because she had lost hers (or possibly gotten pick-pocketed) in NYC. Anyway, she wasn't coming back and wasn't coming back, so Katherine ran to find her. It turns out she got lost at first and said she really felt like she really was getting Alzheimers, because she had no idea where we were parked. But then she found the car and Katherine found her. So the car got moved closer to the monuments. And we were on our way. Our first stop was the back side of the White House (oh, and did I mention there were tons of people?).
And when we got around to the other side of the white house, we suddenly see why there are so many people: they are doing the National Christmas Tree Lighting and the burning of the Yule Log. Ah yes... We totally knew that and we totally planned it this way :). Just kidding. But it was cool to see the big Christmas Tree. Taking pictures in front of it was a chore, because there were people EVERYWHERE. But I got a few. Here's one:
We next headed over to the Washington Monument, thinking we were going in the right direction toward the Lincoln Memorial. However, as is par for the course on this trip, we were not going in the right direction. However, there were potties down where we ended up, so our moms used those before we finally got our bearings (with the help of some other tourists) and got pointed in the right direction. But here's me at the Washington Monument:

We walked over in the direction of the Lincoln Memorial (I'm telling you, it's hard at night to see very far, so it was easy for us to not know which way to go). We stopped at the World War II memorial first, because that is the war in which my Grandpa served and we wanted to take pictures. So this first one is of me and my mom and the second one is of my mom and aunt sitting on either side of the place where my Grandpa served, and the third one is of me and Katherine doing the same. We next found our way to the Korean War Memorial. I really can't even express how awesome all of these memorials are. This particular memorial... the statues of the soldiers were amazing. The fear was captured on their faces so well. Oh, and there is a wall near this monument with one simple phrase carved into it: Freedom is not free. That touched me.
Next we headed over to the Lincoln Memorial. I have always always wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial. I don't know why, exactly. But I have. And so I was finally able to. And it is massive.
Now, I have never been to D.C. before, ever. So I cannot say this from my own experience. But both my aunt and my cousin said they can't believe how much better it is to come at night. You miss the crowds, people talk more quietly, and there is just more of a sense of reverence. And because of this, we were able to see something that both my aunt and cousin had missed the other times they've come, due to the crowds. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial are carved the words "I have a dream," memorializing the speech Martin Luther King, Jr. gave from the steps in the 1960s. It makes sense that he would give his speech at the Lincoln Memorial. I just don't think I'd ever really thought about it and made the connection before. But anyway, I took a picture with it:Our last stop for the evening was the Vietnam Wall. I have to say that I think it was best that we ended our tour with this monument. I have heard from several people that you can feel a difference when you walk through this monument. I can now say that I have felt it. The crowds were not large, so there wasn't the automatic hush that others have described, because it wasn't really noisy in the first place. However, as I passed the first part of the wall, I could feel a change. It almost seemed to get a little warmer. I know of no other way to describe it. I took a picture pointing toward the name of someone my friend Annie knew who was killed in Vietnam. I will also say that I had no idea the massive numbers of names on these walls. It is sad. I had no idea that the walls became as tall as they do. And they are filled with names. Literally filled.

And after this, our conversation changed. Each of the four of us has had (or still has) a family member in the service who has gone to war. My aunt's husband Harrell served with the Marines in Vietnam. My cousin's husband just got back from a stint in Iraq with the Air Force. My brother Brad (and therefore my mother's son) also spent time in Iraq with the Air Force. We know what it is to worry about someone in a war zone. We know the cause for which they are serving. And we know the price they may be asked to pay. And this wall memorializes many, many men and women who paid that price.

Even now, since I wrote this, it is hard to change back into a light-hearted mood in this post. Seeing this monument, along with the others that honor our veterans and fallen soldiers, will change you forever. This ended our tour of D.C., and we headed home.

Upon getting into the car, Aunt Hila said, "We need to refill." And Katherine said, "I think we have enough gas to make it." And Aunt Hila said, "I'm talking about food." See, I told you food was a big part of this trip :). We got stuck in some traffic on the way home (we aren't even sure what happened, but it literally slowed all traffic to a stop). We somehow ended up in Virginia for a short time (while on the Interstate). And we did stop at something called the Maryland House and we bought some food and hot chocolate or apple cider from Starbucks. And we got home at 3 in the morning. I said goodbye to my mom that night/morning. She cried. My aunt Hila thought she was saying goodbye to me that night too, but since my flight left later on Sunday, I was going to get to see her again on Sunday, so she stopped crying and said, "Oh good, I don't have to cry now then."

What an emotional day. But it was so wonderful.

Oh, and if the crazy font is all messed up, I'm sorry. This kind of thing aggravates me, but I tried to fix it and I am sure it didn't work. Arg.