Around the National Mall

Wednesday after the election, we wandered around the National Mall after stopping at Arlington National Cemetery. Above, the Lincoln Memorial was still in the midst of being deconstructed from the big concert on Sunday and there were about 8 million people crowding the steps.

It was a really nice place to take some photos of the frozen reflection pond. You can see how far the Capitol is down the mall- perhaps a mile maybe.

We'd attempted a closer view of the White House (where all those people are standing), but had a much better view from the hill with the Washington Monument.

All the war memorials are on the east end of the mall near the Lincoln Memorial. Although I'd seen a replica of the Vietnam Wall, it was very moving to see it again in person.

It was too crowded to really have time to learn about each monument and get a proper tour, so seeing some of these things will be on my list when we return to DC.

There were so many people (i.e. groups of loud high school kids) around that it was nearly impossible to get a nice shot of the wall. I liked this one, with our reflection and a small flag, because the experience of our parents with the Vietnam War is such large factor on who they were and who we are.


For some reason, the reflectiveness of the walls always says something about what you see in yourself when you look at the sacrifice of all the men and women listed on the wall.

You can see the remnants of the jumbotrons and speaker set-ups on the right and I thought this was a neat shot down the mall.

The Korean War Veterans Memorial was also a neat monument. They had several sculpture of men, trudging through a nice garden. They also had a wall with these faces etched into it, and you can see the reflection of the soldiers on the top half of the wall.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Picked up a nice wetsuit yesterday, so hopefully I won't be cold in Cozumel in 2 weeks.