Today was a much easier day, walking-wise. Only two foot tours, and no walking between sites!
Our first stop was The Pentagon -- suffice it to say I don't have pictures of that! We first viewed the 9/11 Memorial, just outside the site of the attack in 2001. It's a very beautiful area, with a cantilevered bench over a small moving pool for each victim, whether on the plane or in the building. I would love to visit it again in a few years, after the trees have had some time to mature.
Then we headed inside for the 45-minute basic tour of the building, where we saw some of the exhibits along the hallways, the inner courtyard, the memorial chapel and another exhibit honoring the 9/11 victims. We walked through some of the shopping areas, and heard about some of the remodelling that's been going on there since 2000. I'd have loved to see more, but I guess that's all you get on a "general public" tour, what with it being the headquarters for all of our military, and all!
We then went to the sites of the U.S. Air Force Memorial and the U.S. Marines Memorial. The USAF Memorial is much newer, having been dedicated in 2006. It's a beautiful structure, surrounded by stone monuments to the USAF and its predecessors, situated on a bluff overlooking the Pentagon and the Capitol Mall beyond that.
The USMC Memorial is commonly known as the Iwo Jima Memorial, because of the statue on top, but it references many of the key battles in which the Marine Corps have played a key role. The students had a bit of fun looking for the rumored "13'th hand" on the monument. Some were sure they saw it, others only saw 11. With six people depicted, I'm pretty sure both numbers are wrong!
We then drove back into D.C., and were going to see if we could get into the National Archives; on previous days, the lines were very long, and Mr. Pfister knew that we didn't have time to stand in one line just to get inside, and then another long line to get into the Rotunda, where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution are on display. Fortunately, as we came up to it, there was virtually no line, so we quickly got off the bus, and started in. We had a very short wait, and it was great to be able to see the documents there, after having been in Boston and Philadelphia, and talking about the events of the Revolutionary War and the founding of the U.S. We also got to view a 1297 copy of England's Magna Carta on display there. Again, no photograpy was allowed, so I only got pictures outside of the building. You'll have to go to the National Archives website to see more of what's there.
Our dinner was at a Golden Corral buffet. I had never heard of these, but they're pretty terrific! One of the adults in the group mentioned that when a Golden Corral comes to town, it essentially puts any Hometown Buffet in a world of hurt. The quality of food is fantastic -- and they have Sweet Tea!!!
Our original plan was to go from there to a Baltimore Orioles baseball game. However, as we got to the restaurant, the front edge of a thunderstorm came in. We checked the weather, and it looked like the game would be at least delayed, maybe cancelled. So we decided to come back to the hotel, where the kids played in the pool, and we all relaxed for a while.
Tomorrow, we go into D.C. again for part of the day, then head to Gettysburg, our last destination for this trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment