Monday, November 24th

Our first day in DC was great.  I think we walked 300 miles and it was freezing cold but was still great.  Thankfully the sun was out.  So, under the recommendation of the campground owner, we drove and parked at Arlington Cemetery.  That worked out really well.  The first thing we saw was the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  Quite a ritual they go through for that.  Powerful!  They also had a family lay a wreath at the unknown tomb in honor of their family member that had passed away.  So we got to see two ceremonies.  We had walked by the graves of JFK and his family in the cemetery too.  So back to the truck since it was close, put on the backpacks and headed out and across the Potomac River.  The Lincoln Memorial was first.  Pretty awesome seeing his statue and the Gettysburg Address on the wall of the memorial since we were just in Gettysburg last week and that event there being all about him.  Before we went on we had a brief lesson on all the wars with the timeline of them.  The next stop was the Vietnam War Memorial where there were 59,000 names on that wall.  Incredible.  The next memorial was the Korean War.  We walked along the Reflecting Pool down to the end to the World War II Memorial.  The Washinton Monument is on the other end of that pool.  They are doing repairs on it from an earthquake from a few years ago.  The whole day consisted of memorials in that area.  We also saw Martin Luther King, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson.  By then it was time to head back to the truck and get back to the campground.  Traffic was busy busy, but once we got in the HOV lane (3+ people) it wasn't bad at all!  Back to the camper and Jeff got the pasties ready to eat and I called our Colorado congressmen to set up a Capitol tour (tentatively set for tomorrow).  After dinner Audree and I did laundry and Jeff made a pot of soup to cook all day tomorrow to eat when we get home.  That will be SO nice.  Being a tourist is exhausting!!!!!