Our next stop was the Elks Lodge in Alexandria, VA, just a few miles from the homes of two sets of friends who were on our agenda. Saturday afternoon and evening, we spent with Duncan and Natasha Crundwell, who have a lovely condo just a few blocks from Old Town Alexandria. The next day we visited Phill and Sharon Jourdan. He is a long time friend of Dick’s and the judge who married us. After treating us to a great lunch, we headed downtown with their son David to tour the National Building Museum and the Museum of American Art and Portrait Gallery. Both buildings were just beautiful, and I especially enjoyed the Kathryn Hepburn exhibit. We went through the gallery of the official presidential portraits – a gentleman at the front desk had told us that President Clinton’s portrait had been removed and replaced with a photograph. He didn’t know exactly why or when it would be replaced. When we went through we were surprised to see a photograph that looked like something taken in those photo machines at amusement parks. I would love to know the story behind that.

We moved up to Cherry Hill Park in College Park, MD to await the arrival of my sister and her husband. They successfully navigated the Metro system and arrived at a station 3 miles from our park – what a great invention the Metro is – we folks from Detroit and southern California aren’t used to such a common sense way to travel in big cities. For the next 5 days we were sight seeing at full speed, although we took plenty of coffee/treat, lunch, and afternoon beer stops. We spent the first day in the House and Senate galleries watching our legislative branch in action. We heard Barney Frank make an impassioned plea for job protection rights for homosexuals in the House, and watched a vote in the Senate. The votes are always fun since that is the only time that all the Senators make an appearance on the floor. Of course, none of the “presidentials” were in attendance. Security is much tighter than before 9/11 in that you can no longer just walk into the Capitol, but I was surprised that we still had open access to the office buildings of both branches and the little subway that takes the legislators to the Capitol. As before, we were impressed with how friendly and helpful everyone was. Later, we stopped in the Hawk and Dove Tavern for a drink – I always enjoy eavesdropping on the conversations, most of which involve something going on in politics or government.

We spent a day in Annapolis, a beautiful and historic town on Chesapeake Bay, and of course the home of the US Naval Academy. After a trolley tour, we had a great lunch at the Galway Irish Pub….its a beautiful place and serves amazing crab cakes. There is also a free tour of the State House – the oldest in America and the place that George Washington gave up his commission – that is worth taking. The Academy is impressive and in a beautiful setting. I was a little sad looking at all those high achieving hard working kids, wondering what might be in store for them in these unsettled times.

As it turns out, we were there for Veterans Day and the 25th anniversary of the Vietnam Wall. There were veterans everywhere and they had a stage set up in front of the wall where they spent 65 hours reading all the names. The weather was in the 40s and drizzly, but we agreed that somehow that was appropriate. The Korean monument is always moving as is the one for the civilian nurses, the “Donut Dollies”. I talked with one of them who was there for the ceremonies – the effects of that time were still very much with her.

The FDR monument is one of my favorites. It is huge and has a section for each of his terms. On the walls are inscribed quotes, my favorite being, “I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war." That was actually said in 1936, which may explain his reticence about getting into WWII. The newest memorial is the one commemorating WWII. It is on the end of the mall pond between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. It is very impressive, similar in some ways to the one we had seen in Bastogne, Belgium and we were pleased to find Daddy’s name in the database.

On Saturday, we started with the American Indian Museum, the newest Smithsonian, built to honor the cultures of not only the American Indians, but those of all the Americas. We went on part of a tour with an amazing young woman from the Cherokee nation who was so very passionate about explaining and preserving her heritage. The museum is built to represent parts of nature, with lots of curves, walls, etc.

We had a scheduled time to get into the Holocaust Museum, so had to cut our tour short. But, of course, we made time for lunch there at the Indian Museum. In the cafeteria, they had a section for each of five different regions and the associated cuisines. You could pick dishes from any or all of them. The food was absolutely delicious, and so interesting. I am never a fan of cafeteria style dining, and this was no better, but the quality of the food made it well worth it.

The Holocaust Museum is one of those that you never “look forward” to seeing, but at the same time feel an obligation to see. They have a limited number of tickets available each day to the main exhibit, so I had reserved some online. Dick and I rarely spend more than two hours in any museum, but we got there at 1:30 and didn’t leave until almost 5:00. You are spared nothing in this exhibit – it starts of course with the events that allowed Hitler to come to power and ends with the Allies taking over the camps and the resettling of the victims. Almost half of the prisoners still alive the day the Allies came were dead within three weeks. There were so many opportunities to have stopped Hitler early, or to halt the Holocaust in the early stages, but the Allies just couldn’t believe it was really that bad, and ignored the reports. At one point the St. Louis, a ship full of Jewish refugees, was first denied entrance to Cuba, and then turned away from Florida as well. A third of those people later died in the camps. Outside the main exhibit is a children’s museum called Daniels House. Take the time to go through it as well. It is narrated from a young boy’s perspective and skips the graphic parts, but still effectively gets across the horror of the event.

On Sunday, we went to Arlington Cemetery, hoping to see the services at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but alas, got there too late. We stopped at the Kennedy graves and the Women’s Memorial and Museum. Cheney went by in one of the cars we saw, but you couldn’t tell which one. I was able to contain my disappointment at missing him. In retrospect, I wish we had gone to the Vietnam Wall instead for the services there and to hear Colin Powell speak.

I absolutely love Washington, DC and as cynical as I can be about the follies of our government, it is hard to believe that when most of the folks get there, they don’t think they can make a difference.