Our DC Trip, Part 1: The Mall (Not the Kind with a Food Court)

We've been living within an hour of our nation's capital for months now . . .

. . . and I decided it was high time we took the kids to see it in person.

I decided to keep things simple.  We started at President Lincoln's end of the National Mall, and worked our way over to President Washington's, checking out various monuments along the way.  Abraham Lincoln is one of my heroes.  I feel so grateful that we had a president with such wisdom, compassion, and plain good sense leading our country during its greatest crisis.

Joy made sure her Minecraft friends had a good view of Lincoln's second inaugural address on the north wall of the monument.

Our next stop was the Vietnam Memorial.  It was sobering to explain the war (briefly) to my kids, and look at the names of thousands of servicemen who died in that conflict.  Anna even spotted the name Daniel on one panel of the wall.  I'm sure there were a lot more Daniels and probably a few Todds on those panels, too.  It would have been so hard to send one of our boys to war, and not have them come home.

We strolled through Constitution Gardens on our way some other, more famous sites.  I think the kids were more intrigued by the ducks than by most of the monuments they saw today.

The next stop on our little tour was the WWII Memorial.  It may not be as iconic as the Lincoln or Washington monuments, but it is one of my favorites.  I love the focus on unity, sacrifice, and facing difficult challenges because it was the right thing to do.  While I'm grateful that we don't face the threats that generation did, I think we might be better, stronger, and even happier people if we had to sacrifice and work together the way they did.

Before we left that memorial, we made sure to snap a picture of "Iwo Jima" on the Pacific end of the memorial.  My grandfather was a Marine who served there.  It was his first deployment--talk about baptism by fire.

We then proceeded to the Washington Monument.  From far away, it is just a unique landmark.  Up close, I found it awe-inspiring to stand next to that massive tower of stone reaching over 55 stories straight up (it was the tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1884).  I didn't bother taking a closeup--it wouldn't have done the monument justice.  It is a fitting monument to a towering man whose character and dedication inspired an entire nation, and who responded to that hero-worship so selflessly.