Evening Lights

The three of us strolled around the Washington and Lincoln Memorials this evening. Following are a different look to the Memorials that were posted yesterday:

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

Massive columns of Lincoln Memorial

WWII Memorial Fountain

The sights were beautiful! There was a cool breeze and few people were out and about. It was very peaceful. Tomorrow we head for IJM and Mt. Vernon.......

Arlington National Cemetery

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than wandering the Avenues in our countries infamous Arlington National Cemetery?
There are rows and rows of white tombstones carrying the names of our men who have sacrificed for our country. Many, many of them died in the line of duty.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The tomb is guarded continually, 24/7 around the clock, and around the years by Tomb Sentinels. Later Anna Lyn will blog all the information that she garnered today from talking with one of them. In this photo we see the Changing of the Guard. Quite a lot of pomp and circumstance! And very serious and solemn.

Memorial for the members of the Space Shuttle Challenger

Memorial for the Space Shuttle Columbia

John F. Kennedy grave site with eternal flame

Home of General Robert E Lee, built by his father-in-law, George Custis

The Pentagon can be seen from the cemetery

It was a sobering experience hiking around the cemetery, and a thankfulness to all of those who have fought for our country welled up within each of us.

Semper Paratus!

Hey, JimmyJoeBillyBob!

This one is for you and Dick. We went to Arlington Cemetery today and walked a looong way to snap this picture of the U.S. Coast Guard Memorial to send to you Coasties.

Hugs and Kisses,
BillieSueJolene

Metro Train

We are making use of the Metro Subway Train in DC. Talk about a convenient, easy-to-use system, this is it!
We use a day pass to get on and off as many times as we please.

Going down into the bowels of the earth to catch the train!

The stations are well-marked. We spent our day yesterday around the Smithsonian drop off station. That is where the National Mall is, and one can walk to just about anywhere from there to see the capitol sights.

Oh for one of these in the Seattle area :-)

Wa DC - National Mall Area

Hopefully Anna Lyn will post a blog about the National book Fest hosted by the Library of Congress that she attended today in the National Mall area. I know she was sure pumped about it! Meanwhile, Joy and I (Shirley) visited some of the Memorials and went through the Memorial Museum of the Holocaust. Here are a 'few' photos of some of what we were able to see before the rain came down too hard to stay out in it any longer:

Flags around the Washington Monument

Joy looking down the Reflection Pool towards the Lincoln Memorial


Lincoln Memorial


Lincoln Memorial
No reflections in the pool today!


Lincoln - quite large!

The enormity of the columns of the Lincoln Memorial is amazing!

Jefferson Memorial

(Seen by us only from across the Potomac River)

Washington Monument

WA Monument as seen from the Lincoln Memorial

WWII Memorial

Atlantic

Pacific

Korean War Memorial

A small segment of the Korean Memorial Wall

We heard that the pictures are real photos of the soldiers

Viet Nam Memorial Wall

The wall stretched on for quite a ways, listing all of the names of the Americans that gave their lives in the Viet Nam War. There are 58,261 names listed on the wall as of today. They include the names of the MIA's also. The emotions that welled up in us took us a little off-guard, and it was difficult to see through the tears. It was this war that so many of my classmates and friends fought in. Many did not return.

A man taking an etching of a name of a fallen soldier who most likely was someone close to his heart.

The Capitol

Holocaust Museum

(No photos allowed inside)

Women of the Civil War Memorial Bldg.

Department of Treasury

The White House

What a day! ~ Joy and Shirley

Fort Mercer

Yesterday Aunt Toots drove Anna Lyn and I (Shirley) a few miles down the road to Fort Mercer on the Delaware River at Red Bank. It was here that Colonel Christopher Greene and his troops held back the Hessians during the Revolutionary War.



This was the home of James and Ann Whitall that was commandeered for use as headquarters and hospital for the Fort that they built below the house.

It is worth double-clicking on the above photo to read the information regarding this house.

After using the large metal knocker on the door, we were greeted by these two dressed-in-custom men, who proceeded to give us a free personalized tour, as we were the only ones there.

Each room had a large fireplace..... the only means they had to warm the rooms. This one had pretty painted tiles, and was in the room that Ann would have used as her tea room for entertaining her lady friends, while spinning wool or flax for making clothes, or some other 'female chore'.

During the time it was used as a hospital to treat the war-wounded soldiers, here are some of the surgical instruments they had at their disposal. Pretty crude! Mostly, it sounds like they spent their efforts sawing off injured limbs and tossing them out the window, where the limbs laid around rotting in the yard. Blech! No anesthesia, either! Except whiskey and a piece of leather wound around a stick to bite down on.....

Tooth Extractor!

Cauldron used to boil up herbal remedies

Statue of Colonel Greene, who also lost his life in the war.

Type of canon they used against the onslaught of war ships entering the Delaware River. An underwater obstacle they employed, called chevaux-de-frise, was very successful in sinking ships also.Among the war ships they were able to sink, they counted the ship Augusta, a 64-gun ship on its maiden voyage. It had the most guns of any ship at this time!

The Ditch

These ditches were dug to keep the Hessians from entering from the rear of the fort. The apple trees were fallen and placed on the far side of the ditch with the upturned branches pointing toward the enemy. They would have to barge through the branches and across the ditches and bypass the canons in order to break into the fort. The fort itself, was destroyed after the war, when the Whitall's reclaimed their homestead. Ann Cooper Whitall never left her home during the occupation by the military. She assisted in the hospital there during that time.

This tree bark was interesting.... like camouflage!

Anna Lyn studying the Delaware River through binoculars.

Red Banks Island

Looking up the Delaware River from Red Banks

Looking downstream from Red Banks

There are, of course, many Forts from the Revolutionary War in this area! Kind of surreal for those of us from the West Coast!