WASHINGTON D.C.- The Mall

Ok, so this picture has a funny story behind it. This was our first morning in Washington D.C. I was so excited to get out and see things that I could hardly contain myself. We came out from the basement of the city-- the met-- and this is what I saw: The Washington monument! We were so close! It was beautiful! I said to Brett, "Hurry, get the camera out, let's take a picture!" He totally started laughing and said, "Honey, you want a picture right here, when half of it's covered with buildings when in a few minutes were going to be right up next to it?!" I thought he had a point but I still had him take a picture of me!




The National Mall
This was absolutely incredible. For those of you who don't know, the National Mall is not some huge shopping mall in Washington D.C. Although, that would have been fun. The "mall" is an open area national park that is over 300 hundred acres full of memorials. Words cannot describe the feelings of awe, reverence and gratitude you feel as you walk this land and visit these monuments. Going to the mall was actually one of my favorite things in D.C. I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone visiting the D.C. area. When we first got there we had no idea where to start or what to do. We knew that we were hungry, so we decided to get a little snack first. We were waiting in line, just talking about how we had no idea where to go first, and then I noticed some nice looking women behind us. Since not very many people in D.C. look nice or even make eye-contact with you, they smiled, so I decided to start talking to them. Come to find out, they were Julie and Natalie, from PA. They were visiting for the afternoon and Julie knew the area like the back of her hand. She was so nice to give us a few recommendations and then just flat-out asked us if we'd like to walk around the park with her. Of course we agreed. This was the best decision we had made yet. Julie knew a lot about the monuments, a lot of the symbolism, a lot of the meaning behind the monuments; things that we never would have known. We had a great time talking with them and Natalie is a marathoner! So she gave me a lot of great tips on running a marathon. Anyway, we had a grand time visiting with them and hearing all the great insights Julie had. Thanks for a great afternoon, gals! I am kicking myself now that we didn't get a picture of us with them. They were so great! Thanks for being so nice to strangers from Utah! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

As you can see, Brett was right! Here we are, right at the base of the monument. The Washington monument cornerstone was laid in 1848 and the capstone was laid in 1884. It took almost 40 years to build, as long as the Salt Lake Temple. The monument is 555 feet tall and has an aluminum cap on the top. At the time, aluminum was as valuable as silver. On the top is the inscription, "Laus Deo" which means, "Praise be to God." An interesting story about the monument: For ten hours in December 1982, the Washington Monument was "held hostage" by a nuclear arms protester, claiming to have explosives in a van he drove up to the monument's base. Eight tourists trapped in the monument at the time the standoff began were set free, and the incident ended with U.S. Park Police opening fire on the man and killing him. The monument was undamaged in the incident, and it was discovered later that Mayer did not have explosives. Crazy, huh? We discovered there are lots of crazy protesters in Washington as you'll see by our pictures later.


View of the monument from the Lincoln Memorial.

View of the monument from the Capital Building

This is the Korean War Memorial. An interesting fact about the Korean War: It lasted only 3 years, but over 58,000 US Soldiers died. That is about the same number that died in the Vietnam war which lasted for almost 20 years. Isn't that sad? My Grandpa Harmon served in the military during the Korean War. Luckily he was stationed here in the States, but this monument had special meaning to me since he aided in this effort.


I really liked this monument. It has a total of 19 statues of service men that are all different ethnicity. This is meant to symbolize that people of all races served in this effort made by America to help Korea. The statues are over 7 feet tall. A reflecting wall is south of the soldiers and actual pictures of real vets are etched into this wall. As you look at their faces, you see your faces reflection. You realize that in their sacrifice to help keep the world safe, America is safe and we can live and enjoy freedom because of them.





This is a really tiny picture of the World War II Memorial. It is a beautiful circular memorial with a big water reflecting pool in the middle. The pillars you see represent all 50 states. The wreaths on the pillars alternate between an oak wreath and a barley wreath symbolizing power and strength and stability.

My Grandpa Bell fought in WW II. He flew B-25's. I don't know much about his experience because he doesn't like to talk about it very much, understandably. Maybe someday he'll tell us some of his stories.

Here we are with one of the sweetest men I've ever met. He is a WW II vet and he was just hanging out at the memorial waiting to tell his story. It was so sweet and I couldn't believe he would stand out here for hours at a time just talking to people. His name Nick and was and he was 94 years old. He was a radio engineer-- equivalent to an IT/Computer guy in our day and age. And boy, was he sharp! He told us story after story of him fixing things and of others seeking him out because they had heard of his knack for being able to get things to work that no one else could fix. And, he was always trying to teach those he helped. He actually reminded me of my Grandpa Harmon: very kind, funny and humble. He has still been using his talents and created part of the motor that made the vehicle that landed on Mars, go. We stood and talked with him for about 45 minutes and then we had to go. I said, "Boy, you sure are smart." And he said, "Well, I'd have to agree with you. The evidence is overwhelming." It was hilarious.


Brett and I ashore the Tidal Basin with Jefferson Memorial in the background.