Capitol Hill

Sen. Durbin's office also got us onto the Congressional Tour later the same day. Two interns showed us around the House and the Senate, gave us passes to see the legislators in session during the late-day hours. Their assistance was much appreciated.

The White House

Thanks to Sarah Ryan, in the office of U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, we were on the list to visit the White House and were pleased to be in line by just after 7:00 AM. No purses, no cameras, cell phones allowed if turned off. So there are no photos inside the famed home of the Presidents, but I did manage a couple of BlackBerry shots which I was able to tweak into decent images. We emerged from the White House to the north portico (more squared in appearance) and took shots from there. Earlier in the week, we collected photos of the south portico (more rounded in appearance) while visiting the Mall.

US Botanic Garden

My interest in gardening and landscaping pushed me to visit the national Botanic Garden. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this longtime favorite is in the next block to the Capitol.

An outdoor garden fronts a large indoor conservatory. Truly a sight to warm the heart of a gardener.

American History

A stop at the Smithsonian's American History Museum is always a must, although a photo blog will not have an image of the Star-Spangled Banner, kept in a controlled-light display that is designed to preserve it for future generations. But we did see the ruby slippers of Oz, Julia Child's kitchen, Archie Bunker's chair, and these two quite different images.

My favorite George Washington statue, depicting him quite incongruously in toga, was formerly in a lower level of the Capitol. Here it is a hallway feature, quite near the dress Carol Burnett wore in a spoof of Gone With the Wind. Turning the drapery of Tara into a dress to impress was funny enough, but including the curtain rod was comic genius. When Burnett referred to it as "something I saw in a window," that might have been the heartiest laugh I ever enjoyed in front of the television.

World War II Memorial

Another memorial that was not here 22 years ago for our previous visit was one we certainly looked forward to. The World War II Memorial is in the middle of the Mall, directly west of the Washington Monument. A previous post showed the Memorial from the observation window atop the Washington Monument.

My father was in the Navy during WWII and my father-in-law, who passed away before I had the pleasure of meeting him, was in the Army. Both served in the Pacific Theater and neither one came home to talk much about the experience. They both were proud to serve and then anxious to begin their lives as husbands and parents. The Memorial brought a wonderful feeling to my heart. I always enjoy thinking about my dad, who passed away too early over 19 years ago. But here, for the first time, I felt my dad and my father-in-law have this powerful connection. I thought deeply that afternoon about Robert Faust and Ralph Beato, strangers in life and together as veterans, parents, grandfathers and great-grandfathers. That was all very much alive for me at the World War II Memorial.

Thanks so much for your service, dad and dad. We love you and honor you and will make certain that your great-grandchildren know what you did for us and for them.

That afternoon, I called my mother, just to visit. Since I was not able to call Robert and Ralph.

Korean War Memorial

Leaving the Vietnam Memorial we walked back across Lincoln's eyesight and turned east along the Reflecting Pool to see the Korean War Memorial. A powerful collection of soldiers trekking up a gentle hill alongside a black wall that has pictures rather than names of those who fought in the first of the undeclared wars that now seem to be the norm. An artwork that gains power from the fact that the viewer sees himself alongside or trailing the soldiers, thus more involved than he might otherwise be.

The looks on the faces of the soldiers made me nickname them the 'Ghost Soldiers,' looking as if they were trying to figure out how in the world they wound up in Washington.

Remembering Vietnam

In the previous post we saw the view from the Lincoln Memorial. If he could look out and crane his neck to the left he would see the Vietnam War Memorial, which includes a wall etched with the names of nearly 60,000 Americans dead in the conflict. Here we see the statue that is part of the Memorial with three soldiers appearing to come out of the trees on their way back to base. The accompanying statue is a bit further east and depicts the contribution of nurses to the effort.

I found it difficult to visit this site in 2010. Not nearly as many people are leaving flowers or pictures along the wall; I saw no one taking a rubbing of a name of one of the soldiers. It was far more active two decades ago. But the major portion of the feeling was the existence of the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, causing me to wonder if we as a country have learned anything in the past fifty years.