Today promised to be a scorcher and also the last nice day for a while, so we checked our plans and decided to swap things around. Since we knew the tickets for the Washington Monument (http://www.nps.gov/wamo/) go quickly we decided to get on the road by 7:30 AM to be at the ticket window as early as possible. We checked our subway map and made our plans for transfers and headed out.We got to L' Enfant Plaza on the Green Line and transferred to the Orange line where we got out at the Smithsonian/Independence Ave stop. This left us about a quarter mile walk to the ticket office. We got there about 8:40 AM and got in line. When we got to the ticket window the next available time for going up in the Washington Monument was Noon. We took them!! But now we had three hours available. Again we reviewed our plans and decided that we should walk down to the Lincoln Memorial (http://www.nps.gov/linc/) which was only a mile away.
On the way we stopped at the National World War II Memorial (http://www.wwiimemorial.com/). This is the first national memorial dedicated to all who served during World War II, honors the 16 million who served in the armed forces of the U.S. during World War II, the more than 400,000 who died, and the millions who supported the war effort from home. This is a beautiful series of fountains with fifty stelli representing the fifty states surrounding the central pool and fountains. After leaving the memorial, we continued along the reflecting pool, past several families of ducks with mother ducks teaching their babies how to dive. Besides the ducks there were geese and squirrels out enjoying the nice day. 
Eventually though we moved away from the pool to the tree lined walkway to take advantage of the shade and continued on toward the Abraham Lincoln Memorial.Reaching the memorial we walked up the steps into the presence of the Abraham Lincoln statue. The interior walls are carved with the words to several of his most important speeches, but the statue is so imposing that it is hard to focus on anything else. There are large groups of tourists and students walking around making it difficult to hear ourselves think while trying to read so we decided to make our way over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (http://thewall-usa.com/).
We make our way down the steps and along the path past the statue of the "Three Servicemen" and "Vietnam Women's Memorial" and make our way past the memorial. There are lots of people there including school children on a field trip. From there we walked past the Constitution Gardens with its "Declaration of Independence Memorial" and over to the "Lock Keepers House" (http://www.thedctraveler.com/lock-keepers-house-on-constitution-ave/) on the corner of 17th Street and Constitution Avenue. Built in 1835 for the lock keeper and his family, this is the last remnant of the canal that ran for nearly the length of what is now Constitution Avenue.
At the corner we crossed Constitution Avenue towards the Second Division Memorial which is at the foot of the "Ellipse", the large park across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. We followed the main pathway around the perimeter of the Ellipse to the "Zero Milestone" where we were able to take photos of the White House (http://www.whitehouse.gov/). The White House is under serious security so this is as close as we could get without being able to take a tour. At the time we were there a large motorcade of limousines pulled up in the driveway. As soon as people started stepping out of the cars, security police came and dispersed the large crowd of tourists who had gathered to take pictures.
Leaving the White House we passed a statue of Sherman and also one of General Pershing, both in their own small parks. Walking down 15th Street past the Boy Scout Memorial which is still under construction, we passed another forgotten piece of Washington history, the "Bullfinch Gatehouse". A small stone building built about 1828 under direction of Charles Bulfinch, Architect of the Capitol, this gate house stood until 1874 with another guarding the west entrance to the Capitol Grounds. The two sandstone guardians silently watched over the U.S. Capitol grounds until 1874. In 1889, this gatehouse and its twin, located on Seventeenth Street and Constitution Avenue (at the southeast corner of The Ellipse), were reconstructed in their present locations.
We stopped across from the US Department of Commerce Building for a rest break and bought a large soft pretzel and bottle of water from one of the mobile street vendors. Sitting on one of the park benches we shared a mid morning snack. Once rested and refreshed, we slowly made our way over to the Flag Plaza surrounding the base of the Washington Monument. We asked a National Parks Department Ranger about when we would be able to go up in the monument and found out that they were running about an hour late. So we had some time to take several photos of the surrounding area.
Eventually we sat down on the waiting benches next to the 11:00 AM group. Lucky us... the ranger agreed to include us with that group so we were able to go up with only a short wait. They only let about twenty people at a time go up in the elevator, no one is allowed to walk up any more for health safety reasons. We got up to the observation tower and there were two double windows facing out at the North, East, South and West sides. The windows are heavily fogged so visibility is poor but Tina was able to get some great shots anyway. After our turn at the top we head down and after a brief discussion decide to call it a day. We walk back to the subway for the trip home. I calculate we covered about three and a half miles today. Tomorrow we are going to take a break. We have plans for one more day of sightseeing. Since the weather is expected to tun stormy tomorrow we will be taking it easy and getting ready to leave DC, starting to head up to the Detroit area to visit with my Aunt Kay and Cousin Drew's family. To see all of today's photos click on the following link:
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