Mine eyes have seen the glory of this city.....

I don't even know where to begin with the descriptions of this day.

I visited this city when I was 17 years old, and don't remember it being anything like what I saw today.  My favorite high school teacher brought a small group of us here in 1978 and all I remember was the 6 locks on our hotel door, sirens screaming all through the night and the busy Pennsylvania Avenue where the White House sat off the sidewalk.  I remember thinking to myself when I first saw the White House back then, "Wow, it's in the middle of downtown, like the courthouse in downtown Shreveport."  At 17, I was disillusioned, and was very disappointed - or maybe I just don't have such a great memory of that trip. I'm not sure any 17 year old can really fully understand what is here

I have wanted to revisit DC for many years. Both of my children were able to visit here during their high school years, and I was very happy about that, but I really always wanted to come back as a more "mature" US citizen.  I felt like I might be able to appreciate it more as an adult....and today really proved that theory true.  I really hoped that Kip would be able to come with us on this trip - I feel like this city would be one that would really appeal to his love of history - there is so much to see and do and take in - he promised he'd come before Emily leaves NYC.

We left the hotel this morning, on foot patrol, to see and take in the west side of the city -  We decided since we'd only be here a few days that it would be important to divide the city in half so that we could take in as much as we could in a short time.  We strolled through the beautiful Georgetown, Foggy Bottom area where we are staying and took in, again, all of the beautiful flowers and quaint side streets on our way to the more popular sights.  I think one thing that totally intrigues me about this city is how "quiet" it is - The cars even seem quiet - there is little noise anywhere which makes it very pleasant to walk around.  The city has an abundance of tree-lined sidewalks and other walking paths, even though the "layout" of the street system is quite confusing.  In contrast, NYC is laid out on a perfect grid system, which makes it very easy to find your way around.  There are numerous "circles" within the city and the main thoroughfares kinda go "through" the circle - so I did find it somewhat difficult to figure out the street system.....but we did and we walked and covered the entire west side sights today.

The government buildings are just huge - I can't hardly describe how enormous they are and how beautiful the architecture is....if you can image our state capitol building times a thousand - that's how grand and big and interesting so many of these buildings are.  Most are built out of beautiful granite, and I even noticed today that some of the street curbs are made from granite.  Some of these buildings take up an entire, large city block...Big government, I guess, needs big buildings - it is just mind boggling to think of all the "work" of the government when you see this city.

We headed out of Georgetown with our camera in hand, a diet coke, some cigs and a plan...we passed the State Department where we hoped to get a glimpse of Hillary, cause her office is in that building, but  we understand that she had a meeting today with the President, and so she didn't have time to wave at us from her window...we had a tour scheduled at the State Department today, but decided not to take up time doing that, so we skipped it and moved on towards Constitution Avenue so that we could see everything along that beautiful stretch of road - so much to see:  The Federal Reserve Buildings were beautiful and had the most gorgeous fountains nearby, we saw the Department of the Interior Buildings, and headed toward the Washington Monument.  It is a beautiful, simple sight, surrounded by waving American flags.  The granite is actually two different tones of white - which occurred due to a halt in the construction of the monument caused by lack of funding and the beginning of the Civil War. I didn't notice it until Em pointed it out - but it is such a beautiful sight.  We left the Washington Monument and went to the South lawn of the White House - what a beautiful sight to see - I had never seen the South side of the WH, so I just couldn't take my eyes off of it - it is just beautiful.  The public, of course, is not allowed very close to it, but the view from this side was just breathtaking to me.  We left that side of the WH and went and had lunch at the Occidental Grill and Seafood Restaurant next to the WH - a very old and famous place to eat in the city that has hosted hundreds of "statesmen" as they call them.  The walls are lined with photographs of all the famous people, both celebrities and political figures, including Presidents who have eaten there - it was, the best hamburger I've ever eaten, and as you all know, I've eaten alot of hamburgers in my day.  Delicious food and an interesting place.  We asked the waiter if they wanted our autograph pic for the walls, he said no.  He obviously didn't know it was us.
I took a pile of Occidental napkins out of the ladies' restroom.  They are really thick and made for great sweat rags today - you know me, always hot.  Emily said I could go to jail.  I said it was important for me to wipe my sweaty brow from time to time, and that I would risk it - after all they are just fancy paper napkin/towels things.  I didn't go to jail, but I did keep the sweat off my face all day. I still have some for tomorrow - yes, I took more than my fair share - common in this city.  Bwahahahaa.

We headed up to the south side of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to see the other side of the "People's House." On the way, we passed The Department of the Treasury and it was another outstanding building as well.  It is in close proximity to the south side of the White House, which is was under heavy guard, of course, and had changed so much since my visit in high school.  It is fenced in and of course, they didn't know we were coming, so we couldn't go in to use the bathroom, so we just took pics and watched the few protestors that were around - one of them protesting whatever in going on in the Congo of Africa, and another poor, old, sun-wrinkled woman protesting our relationship with Israel.  You gotta love America - you can stand in front of the WH and protest.  I love this place.  I draped my American flag across my bod and took a picture right next to the protestors.  God Bless America.

Next to the WH are the Executive Offices of the WH staff and many other people.  This marvel was under exterior renovation, and I just couldn't take my eyes off the expansiveness of this building.  A secret service hottie told us that the inside is not near as beautiful as the outside.  It was completely covered in scaffolding, but it was breathtakingly beautiful.

We headed down towards the Potomac and the Tidal Basin area and walked into the National Headquarters of the American Red Cross, where we convinced the woman at the front desk to let us use the bathroom there or there would be a National Crisis.  Em was doing the pee pee dance all the way up the granite stairs, so we were grateful that she let us in.  The American Red Cross is known for doing nice things for America, and they certainly did a nice thing for Em today.

We crossed Constitution Avenue again and headed to the WWII memorial which was just beautiful, then we walked along the reflecting pool towards the Lincoln Monument which was just fabulous.  Abe was the man in his day, and they have built a really great stone/granite/marble monster to remember him by.  It was something to see - we left there and went to the Vietnam Memorial Wall.  I met a wonderful, sweet, precious man in Minden not long ago - Mr. Garcia, and learned that he had lost his son in the Vietnam War.  I found his son's name on the wall and did a pencil rub for Mr. Garcia that I will take to him when I get home.  The park rangers will look up the names of the fallen soldier for you, give you the wall number and line number which makes it so much easier to find.  I hope that he already has seen the wall himself, but in case he hadn't, maybe this pencil rub will mean something to him.

We left the Vietnam Memorial and went over to see the Korean War Memorial which was very beautiful, then on to the FDR memorial (my favorite) and then walked to the Jefferson Memorial, which was just unreal.   The marble columns were massive.  We then took a cab to Arlington Cemetary and I'm gonna let Em describe that hilarious cab ride......oh my...

We ate at Dupont Circle tonight and it was another great meal.  And I am pooped and my fingers hurt from typing and Em just threatened that no one would read this anymore because I'm making it a novel, so I have to shut up.  But there was soooo much seen today - and tomorrow we'll do the East Side of the city - which includes the US Capitol, US Supreme Court and many other wonders in this beautiful city.  I'm proud to be an American, big government or not.

G'nite!  By the way, our pictures will be on FB cause I haven't figured out how to post them here, yet.

Hugs to all.