Day 31: College Park, MD (cont.)

Still in College Park, MD

Today was our first day to visit Washington, DC.  We got an early start and took the Metro to the Federal Triangle station.  As was the case with every station that we exited today, we had no idea of our orientation when we exited.  The Federal Triangle station is surrounded by an office complex and we made several missteps before we spotted the Washington Monument (obviously still under repair from the earthquake a couple of years ago):

Our immediate goal was the White House.  Along the way, we passed the World War I memorial (the rear of the Old Executive Office Building is in the background).

Here's the front of the Old Executive Office Building:

Funny thing, then we were taking pictures of the Old Executive Office Building, we thought that it was Blair House (where the Vice President lives).  Here's Blair House (Pennsylvania Avenue is closed between it and the White House so a pick-up street hockey game was in progress):

Statue of the Marquis de Lafayette in Lafayette Park:

The White House across the gardens:

The West Wing (from Pennsylvania Ave.):

Kristen in front of the White House:

The White House (from Pennsylvania Ave.):

We walked back toward the Washington Monument and turned toward the Lincoln Memorial.  The first thing that we came to was the World War II monument (which is still under construction):

The Pacific side:

The Atlantic side:

Continuing on, we saw the Lincoln Memorial in the distance:

Up close, we could see old Abe in the shadows:

 Kristen insisted on taking one to prove that I'm really along on this trip:

Abe up close:

Abe's view of the Washington Monument and reflecting pool:

It was getting close to lunchtime by then and we hadn't seen anything but hot dog stands.  We stopped at a National Park Service information booth and asked where we might find someplace where we could sit down and order a meal.  The man told us that there was nothing close by and that we'd need to go into town.  We asked "Where's town?  We came up out of a subway and we were here!".  After further discussion, we learned that our best chance of finding a restaurant was to return to Federal Triangle.  We set out to retrace our steps but, before we did, we visited the Korean War Veterans Memorial,

 and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

 

 

After the long hike back to Federal Triangle and a good lunch, we took the Metro one stop so that we were closer to the Jefferson Memorial (we still had a walk but not as far as it would have been from Federal Triangle).  Here's the Jefferson Memorial.

We walked back to the Metro station and caught the train to Arlington Cemetery.

Here's the entrance with Robert E. Lee's home in the background: 

JFK and Jackie's graves with the eternal flame:

JFK's stone:

Jackie's stone:

Part of the memorial:

Robert E. Lee's home from the JFK site:

We feel like we walked 10 or 15 miles today (I've worked out the milage.  It was 8 miles, but it was HOT!  OK?).  We'll have a lot more walking tomorrow so we're resting our feet for now.

-J-