We took an unexpected couple of days off in Leesburg after our last camping adventure, as Jim had come down with a cold and was feeling pretty under the weather. Rather than try to do things all day and then sleep in the van, we knew the best way to deal with his illness was to spend lots of time sleeping. We found a lovely little hotel, the Colonial Inn right in the middle of downtown Leesburg and settled in. Jim slept and I kept myself busy by getting a much overdo haircut and working on blog posts – how exciting! However, the rest did him a world of good, so we cancelled our plans to cycle more of the C&O and headed to Washington.

We had scouted out a Walmart in Fairfax, Virginia, which would put us close enough to get into the city but far enough away to not have to deal with city traffic. However, the first day in, we did drive all the way in and spent a glorious, beautiful sunny afternoon wandering the grounds of Arlington Cemetery. It doesn’t seem like a really cheery thing to do, and in fact, much of it was somber, but the day was perfect and we had the energy to walk, so walk we did.

Arlington is huge, 624 acres to be exact, and is full of history. It originally belonged to the wife of General Robert E Lee, but when the South seceded from the Union, the North confiscated the property when the taxes weren’t paid. Of course, this is a very oversimplified explanation, but basically what happened. The plantation was used not only as a headquarters for the army defending the Union, but a portion was set aside as a cemetery where Union soldiers were buried. Years later, a descendant of Robert E Lee sued the government for wrongfully taking his land and won the case before the Supreme Court. However, he then sold it back to the government for a price that was more in line with its worth at the time. I suppose going back and living at what was now a very large place of burial was not terribly appealing. The history, of course, if much more detailed than this, and really very interesting, so I encourage you to check it out!

We spent our time at Arlington taking in the many historical burials and memorials. It was overwhelming to see the rows and rows of soldiers who have died in battles over time and made us think about what a waste war is. There are times, of course, when there is no other way, but honestly, when will it ever end?

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Leaving at the end of our day there, we headed out to find our Walmart which would be our home for the time we were in this area. It was pretty quiet at night, even though they are open 24 hours a day – nice for us! We purchased some sandwiches to pack with us for the next day and settled in for a good night’s rest. In the morning, we drove to a park and ride (free on weekends – yay!) and took the Metro to downtown where we got off at the Mall. It was another wonderfully warm fall day and so our plan was to wander the length of the Mall, all 2.3 miles of it. Our first stop was up to the Capital Dome where we took all of the usual tourist pics.

On our way back down, we walked over to Pennsylvania Avenue so that we could swing by the Canadian Embassy. Even though they were closed, we still found outside, those iconic red chairs with a great view! In addition, we found a wonderful Bill Reid sculpture, the sister of which is in the airport in Vancouver. Bill Reid was a wonderfully talented Haida artist who really brought this beautiful art form to the public eye.

After our Canadian touch, it was back into DC as we wandered down Pennsylvania Ave, knowing that the White House would be along here. However, before we got there, we ended up being detoured back towards the Mall. It turned out that the day we picked to do our walk was the annual White House garden tour!!! Of course, there were scads of people lined up for a tour of the grounds and after one look, we declined. We did manage to find our way around to where we could get a view of this famous residence.

That done, we continued down the Mall to view the Washington Monument before winding our way down along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, stopping to see the World War II memorial and then making our way up the steps to see the truly inspiring statue of Lincoln. It is really something else to finally be in the place and see these things with our own eyes – things we have seen forever, on screen and in print, but seeing it in person was just truly amazing.

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Once done, we walked down and over to the Vietnam Memorial Wall and this, again, was a somber and serious time. There was a group of Veterans touring the sites this day and so many of the folks looking for names were people who had fought with these men. At one point, one of the people who work at the monument had a ladder out and was doing a rubbing for a woman standing there. As he gave it to her, I don’t know how she kept the tears at bay. The sheer number of names inscribed on this wall (57,939) was overwhelming for me an by the end, I just needed to walk away and not talk for a bit. Truly truly so sad. What a powerful memorial.

We had one more place on our list to visit, and after a brief stop at the Korean War memorial, we crossed the road to get to the Martin Luther King Jr memorial. This was another beautiful and powerful memorial and one that we just could not miss.

By this time, we had walked about 5 miles, though and were pretty much done in. We slowly made our way back to our Metro stop and then drove the short way towards the Walmart, stopping for dinner at a sports bar so we could catch a little football. Too bad my team decided to loose!!! Oh well. You can’t have everything, right?

The next day rain was in the forecast and boy oh boy, were they right about that! It poured all day! We decided that rather than go back downtown in the rain, we would spend the day getting things done and so found a lovely YMCA for a great shower, then a laundry mat in an area frequented by immigrants from Central America where we heard Spanish again, making us dream of Mexico and Cuba. A darling little girl, waiting for her mama to finish the laundry, boldly came up to us to play, and Jim, being the big kid that he is, gladly went along. I wish I’d grabbed my phone and taken a pic – they were just too cute together! Laundry done, we found a local library to while away the rest of the afternoon before again stopping for a beer and dinner at the same sports bar where my other team also lost!!! Okay, no more of that for me!!!

For our last day in DC, we again parked at the park and ride and got day passes for the Metro as we had a long list of places we wanted to get to and did not want to walk that distance if we didn’t have to. Our first stop was at the Supreme Court. We were able to walk inside the first floor, which was pretty cool, and then out and down the grand staircase outside.

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From there, we headed over to the Congressional offices. I really wanted to leave a sticky note for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I love her energy and how passionate she is about fighting for the rights of her constituents. It was interesting to walk through the halls, seeing all of the names outside, and then arrive at the colourful wall outside her office – she certainly has brought something new to Washington!

The other office we wanted to visit was that of Representative Elijah Cummings, who had passed away just a few days before. We wanted to pay our respects as he was someone we had heard and read about and knew him to be an honourable and outstanding representative for the people of Maryland. It was a sad and powerful moment to stand there and remember this man.

As we left the Congressional offices, we headed down towards the Mall in search of a coffee break before tackling museums. Our original intention was to go to the Newseum, which will be closing soon, but the price was just too dear for us and so we regretfully passed on that experience. After a refreshing coffee, we did manage to get into one of the many Smithsonian museums – the American History one. We were pretty impressed that all of these museums are free, and that there are so many of them! We saw A LOT there and could have spend several more hours (and days) looking at things, but we had one more stop to make on this day and so, regretfully, we left and headed for the Metro.

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Our last DC stop was near our first DC stop. We hopped off at the Arlington Cemetery stop and walked around the outside of the now closed cemetery to where the Iwo Jima Memorial is. When we arrived, there was a group of Marines finishing a ceremony and so we got to watch this. There was, again, a group of veterans there, which of course, made it all the more poignant for me. My dad was a Marine, and I couldn’t help but wonder if any of those older men had fought where he did. However, I didn’t want to interrupt their visit and so contented myself with watching and waiting for Jim to capture the perfect shot of this iconic memorial. There are so many inspiring memorials in DC and many of them have to do with war and one the one hand, I do find them inspiring, but on the other is always the thought of how many young lives have been lost over the years to settling disputes with guns. I wish that humans were better than that and have to find hope that we will find a way.

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With rain in the forecast for the next day, we headed back to spend our last night in DC. It was a really interesting time – inspiring in many ways, and we look forward to coming back again in the future – so much more to see!