One Year Ago
Jun 6th, 2009 by Lyn Hanush
GAP WALK JOURNALS - IV
Friday June 6, 2008 Day 92 3.0 miles
Total North Carolina miles - 133.2 Walking Days - 42
Washington D.C. miles - 3.0
Accumulative miles 608.2
A full and busy day, but very good. I was overtired last night when I went to bed, so I had a hard time going to sleep. Then I slept until 7 am - almost unheard of for me. Of course, it was 2 am at least before I went to sleep.
We finally had our breakfast, and then prepared to go to Washington. With lunches packed, bottles of water handed out, walking shoes on, we were now ready to head to the car. With five of us we rode in the car with Lois (she has Alyce-Kay’s car, Ferdinand). Lois is a very good driver - although she did get a speeding ticket the other day on her way back here (told with her permission).
Our metro routine is down pretty good now. We know where to park, how to get our tickets from the vending machine (it’s easier than the vending machines for CalTrain in the San Jose/San Francisco area), and where to wait for the orange line into the city.
Getting off at the Rosslyn station we transferred to the blue line and got off at the Arlington Cemetery station. Once out of the station we stopped for a time of prayer, then we began walking toward the Arlington Memorial Bridge which crosses over the Potomac River. However, it was now time for lunch and we spotted a nice bench in the shade, so we sat and ate. Then we walked across the bridge into Washington - this actually is counting as part of my walk into and through Washington D.C.
The first place we visited was the Lincoln Memorial where we took lots of pictures, and looked around for quite awhile. The kids each chose souvenirs from the Memorial store to remind them of this experience. We then prayed on the Memorial steps, then continued to the Viet Nam Memorial.
At this next Memorial we had the name of a friend of Jesse, my son-in-law, who had been killed in this war. After locating it, Kitty did a rubbing of it (she had brought tracing paper and pencils especially for that purpose), and we took pictures as well. This Memorial was very crowded. I prayed as we walked alongside the wall of names.
Our next stop - cold drinks and ice cream at a stand along the path to the next Memorial. We sat on benches while we enjoyed the cool refreshment on this very hot, humid day, and watched ducks and geese swimming in one of the many ponds. There were many young ducks and geese with their parents swimming in very yucky water, diving for treats, and scurrying about.
Next stop - the beautiful World War II Memorial. This is a huge pond with a fountain at each end, and surrounded by pillars and wreaths for each state and territory of the U.S. We spent quite a bit of time here taking pictures and praying silently (it was difficult to get us all together here).
It was getting late and we were all tired, so we headed for the closest metro station at the Smithsonian Museum. Then from the metro station at the other end we enjoyed the car ride back to the hotel with Lois driving. We stopped at Trader Joes for a few things (this is the first one I’ve seen since leaving the west coast) then on to the hotel. As we rode along we talked about the different things we saw today. I think we all liked the World War II Memorial a lot - that’s a must for all who come to Washington D C.
Back in our hotel I worked on my journal some while Lois and Kitty fixed dinner. Then while we ate we watched “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” I don’t think any of us stayed awake for the whole thing, but we all saw enough of it to get the idea of the story.
The one thing I saw in this story that excited me was when Jeff Smith first arrived in Washington as a newly appointed senator he was so taken with the sights and history of the city that he completely forgot why he was there, and went out on a tour. Oh that our men and women serving our nation in this city now would have that awe that Jeff Smith felt. If all who come here had the deep respect for our nation’s history that Mr. Smith had, what a difference that would make.
With the movie over we quickly headed to bed.
