Besides visiting museums, we also spent a lot of time in DC visiting monuments and national treasures. Everywhere you turn there’s something to see!
We headed over the Potomac River to the Arlington National Cemetery.
In specific older sections of the cemetery there are different styles of grave markers but in the newer sections they are all uniform.
The grounds are enormous (and we relied on the cemetery shuttle bus) so we only visited the most popular sights…
Of course the Kennedy Gravesites where President John F. Kennedy, his wife Jackie and two of their children are buried.
And the Tomb of the Unknowns where we also got to experience the Changing of the Guard.
Truly an amazing experience.
The one monument that was at the VERY top of my “to see” list was the Marine War Corps Memorial aka the Iwo Jima Memorial. I’ve seen it so many times on TV and in photos and it’s always taken my breath away.
It’s exactly the same in person. And SO much larger than I envisioned. We walked to it from the Cemetery and the approach is spectacular. I wish I had better pictures to share because it made my jaw drop. This is definitely a can’t miss memorial in my book.
Most of the other monuments are located in the city center and are easily accessible following a circular loop that’s roughly 3+ miles. One sunny afternoon we decided to walk all the monuments (it’s a looooong walk and I got sunburned!) and then on our last night we visited the same monuments again but via bike! Pics here are a combination of both days.
Here’s Rob before we set out on our bike ride. Hehe. We did the Monuments at Night tour with Bike and Roll. It was fantastic.
Our first sighting of the Washington Monument! Taken from the National Mall.
At the start of our monument walk/bike tour.
And at night! Stunning.
We went around the Tidal Basin to reach the Jefferson Memorial.
Great place to sit and reflect.
The memorial’s location on the far side of the Tidal Basin makes it that much more spectacular to visit.
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial consists of four outdoor rooms — one each for his four terms of office.
With his dog Fala!
A bread line — a commonplace scene from the Great Depression.
The entire memorial is expansive which makes for a great experience strolling through each room and taking in all the details.
The newest addition to the monuments is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, which opened to the public last August.
Visitors pass through the “mountain of despair” to get to…
The centerpiece of the memorial, which is a huge relief of King named the “stone of hope.” Incredible.
From there, the next stop on the loop is the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
After Iwo Jima, this is another memorial that touched me. There’s something about the life-size statues of the soldiers with the fear evident in their faces that’s really haunting.
The iconic Lincoln Memorial.
Look at us in our super fashion forward neon vests. LOL.
Sadly, the reflecting pool between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument is under construction. Not such a pretty view!
The final stop on the memorial loop is the World War II Memorial.
Lovely during the day but…
Even more so at night. Seriously, when visiting DC, if there’s time, I highly recommend visiting the monuments at different points in the day — once in daylight and another time after dusk. The light really sets a different mood when it’s dark.
And of course we had to check out various other VERY IMPORTANT sights like…
The White House! It is SO much smaller than I remembered. I contacted my local Congressional representative in hopes that we could get booked on a tour but we were too late. I tried about 8 weeks out but during peak season, they recommend getting the ball rolling 3-6 months ahead of time.
Supreme Court. Sadly it seems to get overlooked — there was barely anyone around when we walked by. I guess it doesn’t help that the Supreme Court building is on the east side of the Capitol building — away from all the sights along the National Mall.
The Capitol building is beautiful. It just commands your attention. I was able to secure a tour here but it was scheduled during a time when both Rob and I were super tired, I was starting to feel sick, and the heat was getting to us. So we bailed on it.
We did manage to make it to our Library of Congress tour.
The Jefferson building is phenomenal. I mean, look at the lobby! And we got to see the Main Reading Room and their Bible collection (no pics allowed, though). But our docent was SO DRY. Ugh, she practically put me to sleep.
And so ends our time in DC. It was AMAZING. We spent 3.5 days (4 nights) and as per usual, we definitely could have used more time. Next time I’d like to visit Georgetown and the National Cathedral and also hit some of the other Smithsonian museums we missed like the National Portrait Gallery. Until then, DC.
Up next: My final NY/DC entry – the FOOD!
Great post! Makes me feel patriotic looking at it. 🙂