Inside the Beltway
During the past few years there have been a number of articles in the paper and segments on the television news about how quickly the WWII generation is passing away. The people that Tom Brokaw called “The Greatest Generation”. Because of this, a number of groups have initiated Honor Flights; special tours for the remaining WWII veterans to fly to Washington, D.C. and view the monument that has been erected to commemorate their victory during that war. You see the images of the old fellows, a lot of them in wheelchairs, moving slowly around the memorial and commenting on various aspects of it, remembering old battles and old friends, remembering events of their younger days as if they were only yesterday.
Since my own father passed away long before this memorial was completed, I thought it might be fitting if I, as a sort of proxy or representative of my father, might visit there and do some remembering for him. And along with this more solemn aspect of the trip to Washington I was contemplating, I made up a list of things that might be a bit more fun and entertaining for my wife and son to do. When they had made their picks, we chose a date that we and our employers could all accommodate and got ready to go.
Early this past Saturday we piled into the Honda, my Honda actually as we all have one, and started down the highway with our nation’s capital as our goal. (Excuse my variable spelling of the word “capital”. I always goof that one up. Is it capital or capitol? Seems like I can never remember which one’s correct.) I was a bit apprehensive about this trip as I had broken out in a rash the night before and was concerned that I might be getting sick. Sometimes when I get a “bug” it manifests itself in this way – rash, fever, headache, malaise, etc. So I had my fingers crossed that I wouldn’t spoil our outing.
We munched McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches and sipped coffee and milk as the miles ticked off and we headed ever more south and east. The early morning fog was reticent to dissipate and we shared the morning with it for many, many miles until it grudgingly left our company somewhere around Morgantown, West Virginia.
We grabbed a geocache at a pretty little town called Pleasantville, Maryland that morning and that added one more state to our tally. Lunch was a busy Bob Evans in the Maryland mountains where we enjoyed the feeling of not having the road move beneath us for a while. Then back on the highway and finally arriving at our new abode in Alexandria, Virginia sometime in the mid-afternoon.
After checking in and depositing our bags in the motel room, we drove to a nearby station on the metropolitan Washington rapid, parked and jumped on the Metro to head into the city. I’d studied the Metro maps online during the previous weeks and was fairly well versed on where to go, so we were soon riding the escalator up into the daylight at the Smithsonian stop. We walked in a westerly direction along Independence Avenue and, after passing the Washington Monument, which was closed for inspection and repair after a small earthquake last year, arrived at the WWII Monument. I was immediately pleased by the design of the place.
It comprises a central pool with numerous water fountains shooting jets of water into the sky. Surrounding the pool are two curved walls in an elliptical pattern, north to south, with more fountains. Behind these walls was a rising walkway with a number of pillars, each of which denotes a state or U.S. territory that was involved in the war. At the apex of the rising walls was a taller pavilion. The one on the north was labeled Atlantic and the one directly across from it to the south was called Pacific. They denoted the theaters of war. Inside each of these pavilions and overhead was a Baldacchino sculpture of four cast bronze eagles, each with a ribbon in its beak and hanging from the four ribbons was a bronze laurel wreath denoting victory. Very, very imposing. Carved into the marble of the walls and fountains around the monument were various quotes by famous men pertaining to the war. There were also various battlefield place names carved into each of the smaller fountains, each placed near its appropriate theater pavilion.
Along the westernmost wall of the monument were placed 4,048 bronze stars, each of which denoted 100 American service personnel who perished or remained missing during the war.
This number of casualties is surpassed in American history only by the Civil War.
As I walked around the monument and read the inscriptions there I was taken by the thought, I wish my dad could have seen this. He would have been justly proud to see what the country he fought so hard for had erected in his honor.
He never talked much about the war to his sons, but I’m sure he’d have appreciated this gesture by his country to commemorate his and his brothers-in-arms efforts and final victory in that war. I was saddened that he could not see this, but I felt his spirit move alongside me as I walked this marble place, this place of majesty. I invited his spirit to view it with me and to take what pleasure it could in the sight. I made sure to gaze more particularly upon and to note the battles he was involved in – Tunisia and North Africa, Anzio, Rome and the Po Valley. Places he was intimately knowledgeable of. I was pleased those places where so much death had occurred were commemorated.
I was glad I was able to be a proxy for my dad by making this pilgrimage in his stead and to revisit and acknowledge, in my small way, the efforts he and his comrades had made so many years ago. The country did those men proud by this monument and I salute it.
As a side note, the monument did have it’s small token of humor. In the rear, carved into a small corner of the marble was a cartoon man’s face half hiding behind a wall and the slogan “Kilroy was here” was carved below it. It commemorated that drawing that seemed to always be drawn somewhere when our troops arrived at an area. “Kilroy” seemed to always be there first!
My wife’s feet were pretty sore by this time so she planted herself on a bench near the monument and did some people watching while my son and I walked down and viewed the Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial which was another quarter-mile or so to the southwest. It was another of Washington’s imposing monuments, carved out of white granite and depicting the Civil Right’s leader emerging from the rock. At thirty-feet tall it was very impressive and had drawn a good crowd that afternoon. My son and I read some of his quotes that were carved close by. Very interesting and inspirational.
We had intended to visit the FDR Memorial also, which was further around the tidal pool, but our feet were beginning to bark and we decided to return to the bench where my wife was ensconced and start the long hike back to the Metro station. We rode the train back to the car and then had a very nice supper at an interesting Mexican restaurant near the motel. It was a chicken AND Mexican restaurant. Had a spicy half-chicken with rice and beans for supper, extremely tasty and filling. Chicken was this place’s especiale and they were quite good at it! My son and wife’s meals were also quite good. We noticed a lot of Latinos in the restaurant with us and figured if they were eating there it HAD to be good! We later found out that a lot of the population of this area of Alexandria was apparently Latino, so the majority at the restaurant really didn’t reflect the quality. Most of our trip’s restaurant visits had LOTS of Latino customers. It WAS good, though!
As a side note, while we were waiting at the L’Enfant Metro Station in central Washingto to catch our train home we noticed a group of 20-30 young black men also waiting for a train. They were loud and boisterous and a bit intimidating to be honest. As we watched, three D.C. policemen walked by us and took up positions around the group. They were just watching, but seemed to be very attentive. As the group’s train arrived and they got onboard, the police entered their car with them just as the doors closed. They appeared VERY vigilant and we REALLY appreciated their presence.
I was so glad that we weren’t riding on THAT particular train!
Late that night after we were all in bed and asleep I woke up a bit as one of the numerous emergency sirens was sounding on a vehicle traveling down the street in front of the motel. While I was half awake I heard a helicopter clattering its way across the sky nearby and I thought is the president heading somewhere? Or returning?
Silly, I know. But… it could have been!
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On Sunday we were to tour one of the newer, highly rated museums in Washington, the Newseum. We arrived in the mid-morning and my wife and I took advantage of the museum’s September offer of a half-off entry fee for seniors. We’d picked up a 25% off coupon at the motel to use for all of us, but the half-off was even better! My son used the coupon.
The Newseum is an interactive museum of news and journalism on Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Washington close to the Capital building. It boasts of 15 theaters and 14 galleries and is a BIG place. It opened on this site in 2008 and is definitely well worth visiting. We saw the largest section of Berlin wall outside of Germany along with one of the infamous East Berlin’s wall watchtowers – the only one in the U. S. We saw the Unabomber’s cabin and the shoe-bomber’s shoes. We saw the crankshaft from the van used in the first World Trade Center bombing. The museum also has the antenna from the top of one of the destroyed World Trade Center towers and its gallery commemorates the September 11 attacks with hundreds of front pages from around the world. Another gallery commemorates Pulitzer Prize winning photographs and the stories around them – very impressive and quite moving. The Newseum’s mission is “to help the public and the news media understand one another better” and “to raise public awareness of the important role of a free press in a democratic society.”
We really enjoyed this visit and spent a full six hours there. The entry tickets were good for two days so it was obvious how much “stuff” was available for viewing inside.
We ate in the cafeteria at the museum and were pleasantly impressed by the selection and quality there – it was inspired by Wolfgang Puck. They had food choices that you NEVER see in this kind of place. Extremely nice.
We closed the place at 5 p.m. and soon were back in Alexandria for supper at Outback.
A couple thoughts at this point in our trip:
Washington D. C. is an architecturally beautiful city. I happen to enjoy marble and granite buildings and Washington has loads of them. Lots of columns and pillars and statuary – soldiers on horseback, statesmen, heroes and many, many fountains and memorials.
We saw a few street people in our walks, but not a whole bunch. What’s a big city without street people, eh?
I could feel the weight of history there, things that had happened on THAT street, in THAT building, down THAT avenue. So much of what you learned about American history either happened right there or is commemorated there. It’s ALL around you! I mean… we were walking on Pennsylvania Avenue, for goodness sakes! The President lives there! You just HAVE to feel a bit awed, doggone it! I just wish we had a few more weeks to visit and a new pair of legs to utilize the time. There is just SO MUCH STUFF TO SEE HERE!
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On Monday morning after a Denny’s breakfast (fast, friendly, fairly close and full of Latinos) it was back on the Metro and into town again. We jumped off at the Capital South stop and walked to the Library of Congress. It’s just across the way from the Capital building (work with me again with the spelling) and is uphill from the train stop. They don’t call it capital hill for nothing! Then there was another hundred or so steps to climb to get into the building. At least that was what it seemed like. It’s a beautiful building, all marble and granite (surprise) and it’s not as old as you might think. The Brits burned a lot of Washington in 1812, the existing Library at that time also, and it was rebuilt. That new one burnt also a short time later. This one, the Jefferson Building, was completed in 1897 and was built with STONE rather than wood. They had finally figured out the secret to keeping a building around for a while!
We took a tour of the building and our docent was a nice middle-aged lady who imparted a massive amount of information to us. She explained about the architecture and talked about all the history of the place. We were allowed to climb to a balcony overlooking the main reading room and view that amazingly beautiful sight! Then it was back down and over to the Jefferson library room. Thomas Jefferson provided much of the books in the original library. Some of those burnt in the two fires and he replaced some. Now, in the room named for him, those remaining books reside. They are arranged in a circle in humidity-controlled bookcases. There are three kinds of books in there: ones with blue ribbons which were the remainder of his original contributions, ones with white ribbons were ones which were from his library also, but purchased on the open market later on to replace burnt ones. The ones with the white spines are ones they know he owned and for which the library is looking for. They hope to one day rebuild all of his original library. Our docent also showed us an original hand-written Bible from the 1400’s and, across the room, one of the original Gutenberg Bibles. I hate to keep using the word impressive, but it was doggone impressive!
Then it was down the hill for a quick Metro ride and on to the International Spy Museum. This was my wife and son’s “must see” from the list I had made and I was glad they had. It’s a privately owned museum dedicated to the field of espionage and is located in the Penn Quarter of Washington. The museum contains over 600 artifacts in over 20,000 square feet of museum. The tour of the museum is unique insofar as you have to select from one of 16 cover identities for yourself upon entering the building and memorize facts about that person. You’re tested about your “cover” not long after continuing on in the museum. Sometimes the guides will even stop you and ask for your identity! It gives the tour the flavor of how spies actually feel. If you’ve ever been intrigued by the spy game, this is just the place for you. Very interesting and full of hands-on stuff pertaining to… well… spies, of course!
After a quickie late lunch at the museum café we rode the Metro to a stop near the Pentagon called Crystal City. Outside that stop there is a series of underground stores called, appropriately, The Crystal City Shops. Kind of an underground mall. We wandered around there for a while, grabbed a drink and some souvenirs of the trip before returning to our last Metro stop and our car. We gave our leftover Metro tickets to a lady waiting for a bus as they still had some value on them and we hated to just pitch them. She was quite grateful!
Supper that night was at Famous Dave’s Barbecue. Very tasty barbecue, beans, ribs, chops, etc. and we exhibited our customary polite meal behaviors. Not! We ate like the depicted hogs on the restaurant’s walls, sauce up to our elbows and dripping from our lips. Good eats!
Next morning early it was doughnuts and coffee/milk for the road and then join the crowds on the beltway on their morning commute. We were lucky insofar as we were outbound from Washington as opposed to the poor souls that were inbound. We watched thousands of approaching headlights for what seemed like 50 miles as we left town in the rain. Very, very glad I didn’t have to do that daily!
We drove through the rain, off-and-on, most of the way home as a final exclamation point to the vacation.
Washington, D. C. is as much a place of mind as a real place. It exists as an ideal as well as an actuality. I think that concept might have been on my mind a lot as I walked those wide avenues and tree-lined plazas – the idealized Washington world of television and movies and history books interleaving with the reality of east coast sunshine on Federal marble and street people sleeping in doorsteps.
It’s an interesting place. Visit someday if you can.
