Washington DC

The weather forecast was for a beautiful day so we decided to go in to DC today after all.  Sunday morning is very quiet in the capitol city.  And they don't enforce the parking meters on Sundays.  So we had no problem getting to the capitol and parking along the street.  Oh my gosh, we were a bit overwhelmed by it all.  There is so much to see here we could spend a week here and not see it all.  Our plan today was just to walk around and see what we could see and then possibly return tomorrow and take a tour or go inside some of the buildings. 

The first thing we saw was the Capitol Building.  No tours on Sunday.  Tickets are required and can be obtained by contacting your member of Congress.  There is a visitor center, but that was closed on Sunday too.  We'll have to come back.



The Capitol Building



Next to the capitol building is the U. S. Botanic Gardens.  They are currently having a special display of buildings of the National Mall and Capitol Hill created by landscape architect Paul Busse.  The architectural details on the buildings are created with dried plant materials.



Capitol Building in Plant Material



Next to that building is the Hirshhorn Museum of modern and contemporary art.  We chose not to go in as there is so much more we want to see today.

Hirshhorn Museum

There are SEVENTEEN Smithsonian museums in the Washington DC area.  The Castle has a visitor orientation theater and information about all the other museums.

Smithsonian, The Castle

Eventually we made it to the Washington Monument.  It's still closed to the public because of the damage it received from the 5.6 earthquake back in August.  Too bad, I would have loved to look out from the top.

Washington Monument

World War II Memorial

And then the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial



Out of the Mountain of Despair A Stone of Hope



Korean War Memorial



Abraham Lincoln Memorial

View from Lincoln Memorial overlooking the Reflecting Pool
that is being reconstructed.

Ooh, there is so much more, I just can't put it all in today's blog.  I took 100 pictures today.  And we still did not see the White House!  Hopefully, Tomorrow.