Washington, DC: June 4

Tuesday was a beautiful day--and it was the day we had chosen to do the hop-on/hop-off  bus tour, with an add-on of Monuments at Moonlight.

We picked up the bus at the Washington Hilton, where we were reminded that it was the place Ronald Reagan had been shot.

We didn't "hop off" at any of the first 12 stops, as they were places we had already been. But we saw some nice things along the way. As I posted this, I just noticed the California street sign. If you haven't been to DC, the city is laid out with numbered streets running north-south, streets with alphabet letters running east-west, and streets named after the states running diagonally. My brother lives in a triangle bordered by S Street NW, 21st Street, and Connecticut Avenue.

Peace Monument.

I never ever got tired of seeing the Capitol.

Our main goal for the day was Arlington National Cemetery.

Our first stop was the visitors center.

Next we took the shuttle to the eternal flame (which doesn't photograph well at all in the middle of the day) at the grave of John F. Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy.

It's hard to capture the huge number of graves at Arlington.

Next was the opportunity to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. What a moving and reverent ceremony it is.

Such precision. The guards move in absolute unison even when they are facing away from each other.

This building is immediately behind where the ceremony takes place.

We got back on the bus to take us to the Lincoln Memorial.

Even though by now we were used to seeing monuments and buildings on a massive scale, I think Mark and I were both in awe at the size of the Lincoln Memorial.

We walked the short distance to the Vietnam Memorial. It's very difficult to get a good picture of the memorial because its immense size.

Very heart wrenching to see the number of names engraved there, as well as one from Mark's home town, Roger Fast, four rows up from the bottom.

We only saw the Jefferson Memorial from a distance.

A little piece of trivia we picked up along the way. Marvel Comics tried to sue the Harrington Hotel for copyright infringement as their logo is so similar to the Batman logo. However, the Harrington has had this logo for 100 years, which makes it older than Batman, so Marvel lost their case.

After dinner at Union Station, we got on the bus for Monuments by Moonlight. It was still early so there was not much moonlight yet.

 The United States Botanic Garden.

 The National Mall.

Next was the Martin Luther King Memorial--again, not prepared for its massive size.

 You can see the Jefferson Memorial in the distance. The sun was hitting it at that point, and it was so pretty.

The sky was gorgeous as we got to the Marine Corps War Memorial, which is located in Arlington.

We again made our way back to the Lincoln Memorial.

The reflecting pool had been drained, but there was enough water to get my favorite reflection photo.

From this vantage point we turned around to the look at the Lincoln Memorial again, and it almost seemed to be floating.

We walked over to the Vietnam Memorial again.

Then we returned to the bus, where we were dropped off at Union Station. It was about 10 p.m., the crowds were gone, and it was so peaceful. The perfect ending to a wonderful day.