vacation Wednesday June 10th

I wanted to post a few more pictures from the botanical gardens…..the outside flowers were just as beautiful as the orchids:

 

Wednesday morning (6/11) we were up at 7 AM and walked to a local eatery for breakfast, then it was back to the room to pack up a bit of stuff to take on our tour. First we toured the Lincoln memorial.  I found this very moving…the design, the statue and the words in the memorial itself.  Behind the statue was inscribed

"IN THIS TEMPLE AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS ENSHRINED FOREVER." 

To the left of the statue was Lincoln’s Gettysburg address:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

And on the other wall was his 2nd inaugural address:

At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

 

I’ve included the words here for you to read and think about….this was WELL before the time of speechwriters coming up with clever phrases.  To me, these were the heartfelt utterances of solemn, humble, thinking man….who truly wanted the best for all.

We moved on to the Washington monument (and the reflecting pool),

the World War II memorial,

there were many quotes about the war, inscribed around
the inside of the memorial

Vietnam,

this was a wall that started out of the ground at about 6 inches and rose
up to over 6 feet....then turned a right angle and went back down into
the ground again to 6 inches....inscribed with the names of everyone lost in the
Vietnam conflict.

and Korea memorial:



My friend Jan said that she and her husband ended up
touring the Korean memorial at night and that it was
very spooky....after seeing it, I could understand why!

After touring all of the war memorials (and don’t we all wish we would never have to build another one?) we took the bus over to Arlington.  In the welcome center, they had a wax figure of a Marine….you would have SWORN he was real….many people commented on it…I’ve never seen anything like it. 

We continued on to Kennedy's grave (the grave contains Jack and Jackie, as well as their son Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (who died in 1963, two days after his premature birth) and their still born daughter Arabella. 

I looked at the date of Jackie’s death and just couldn’t believe it’s been 20 years since she died…..TOTALLY doesn’t seem that long….I know….I’m getting old  L. 

Then it was time to watch the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.  The Tomb Guards are there 24/7, every day of the year…the day we visited, the temperatures were in the 90’s.  I believe they stand guard for an hour at a time.

 

The Tomb Guard

1. Marches 21 steps south down the black mat laid across the Tomb.
2.Turns and faces east, toward the Tomb, for 21 seconds.
3.Turns and faces north, changes weapon to outside shoulder, and waits 21 seconds.
4.Marches 21 steps down the mat.
5.Turns and faces east for 21 seconds.
6.Turns and faces south, changes weapon to outside shoulder, and waits 21 seconds.
7.Repeats the routine until the soldier is relieved of duty at the Changing of the Guard.

 After each turn, the Guard executes a sharp "shoulder-arms" movement to place the weapon on the shoulder closest to the visitors to signify that the Guard stands between the Tomb and any possible threat.  Twenty-one was chosen because it symbolizes the highest military honor that can be bestowed—the 21-gun salute.  It was very moving.

We finally headed back to our trolley and got a little more history of DC on the way to our hotel.  We got back to our room at 4 PM and we were totally exhausted... we took a quick nap and then walked to dinner at TOMATE.  We ordered 3 meatballs stuffed with cheese, an appetizer of eggplant with red sauce, and fettucini with mushroom cream sauce and we split everything.  I didn’t bring enough library books to last me through the trip, so we walked to a couple of book stores after dinner and we both found a couple of new books we liked.  We walked back to the hotel and collapsed once again.  By the way….apparently if you move to Washington DC,  it is de rigueur to have a backpack….all of the natives seem to wear them…either that…or a “man bag”.  Wonder what they’ve got in them?  Also, are heels out of fashion?  Out of every 15 women, 14 would be wearing those ballet flats…and only 1 would have on some kind of heels….I’ll have to ask my fashionable friend Mary Jo about that!