For benefits of having actually come to D.C., I found it necessary to see something that is memorably and undeniably D.C., the monuments.
A large group of us set out from Chinatown and muddled our way around until we at least saw the tops of the monuments. We walked near the capitol and then turned around and began to walk back towards the Washington Monument. The National Mall (the area that stretches from the Lincoln Memorial to Capitol Hill) appears thumbsize on a map. On your feet, it feels like four hundred miles. At the Washington Monument we parted from our group, leaving only Leigh, Kera and I to traverse the remaining space to the Lincoln Memorial. The rain had finally stopped, but we all had enough water in our shoes to keep our feet well occupied. As we slugged along, many happy Washington D.C. joggers bounced along past us.
I remarked that unless the Vietnam Memorial was ten feet away from the Lincoln Memorial, I was not going. At the bottom of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, we asked an old man in a booth the whereabouts of the Vietnam Memorial. It turns out, in our favor, it was about ten feet away. So we got the pleasure of seeing the frighteningly large hands and feet of Abe Lincoln and the bronze sculptures and wall of the Vietnam Memorial.
Afterwards we began what we expected would be a short walk to the Metro. One of the joggers stopped as the three of us huddled over a Metro map and gave us directions. We were to pass the White House, go up a street, then...
A large group of us set out from Chinatown and muddled our way around until we at least saw the tops of the monuments. We walked near the capitol and then turned around and began to walk back towards the Washington Monument. The National Mall (the area that stretches from the Lincoln Memorial to Capitol Hill) appears thumbsize on a map. On your feet, it feels like four hundred miles. At the Washington Monument we parted from our group, leaving only Leigh, Kera and I to traverse the remaining space to the Lincoln Memorial. The rain had finally stopped, but we all had enough water in our shoes to keep our feet well occupied. As we slugged along, many happy Washington D.C. joggers bounced along past us.
I remarked that unless the Vietnam Memorial was ten feet away from the Lincoln Memorial, I was not going. At the bottom of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, we asked an old man in a booth the whereabouts of the Vietnam Memorial. It turns out, in our favor, it was about ten feet away. So we got the pleasure of seeing the frighteningly large hands and feet of Abe Lincoln and the bronze sculptures and wall of the Vietnam Memorial.
Afterwards we began what we expected would be a short walk to the Metro. One of the joggers stopped as the three of us huddled over a Metro map and gave us directions. We were to pass the White House, go up a street, then...
We could not find the White House. We walked in two wrong directions, came back to the start, found the White House. Near the White House we asked a security guard where the metro was. He said three blocks down, on the right. We all gurgled some raspy man groan of happiness (our feet were very cold and tired), and a cop on a bike laughed at us mockingly saying "Are we a little excited, girls?" We were.
That was until we walked three blocks, and there was no sign of a metro stop. We ducked into a set of huddled buildings and knocked on a glass door. The security guards at the front told us to turn right past a hotel (all within this complex of buildings) then left. Or something like that. Whatever it was, we ended up lost and on another street. We asked some kind musicians. We got lost. We asked some foreigners who grabbed a chef who finally offered valid directions (people in D.C. are not as willing to draw maps as the people in the South are). We found the metro and made it home.
--Andi
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