Today will be a walking day, and we are lucky to have the perfect weather for it. Our first stop was the White House. The excitement of being here in Washington, D.C., is palpable. As a child, I dreamed of one day visiting the nation’s capital, and here I am. You might have guessed my excitement level from the smile on my face.
The other side of the White House. Someday, we will have to go through the protocol to request a visit to this historic residence, someday.
We walked across the National Mall and made our first visit to the Lincoln Memorial, then walked out past the Vietnam and Korean War Veterans Memorials before heading to the Tidal Basin for this spectacular view of the Washington Monument.
I knew a man ever so briefly who cared for President Roosevelt and ensured his smoldering cigarette never caught the White House on fire when he was heading to bed. My great-uncle played a role in the lives of several presidents and always remained loyal to his oath of confidentiality throughout his life. This, though, was his favorite of all the men he served in his time of service to our country and the White House.
President Thomas Jefferson was and is one of my favorite presidents, not just for his eloquence in crafting documents that have held strong for a couple of hundred years but for his renaissance nature of being curious about many things, peoples, and cultures throughout his life. If only today we had statesmen who had the intelligence, foresight, and ambition this leader had. From draftsman of the Declaration of Independence, governor of Virginia, minister to France, to the man who set Lewis & Clark out on an expedition to the unexplored West, allowed for the Louisiana Purchase, and was the third U.S. president. We make a note to someday visit Monticello in Virginia.
The Jefferson Memorial on a beautiful fall day.
It was a circuitous route that brought us to the U.S. Capitol building. First, we walked by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing before rejoining the National Mall for an up-close look at the Washington Monument. Next up was the Air & Space Museum, where we took a photo of us standing in front of the Spirit of St. Louis with the plane perfectly in focus and us perfectly out of focus. Then we headed to the Capitol. Have you noticed what an incredibly beautiful day it is?
This felt like the perfect metaphor for how things get done here in the United States. The human skeleton represents one side of the population, and the obstinate goat is on the other side; neither side wants to do what the other wants, but somewhere in the middle, a compromise is made. This display was at the Natural History Museum, which is part of the Smithsonian. In our limited time at the museum, we were also able to take in some mummies, dinosaur bones, diverse rocks, and minerals, along with the Hope diamond.
From Benjamin Franklin, I learned what a polymath was, and from a young age, I knew I wanted to be just like him. His accomplishments are too broad for me to capture here; better if you just go read a Wikipedia article or a book about this great American.
The site of the demise of President Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president. Ford’s Theatre is a grim reminder that even great people can be vulnerable to the anger of the person who sees no other way to settle a grievance. We not only visited the inside of the theater, taking note of the Presidential Box where John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln, but we also went across the street to the Petersen House and saw the location where Lincoln passed after he was taken there.
After visiting the sad and tragic site where a beloved president was murdered, it was time to revisit the Lincoln Memorial to take a moment to think about the founding of the United States and the turmoil we have endured so we could be a leading example of what is to be a nation of laws and order.
This is the man I learned about, who was a self-taught lawyer, an autodidact who inspired me as a child that I could learn anything and become anything I set my sights on. Lincoln failed twice in business before turning 25 years old; he failed eight times running for public office. Yet he persevered and, with determination, became one of the most memorable presidents in the history of the United States. I had a lump in my throat standing before the statue of this great man, and I again have a lump in my throat as I write this.
Dinner, sadly, was not at the White House. We took the Metro to Foggy Bottom and walked the rest of the way to Georgetown for a meal at an Indian restaurant. We finished up the night with one last glance at the Washington Monument and then a slow walk past the White House, hoping for the odd chance we’d see President Clinton out smoking a cigar or something.
