Well Hello President Lincoln... and Roosevelt... and Jefferson

After the complete fiasco that was my journey from LA to DC, I was left with only minimal sightseeing time. I had made plans to meet my friend Sara for lunch. I hadn't seen her in eight or nine years so it was a priority for me. That meant I needed to be a power tourist Sunday morning.

I got up early and headed for the nearest metro station. I headed for the National Mall to make the most of my time. It was a beautiful morning - not a cloud in the sky. It was a little bit cold for me. [I'll admit that I have become a complete wimp after almost four years in Southern California. We're kind of spoiled... okay, not "kind of," we're spoiled.]

Lincoln Memorial

I was at the National Mall before 9am and I went from memorial to memorial. For those of you who haven't visited, these are all located in a relatively small area. You can easily walk from one to the next, but by the end, you've covered a lot of ground.

Washington Monument as seen from the Lincoln Memorial

The Whitehouse as seen from Washington Monument

This is zoomed in dramatically and is also the closest I got to the Whitehouse. There was so much that I wanted to see. I had planned on checking out several museums, the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights at the National Archives... All that time I spent working out how to fit it all in, my charts and spreadsheets, and I wound up having to wing it. I will definitely have to go back. I didn't get to see it all, but I absolutely fell in love with Washington DC.

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial was my favorite. It gave me chills - and it wasn't due to the cold either. The memorial blocks the wind. There are many, many quotes on the walls of the memorial, but the above quote was by far my favorite. For those of you who don't want to squint to make it out, it reads, "In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice... the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man."