Our Nation's Most Sacred Shrine

We went to Arlington National Cemetery on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. There were a lot of people, but there was also a lot of ground to cover.



It is hard to imagine that each of these headstones represents a fallen hero or a family member.



I was fortunate enough to catch a Tomb of the Unknowns changing of the guard. Here is the sentinel by himself, right before the change. Continuous patrolling since the 1930s has caused discoloration on the ground where they walk.



This is in the middle of the guard change. It is a very elaborate ceremony. The guard asks that everyone stand up and remain standing during the ceremony. They say so at the beginning. So imagine this woman's embarassment when they stopped the ceremony to call her out for sitting back down!

The face of the Tomb has lettering, carved into White Yule marble entirely from Colorado. The inscription is almost impossible to see in this photo. It says

HERE RESTS IN
HONORED GLORY
AN AMERICAN
SOLDIER
KNOWN BUT TO GOD

Check out the FAQ page at the Society of the Honor Guard website. It answers many questions about the Tomb guard and the rituals. There have only been three female sentinels, because they have to be between 5'11" and 6'4". Wow!



Here is the Memorial Amphitheater. My Dad is in the picture... see if you can spot where.



Audie Murphy, the American legend, is so famous that his grave is on the map as a point of interest.



Here are the Space Shuttle disaster memorials.



This is the memorial for the rescue attempt to save the Iranian hostages. I did a paper on the attempt for a military history class. Those poor people were doomed from the beginning, thanks to a few crucial mistakes.



Theodore Roosevelt commanded the Rough Riders in the Cuba campaign. In case you hadn't guessed it... Theodore Roosevelt is my favorite president!



The brightness makes it hard to see, but this is Robert F. Kennedy's grave. It is on a small hill all by itself. I wonder if they will bury Ted next to him.



Here are the graves of President Kennedy and Jackie O, in front of the eternal flame. They also had a couple of infants who died, and are buried with them. Another thing I did not know!



Last but not least... the view from the Kennedys' gravesite. It is quite lovely.

Museum of American History

After a long renovation, the Museum of American History is finally open again! That was at the top of my list for museums to visit.



Everyone loves Dumbo! Elephants are one of my favorites, too. Of course there was no way to sit on him, but that's probably a good thing.



Here are Grandmaster Flash's turntable and Fab Five Freddy's boombox. These are symbolic of the birth of hip-hop. Grandmaster Flash is credited as the first person to use a turntable as a musical instrument. I didn't know that he was from Barbados.



This character needs no introduction! I think we all wish that we had a door so readily available to slam when we don't want to be around other people anymore!



A smorgasbord of presidential street signs. I would have liked for them to specify which Roosevelt was being honored...



...because I know which one I would prefer! Theodore Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents. It has become fashionable to call him a socialist. I don't think much of those comments.



The Declaration of Independence. The real one at the National Archives is a bit more faded, but this one is easier to read!



Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. It would seem appropriate that I post this! This is a huge reproduction of the front page of the Stars and Stripes, the newspaper serving the armed forces, on the "unofficial" V-E Day.



An old Army Jeep... hanging from the ceiling!



Here is a Huey helicopter. It was impossible to get the rotors; they hung out over the other exhibits by quite a bit. This is a representation of the soldiers in Vietnam.



This is twisted metal from the 70th floor of the World Trade Center. I'm not sure which tower. Needless to say, this entire exhibit was fascinating in a somber sort of way.



Our nation's highest military honor. It had its own small exhibit. In the Pentagon, they have a whole corridor devoted to Douglas MacArthur, who was part of the only father/son team to win the Medal of Honor. They have the actual medal on display.

The Lincoln Memorial & Vietnam Wall

It's time to play catch-up from the last few weeks. Here are a few scenes from the class trip to the Lincoln Memorial.



Could there be a more iconic pose of Lincoln than this?



Here is the Gettysburg Address. It is easy to appreciate how short it was when you see how easily it fits on this wall in giant letters.



On the facing wall, there is the Second Inaugural Speech from 1865.



I also got to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, only steps away from the Lincoln Memorial. I suppose I was paying a visit to Maj Robert M. Gilchrist, who is on my POW/MIA bracelet. It has been almost 43 years since he was shot down over North Vietnam. I hope wherever he is, he is resting in peace.

The People's Government

We got to go on a trip to the U.S. Capitol last Friday. We left bright and early on Friday morning and arrived at the Capitol by 8:15 am. The day was cloudless and a bit breezy.



Here is the view from the west side. The sun had not yet risen above the line of the Capitol.



On the east side, I got another photo of the dome in the morning sunlight, and then zeroed in on the House of Representatives. I love this architecture.



Here is a bigger picture of the Capitol. There weren't too many people there because of the early hour.



Here is the Capitol dome from underneath. This painting, if you look closely, is starring George Washington. It is depicting the ascension of George Washington into Heaven. Washington really is a legendary figure in our history. He is shown with the purple blanket on his lap, on the left side of the inner ring of figures.

I also learned that the Capitol dome is made of cast iron and weighs nine million pounds. That is 9,000,000 pounds. That is 4,500 tons. I was pretty speechless by this incredible figure. I guess you have to fireproof it somehow!



I like Ike.



Two of my favorite Founding Fathers, Ethan Allen and Samuel Adams. Adams must be spinning in his grave right now given the state of affairs. But I digress.



Here is a giant bust of Lincoln. It was taller than I am. According to the tour guide, this was Lincoln's son's favorite sculpture of his father, because he said that it captured Lincoln's character the best. Take a look... what is he missing?



Last but not least... the view from the southeast corner of the Capitol facing toward the Washington Monument. I thought that this really great view was totally unexpected.

A Walk Around Campus

Most of you reading this know that I am at Georgetown University for a month-long class sponsored by my agency. We got a chance to walk around the campus during the day earlier this week. I hope to get some more pictures over the next three weeks, but here are three to start.



My distinct lack of botanical knowledge makes me, regrettably, unable to tell you what this tree is. But I thought it was pretty.



This is White-Gravenor Hall. The admissions office, Dean's office and registrar are in there. Here is what the campus visitor's brochure has to say about White-Gravenor.

The White-Gravenor building takes its name from Andrew White, S.J., and John Gravenor, S.J., two of the first Jesuits to come to Maryland in 1634. Completed in 1933, the building houses the Office of the Registrar in the basement and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and the Dean's Office for Georgetown College on the first floor. The Department of Psychology, chemistry labs and classrooms are located on the second, third and fourth floors.

This is the front of Healy Hall. It is a big, Gothic-looking building that can be seen from a fair distance. At night, it has a red light on top so nothing flies into it. The cross is from Georgetown's Jesuit heritage. It's kind of like the House of the Twenty Gables. You can see the head of the statue of Archbishop Carroll in the lower right area of the picture.

Here's what the visitor's brochure has to say about Healy Hall.

With its distinctive spires towering above the Washington, DC, skyline, Healy Hall is an impressive example of 19th century architecture. At its hightst point, the building rises more than 300 feet over the Potomac River.

The Hall's construction in 1877 carried symbolic meaning and educational purpose--signaling to the nation that Georgetown was no longer the small, rural academy founded more than 100 years earlier by Archbishop John Carroll. Healy Hall is named for Georgetown's "Second Founder" and the first African-American president of a major university, Patrick F. Healy, S.J., president of the University from 1873 to 1882. The building was completed in 1879 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Considered the centerpiece of Georgetown's campus, Healy Hall houses classrooms and academic and administrative offices including the Office of the President, the Office of Student Financial Services, Campus Ministry and the Office of Mission and Ministry.

Gaston Hall, located on the third floor of Healy Hall, is an ornately adorned lecture hall that is a popular venue for heads of state and other distinguished speakers, concerts and awards ceremonies. Riggs Library, locagted in th south tower of Healy Hall, is one of the last cast-iron libraries in the United States. Riggs Library and its various annexes and reading rooms served as the main campus library until 1970, when Launinger Library was completed. In front of Healy Hall, facing the Main Campus gates, is a statue of Georgetown's founder, Archbishop Carroll. The cannons in front of the building are relics of the two ships, the Ark and the Dove, which brought the first Maryland colonists and Jesuits to America in 1634.

Sweater for Baby Dawson

My colleague Maj Dawson and his wife Krista are having another baby. I had another excuse for a baby item! I got the duckie buttons at the yarn and fabric store in Breckenridge. I had had the happy face buttons, but the duckie buttons were just so great. I had a blast making this. This is so far my favorite baby garment to make.

My First Blue Run

On March 8, I skied my first blue run, Clear Cut. It was very short and connected two ends of a longer green run. Here's me getting started. I was very excited, of course, because I did a blue run without blowing out my knee... YAY! And there were no moguls.



Here's Jeff in front of the village, about halfway down Carefree. Bonus: I had to ride up a new lift, American Flyer, to get to the mid-mountain greens. We started with Coppertone and transitioned to Carefree all the way down to Center Village, which is behind Jeff. I put this in because there are entirely too few pictures of Jeff on here.