Monuments....

After Air & Space everyone was ready to call it a day for my sake but I could have none of that! The pain wasn't too bad, I had my tylenol with codeine if needed and riding in the wheelchair had saved a huge number of steps.

Initially, mom and I had agreed that we would do the "monuments walk" around the National Mall. This would get us near many of the monuments and let's face it: I wanted to see them all! But with the ankle messing up plans we compromised and set off to see a few of them. First up was the Lincoln Memorial. If I only got to see a limited number of monuments I wanted this one to be the first. We drove as close as we could get and Meredith and Meegan dropped us off and went to find parking. Jess, mom and I took some snaps out front before walking over to get a front-on view of Honest Abe.

We slowly made our way over to the front of the monument. From there you could turn around and get stunning view down the length of the National Mall, over the Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument, past the World War II Memorial all the way to the Capitol Building at the far end. I had to laugh when I was lining up photos because it looked like the Capitol Building was photobombing the Washington Monument. :)

Turning around to take in the Lincoln Memorial in all its glory immediately my heart sank. There were so many stairs! :( And of course I really wanted to go up! But Jess saved me from a minor meltdown when he deftly located the elevator. I mean, of course they have one, I just had never needed one before now. So we zipped up, stepped out of the elevator and around a corner. We had walked right out next to where he's sitting and the effect was nothing short of breathtaking. I stood for a long time taking it all in while balancing lightly on my sore ankle. Next, I perused the walls where two of his speeches had been engraved into the stone: The Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address. In a word: WOW. 

From there we walked down via the Vietnam War Memorial. I was instantly struck by a somber, sobering feeling as I looked at what seemed like an endless number of names inscribed in the stone. 

With one last stop still in me, our gracious drivers dropped us off at the World War II Memorial. The sun was sinking fast, with temperatures dipping to match. I hobbled along to take in both sides of the memorial. It was quite beautiful.

Tired and cold I had reached my limit for the day. All things considered I was very happy with everything we'd been able to accomplish despite my injurious setback. From there we headed back towards Silver Spring where we happily sat down to a Tex Mex dinner. (Not Chipotle!)