Washington DC

I have had an awesome time in Washington DC this weekend. One of the great things about this trip is that I had the pleasure of having a local as a tour guide on the National Mall. We went “monument walking” after sundown Saturday night and I was very impressed and awe struck with the monuments, architecture and lighting.

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Being an Illinois native, of course I had to see the Lincoln Memorial. This was truly an awe inspiring experience at night. The dramatic lighting on the stone carvings and engravings made this a memorable and emotional experience that I would not have been able to witness in the daytime.

Once again, knowing a local that is “In the know” paid off. I would have never seen the “I have a dream” engraving marking the location from where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered that famous speech.

I would have to say my favorite war memorial was the Korean War memorial. Seeing the statues featuring all branches of the military at night was haunting to say the least. Add to this the ghostly images engraved into the granite wall, this memorial is a must-see at night. Again, you will not get the effect of the dramatic lighting against the sculptures at night. The granite walls along the memorial also have photograph transfers embedded in the stone. So the images are somewhat translucent, further adding to the haunting effect of the memorial, which I’m sure was designed to represent the haunting memories of war.

The WW I monument is completely forgotten. It’s not very well kept up and it’s pretty obscured on the National Mall. Much like the war itself I guess. I had to ask my tour guide “Why were we in WW I again?” I remember the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinan but not WHY we were in the conflict. Do you recall? Anyway, it’s a shame that this monument is forgotten. At night, it’s hard to get a decent photo of this memorial but I got a cool shot of the ceiling of the monument. (It’s the offset, circular patterned shot above).

The WW II monument is one of the newest on the National Mall. It’s a very large display with columns surrounding a water feature. Each of the columns represents a US state and/or territory. I grabbed a quick shot of the Illinois column that you can see in the photo gallery above.

I’ll end this with a photo of the Albert Einstein monument. How cool is that? What I LOVE about this one is that you can go up and touch Einstein. I love art that can be touched and experienced. You can even stand directly in front of the statue and speak and there is a strange reverberation of your voice. Einstein would LOVE this memorial.

Speaking of Einstein (he fled Germany in 1933 after the rise of the Nazis), while I don’t have any photos of it, the Holocaust Museum at the Smithsonian Institute was of course a very intense thing to see. Every JR High or High School student in the country should see and learn the lessons taught from this, lest we let history repeat itself…