Washington Monument

After the Lincoln Memorial, I walked along the Reflecting Pool and up the hill to the Washington Monument. This first pic is from the end of the day.




Feeling the presence. I do this too, though I never quite feel it.

packing

I had a four day trip, Monday morning through Thursday evening. This was for work, but a couple of days walking in DC. I usually park my car at a lot near the airport, and get a shuttle over and back. On Thursday night the bus was full. There was a couple who had a lot of luggage. They had three large suitcases, two small ones, and two carry-ons. They were first off, so everyone was talking about them. Someone said something about maybe it being for a month, and someone else said, "they were on our flight on Monday!" Much laughter and even more disbelief. "Maybe they really like shopping?"

Mine was the next stop. I got up, and as I walked by everyone, I said, "this is my bag for the week!" I got laughter and applause.



You need to know, though, that this bag carried a large laptop (6 lbs) and its battery, my camera, and a pair of safety shoes (very large). I had four sets of socks and underwear (half of which was stuffed inside the shoes), two shirts and a couple of magazines. Toiletries were in the front pocket.

I'm not going to do this again, though. It worked well when I went to New York - same pack, more clothes but no shoes or computer. I could barely fit everything in and still close it. Even worse, not only the computer, but the shoes had to come out for Security, so I had to unpack the whole thing. On the way back I had some chain samples, so I had to wear the camera. But I had a car and wasn't in a hurry, so I could have checked a bag.

Vietnam Veterans' Memorial

After the Washington Monument, I went on up the Mall to the Smithsonian's National Gallery of Art. From there I went back west, but instead of retracing my steps past the Reflecting Pool, I looked at the map and saw a park a block up. It turned out to be a big grass field with trees around the side, so I just walked back along that road. It turns out that on the far side of that part was the White House, which I could have gotten a glimpse of, if I'd looked at the right moment.

I kept going, and arrived at the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial.



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