The Mall

After the 2nd day of the Arts Integration Conference, we had tickets to the Lion King at the Kennedy Center.  No photos allowed, but it was a beautiful musical.  I liken it to War Horse in that all the characters were animals.  The "costumes" were more like props moved by the actors.  The movement was so lifelike that after a few moments you forgot about the people and saw them as animals.  Fascinating, really.

The final day of the conference was only a half day.  We were on the metro into DC by 1:00 PM planning on spending the rest of the day at the National Mall.  Unlike the previous two days, it was HOT and HUMID.  It made the sky beautiful for pictures, but I thought I was going to die of heat stroke.  

We got off at the Smithsonian stop which is located in the middle of the Mall and headed east towards the Capitol Building.  Unfortunately, they were doing some construction nearby and preparing for an event (4th of July?) on the grounds which interfered with my pictures.

Thankfully, all the Smithsonian museums are air conditioned and have free admission.  We made some quick stops inside the Air and Space Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the National Museum of American History.  One day isn't enough time to see one of the museums in DC let alone three, but the air conditioning and protection from the sun gave us a reprieve from the heat.

This year is the 200th anniversary of our national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner.  The American History museum had a really nice exhibit about it, and even had the 30x42 foot flag that inspired the song under glass.

We made our way, hopping in and out of cool museums, to the memorials' section on the west-end of the mall, arriving at the Washington Monument first.  With the overhead sun, the monument reflected a yellowy-white color.  It changed colors throughout the day depending on location and light.

I was last in DC in 2000.  A few new memorials have been constructed since then, including the World War II Memorial.

 And of course, the Vietnam Memorial is chilling.

 The Lincoln Memorial is the furthest west on the Mall and a nice, shady resting place after the walk.

 Plus, it has a very nice view of the Washington Monument.

 As the sun went behind the Memorial, the color of the WA Monument had a grey tone.

We also visited the Korean War Memorial, which I had not seen the last time I was in DC.  

 The statues of the soldiers and the faces engraved along its wall are ghostly.

The newest monument in DC is dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr.  It sits right along the Potomac and overlooks the Jefferson Memorial.

 I was taken by the size of it.  The granite pieces are enormous.

As we walked along the Potomac towards the Metro, the Washington Monument had changed colors again.

After all was said and done, we walked a little over 5 miles in gazillion degree heat that afternoon.  We had dinner at a wonderful farm-to-table restaurant (Birch and Barley) near the White House and returned to the hotel around 11PM.  It was a great day of sightseeing on my final day in Washington DC.  I returned home on a 9am flight the next day.