Welcome Anyway: Freedom is not free

As you know, last weekend was Memorial Day. My friend Amanda was going to Washington D.C. for a friend’s wedding, so I went along as the travel buddy (she really just wanted someone to take pictures of her ☺).

On Friday, May 22nd, we drove to the Antietam National Battlefield and Cemetery in Sharpsburg, MD. This visit, which included a movie describing the events surrounding battle, cemented Abraham Lincoln as my favorite U.S. president. It was quite sobering to think of how many Americans died in that battle – fighting other Americans.

Antietam National Cemetery

After Antietam, Amanda made a quick stop at the wedding (and I mean like 5-minutes quick), and then we were off to Mount Vernon. We had opted to get a GPS for the weekend since we were going to be driving quite a bit, and for the most part, it was great. However, after Amanda’s five minutes at the wedding, we seriously spent another 30 minutes in the parking lot of the hotel trying to get the GPS to find Mount Vernon as a Point of Interest. I finally ended up calling Mount Vernon. They had to give me their latitude/longitude coordinates. After all of that, the GPS did get us there in pretty good time, even with traffic.

On Saturday, we went to The National Mall. We started at the Washington Monument, walked to the National WWII Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, then around the Tidal Pool to the Jefferson Memorial.

National WWII Memorial

There were hundreds of bikers at the Memorials doing a Run for the Wall. This is one of my favorite pictures. I was crying at the drop of a hat all day (started at the WWII Memorial), and this was quite moving.

Korean War Veterans Memorial

After the monuments and memorials, we met another friend/co-worker (Allison) at the Smithsonian (she was in town for work). It was awesome to be back in an air-conditioned building after walking outside for hours – I think Allison’s comment when she saw me was “Katie looks dead.” I LOVED the Lincoln exhibition most of all. However, I was quite annoyed with this one family in particular whose children (we’re not talking young children here, but children old enough to know better) showed no respect for the exhibits (hanging ALL over them) nor for the other patrons who wanted to see the exhibits.

Lincoln's top hat he wore to Ford's theater the night he was assassinated

Sunday was another hot and muggy day. Amanda and I met Allison at Arlington National Cemetery where we took the tour-mobile around the cemetery. We were all dripping with sweat just standing in line for the freakin’ tour-mobile. After seeing the changing of the guard (an amazing honor, but how do those guys not sweat?), we decided this was all we could handle, so after lunch at an Asian restaurant near Allison’s hotel, Amanda and I headed back to Gaithersburg.

Since our flight home on Monday wasn’t until 5:00 p.m., we decided we had time to drive to Gettysburg. As we walked in Gettysburg National Cemetery, I realized how much I want to meet Abraham Lincoln! What an inspired man! It was a great way to spend Memorial Day – remembering all of those people who have sacrificed so much so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have today.