Washington, DC, part 4
Monuments, memorials, buildings, and statues
I did not go to any of the museums while we were in DC. There were a couple that I was interested in seeing, but I did not plan well and tickets were sold out by the time I looked into them. Instead I did a lot of walking - two days’ and one night’s worth of walking through all of the different areas.
The campground we stayed at offered a few different tour options into DC, one of them being a night tour. Tracy and I both thought this sounded interesting! Not knowing exactly which things we would see on the tour, I also had planned to spend two days walking around looking at everything and I’m so glad I did. A few of the monuments really stand out at night, while others, I felt, were better in the daylight. The biggest downside I noticed about the night time tour was that while most of the monuments were lit up, the pathways and stairs were not well lit.
We saw -
The Washington Monument
World War II Memorial
It has a tower for the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and all the US states and territories that fought in WW2.
Vietnam Memorial
Here I found the name of Tracy’s uncle who died in Vietnam in 1968. This was one of the memorials that looked really cool at night, but it was very hard to read the names at night.
Lincoln Memorial
I think this was one of the few that was more popular at night time!
Korean War Memorial
This one captivated me during the daytime. At night time it had a very haunting look to it. The walls of names for the soldiers that died was recently finished.
Martin Luther King Jr Memorial
This was another one where I felt that the night time lights really added to the memorial. However, the quotes that were etched into the walls around the memorial were not well lit and were very difficult to read.
The FDR Memorial
This is the only memorial/monument that also features a First Lady. This was another one that had several quotes, but they weren’t well lit and were difficult to read after the sun went down.
Thomas Jefferson Memorial
This one was undergoing exterior renovations while we were here.
Both times I was here, the area was full of baby geese and ducks swimming in the Tidal Basin.
Click here for the continuation of monuments, memorials, and other buildings in DC.
The rest of the DC series -