Around Town

With rare 60F degree weather, I decided that today was the day to get out of the house and explore Washington DC. This mean that I was finally able to go see two of the DC attractions I have been trying to see for some time now.

First up was the Pentagon Memorial. The memorial commemorates the lives of the people lost during the events of September 11th. Each person lost has their own engraved bench arrange in rows by the year they were born. It's a pretty barren memorial during winter, with the cold air and the barren tress.


The most surprising part of the memorial was seeing that a person who was only three year's old was lost that day. The most calming was listening to the sound of the water running under each of the benches. The benches are oriented so that to read the names of those lost within the Pentagon, you are facing the pentagon wall, and to read the names of those lost on the airplane that crashed into the Pentagon, you are facing away from the Pentagon into the sky. All in all it was a pretty touching memorial. I look forward to returning in the spring to remember.




Next up was the Old Post Office Tower.


I had read that the view from the tower is just as impressive as that from the Washington Monument, but without the lines. After waiting to go through security at the door I entered the atrium, which looked a little too familiar. I have a feeling we might have come to this tower during my 8th grade trip to Washington DC. Regardless, I headed up the elevator to the top of the tower. It was magnificent.
You could see everything, all the Presidential Memorials, the National Cathedral, Congress, etc. It was beautiful.




And on the way down I had a chance to see behind the face of the clock and the bells of Congress that were given to America by the English. In fact the bells were created in the same place that made the bells for Westminster Abbey. It was pretty cool.