Washington DC - Thursday

On Thursday, my conference organizers hosted an "end of the conference" evening of entertainment.  It sounds like we went to a circus or something, but really it was a tour - Monuments by Moonlight.  I was excited to see all the monuments but was kind of bummed for two main reasons - it would be dark so I wouldn't get many good pictures and because it was a bus tour, I knew we weren't going to stop at each monument which I really wanted to do. It ended up being a really good tour and I really enjoyed myself and everything I got to see.

I had to get one picture in of my hotel - The Hilton Mark Center.  I was somewhere in the middle on the 15th floor.

Side view of the Lincoln Memorial, which was the first monument we stopped at.  Before this, we had driven by the White House, the Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument, and the WWII Memorial. Doesn't the sky look creepy?!

Front view of the Lincoln Memorial (sorry for the not-so-good picture quality).

The names of the states are engraved on the top...if you can zoom in...Oregon was right out in front!

Mr. Honest Abe - larger than life.

Abe and me...the person taking the picture couldn't quite get him focused.  :o)

Something to meditate on while in his place.

The Korean War Memorial...the lifesize images of soldiers in formation was really something.

There was also a Nurse's Memorial for those who served in WWII (I think).  Someone put carnations in one of the fallen soldier's hand (the nurse was holding a fallen soldier).

This book lists all the names of those who died or are missing still from the Vietnam War. So many pages, multiple columns per page...

There are so many names on this wall...

...someone's brother, son, sister, husband, wife...it's just so sad.

A fuzzy picture of the Washington Monument from outside the Lincoln Memorial.  See the Capitol in the background?  It's all in a straight line - Capitol, Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.

We also saw the Marine Corp Monument (the statue of the men raising the flag at Iwo Jima).

AND.

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER.

I saw fireflies!!!!!!