Life of Lydia

Dear readers, in this post I will chronicle the second day of our D.C. trip.

One of the first things we learned about our hotel room was that the toilet wouldn’t flush anything other than liquid. Father had to ask for a plunger.

The first thing we did after breakfast was go to the University of Maryland campus to register for History Day. On our way we witnessed an awkward situation where a car got to close to a bus on a curve and the buss couldn’t turn.

At History Day, each student is given pins to represent their state. Trading pins with kids from other states is a very big deal. This photo shows me trading with some kids from Nebraska and Texas. Some people make it their goal to collect all fifty states, but I didn’t worry about this.

After registrating, we went to the Greenbelt Metro station to head into D.C.

Riding the Metro was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

In the suburbs, the stations and tracks are above ground, but in town, they are subterrain.

Our plan was to eat lunch at the American History museum, but father got confused and we accidentally went into the Natural History museum.

So, we ate lunch there. (Although in my humble opinion, it isn’t as good as the food at The American History museum)

There was a giant shark hanging over us while we ate.

We spent a brief time looking around before heading to the WWII memorial.

We walked past the Washington monument on our way to the WWII memorial.

I had found a couple articles the night before telling what all the plaques depicted. I really enjoyed looking at them all. I will link to the article HERE and HERE.

On each side of the memorial, there are two pillars, one for the Pacific theater and the other for the Atlantic. At the base of each pillar in listed major regions where fighting took place, and significant battles.

I think this monument is very well designed.

Each of the smaller pillars represents a state/territory that sent soldiers to the war (aka all of them).

Of course, I had to pose with the Truman quote.

Since we were there only a few days after the 80th anniversary of D-day, several countries had sent wreaths which were displayed. Most of them were formally German occupied. This kind of made me cry.

Especially the one from France.

Ike’s famous letter to his troops.

Each of the stars on this wall represents 100 US soldiers killed in the war. This left a deep impression on me both last year and this year. I really wish there was a way to list all the names, like at the Vietnam memorial, but I suppose there are just too many.

Right behind the wall with the stars, there is a large fountain. The signs permit visitors to dip their feet in, and plenty of people do. While I was standing looking at a physical representation of WWII’s high death toll, I could hear people of all ages splashing and having fun in the fountain. As I was taking all this in, a random guy asked me to move so he could get a picture.

As we were walking away, I told my father that I wished they wouldn’t have put a fountain to play in right there. I thought it made the atmosphere less solemn. He told me it was a paradox. We were seeing the results of freedom while remembering the men who made it possible. After pondering the matter, I think he’s right. I can’t help but wonder if the designers of the memorial did this on purpose. In any case, I now think it’s cool as it is a reminder of what the soldiers were dying for. This mixture of happy and sad did weird things to my brain, and definitely made me think about the sacrifice of US soldiers in a whole new way. (But just for the record, I still didn’t feel comfortable dipping my feet in the fountain even though it would have felt good.)

Meanwhile, at home, Luke and Mother made Chocolate chip cookies!

After eating supper in our hotel room we went to the NHD opening ceremony. One of the main things that happened was calling out each state, and people from that state cheering. I took a video of this which I will link to HERE.