The Sculpture Garden, Vietnam War Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial

This last weekend we visited more DC sites. Andy had read that it was supposed to be very busy with lots of Spring Break-ers visiting...but we didn't know how busy! Wow! We wanted to visit the Museum of Natural History, so we headed there first. Almost wall to wall people. We walked through one corridor with the dinosaurs, then we left. I plan on taking the kids sometime this week. We thought we might try the National Archives. We waited several minutes to get in, but the line didn't even move, so we gave up on that one too! Andy mentionned seeing a memorial or two, and that worked out great, even though there were still lots of people around. It was kind of fun with so many people...it felt like we were in the city.

So, we visited the Museum of Art Sculpture Garden, which we skipped last weekend because of the rain. It was pretty cool. The family favorite was called "House" by Lichtenstein. As you walked past it and kept watching it, it kind of moved. We loved it. There were a couple of eery one's too...a large spider, and a group of girls with no heads. It was funny to try to think of what the artists were thinking or the message they wanted to portray.

Next, we visited the Vietnam War Memorial, or "the wall" and we listened to a park ranger talk about it. Lots of symbolism. The names of those soldiers who died are listed chronologically and begin in 1959 and end in 1975 at the apex of the memorial. The designer wanted the names of those who died first and last to be together. It also looks like someone took a big dagger and cut into the ground, which is symbolic of how the war tore the country apart. It was neat to see people taking pictures of names on the wall. The other cool thing was, I think Reagan said, that people will find the names of their loved ones in their reflections. The polished granite acts like a mirror. Anyways, it was neat.

We saw the Lincoln Memorial next. I've wanted to see this one since we arrived here. There were lots of people sitting all over the steps up to the memorial, looking out over the reflection pool. It was really pretty. Lincoln was huge! It was neat to read his words from the Gettysburg address. It really has been cool to think about the great men who led this great country in it's beginnings.