Washington, DC (USA)

[Aunt Judy and Uncle Jim arrived yesterday - after some strategizing with them about the places they wanted to see in the DC area during their visit (May 23 to 28), I had agreed to depart for the City at 0730 today - Mollie joined us and Uncle Jim drove us along the Potomac River on the George Washington Parkway (for scenery), starting near Huntington Avenue - we crossed at the Memorial Bridge and made our way to the edge of the Tidal Basin and located a parking spot on the northeast corner - we parked and walked towards the Potomac River, stopping at monuments along the way - we discovered that today was the 10th anniversary of the opening of the World War II Memorial we got to watch the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines practicing for the event and saw a lot of older veterans who had come for the event - we didn't wait for it to start - instead, we continued walking to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - the Rolling Thunder motorcycle event (scheduled for Sunday) had already attracted a large crowd of people who wanted to pay their respects - Aunt Judy loves to talk to the people she meets, so Mollie and I got to hear several interesting stories from the War (and lives lived after the return from combat) - we saw a large contingent of people carrying South Vietnam flags - our next stop was the Lincoln Memorial - the crowds weren't bad and we were able to get some great pictures - this was the turn-back point of our walk (and I was getting worried that it might have been too far to go) - however, our next few stops (Korean War Memorial, MLK Memorial and Franklin Roosevelts Memorial) were possible because we slowed down the pace and enjoyed the beautiful weather - Uncle Jim took a ton of photos and Mollie helped out as a tour guide - when we reached our car again, the parking lot was packed (the whole city was, actually) - so we drove over to the parking lot behind my office to park - after a short walk, we discovered that one of the local restaurants where I usually eat lunch (Pizza Authentica) was open and so we sat and enjoyed the nice meal (with lots of great conversation) - we then walked down to the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian - we started on a tour of the building (interesting) but the walking tour finally took its toll on Uncle Jim - so we made our way back to the car and headed home - we planned for another day of touring before bed]