Ann-Marie’s First (Freezing Cold) Tour of Washington D.C.
The night CPAC ended I had an opportunity to do a quick late night tour around D.C. I had never been to Washington before and neither had the young couple that braved the freezing cold to drive us around in the snow.
Despite having GPS, we got lost quite a bit…I think I heard the GPS voice saying “recalculating” a total of 40 times throughout the night.
But then, mostly by accident, we would find some amazing landmark—like the White House.
I can’t stress enough how utterly cold it was for me. I’m a Southern California girl and despite wearing a coat, gloves and even long johns, I was colder than I had ever been in my life.
Still, here I am at the gates of the White House.
The house is closer to the gates than it looks on TV and in pictures; I thought it would be farther from the general public. I personally wouldn’t want my house that close to the street, but that’s just me…
Our next stop (after being lost at least 30 minutes or more) was the beautiful, awe-inspiring Lincoln Memorial. By now the snow was blowing in big swirls, like the dust storms I used to see in West Texas as a little girl.
The steps going up to the Memorial are steep and made of gorgeous white marble—which means it was getting very slippery so please excuse the shaky camera work.
On my way back to the van, I saw a sight that would have sent chills up my spine if those chills weren’t already there.
You have to really look closely to see this at night because they are off in a grove of trees– but what I saw was a troop of life-sized soldiers, burdened with huge packs of equipment and with weary faces.
It was the Korean War Memorial and one of the highlights of my entire trip.
What moved me was the fact that the soldier’s faces looked so young—probably my son’s age, or the age my Navy CPO father had been when he was in the Korean War.
By the time we left it was past midnight so we didn’t get to see the Capitol or the Pentagon, but I’m already planning a trip back to DC as soon as possible. Despite the fact that there are definitely some very bad people occupying the White House, everyone should plan on visiting DC and the beautiful monuments which remind us why our country IS so much more exceptional than the rest of the world.
God bless America.
