Our Yankee Vacation: Part 2

On March 5 we flew from Detroit to Baltimore, MD to visit Jeremy's sister. The flight wasn't too long but was really cool flying over Lake Eirie & seeing all the ice down below. And I just tried to block out thoughts of how horrible it would be to crash down there. *The past couple years I've become a very nervous flyer, brought on by a bad flight experience. The idea of being up in the air would really freak me out. Good thing we had the movie "Rudy" to watch!*

Anyhoo, Mark & Melissa live about an hour south of Baltimore, so we only saw the city from the air, which was fine. What we wanted to see more was D.C.

I've been to D.C. twice before this trip. The first time was in 1994 with my family. It was Easter weekend & we were visiting my aunt in Virigina. My parents decided to drive to the city & see some famous sites. Well, let's just say there is a certain home video that showcases my father's frustrations of not finding a single parking spot & my horendous southern accent (before meetin my yankee friends in college) telling him, "There's a spot over there, Daddy". It was very embarrassing for Jeremy to see that video!

The 2nd visit was almost 10 years ago for my senior trip. Our grand total of 9 seniors chose D.C. after a lot of coaxing from our history teacher who was to be the sponser. Plus, we didn't have tons of money saved like we should have & lots of stuff in D.C. is free.

So going back was exciting & I hoped to get better pictures than I had in high school.

Unfortuantly we chose to go on the day that it was cloudy & rain predicted. We managed to park across the street from the Washington Monument, probably because most people weren't crazy enough to go on that day!

From there you can see most everything: White House, Capital Building, Lincoln Memorial, & the new World War 2 Memorial. The WW2 Memorial is across that lake (if that's what it is) from the Lincoln Memorial. I was very excited to see a WW2 Memorial now because that time period has always interested me. There was a sense of patriotism that just seems lost now.

The rain started coming down as we got ready to walk to the Lincoln Memorial so Mark & Melissa took the kids back to the van & wait on me & Jeremy to finish our little tour. That walk was a lot further than we thought! And even more when rain is hitting your face. So glad my sweater was a hoodie!

We also saw the Korean War Memorial. There were a lot carved in the stonework that you couldn't really read because of it being wet. But we could at least read the best phrase there: "Freedom is not free".

The last stop was the Vietnam Veterans Wall. It was overwhelming to see how many names were listed. The first time I saw it I was in awe of how long it was, & this time it was still just as sobering.

This was the first of 3 major U.S. cities to visit while out east.

Coming up next: Philadelphia!