DC Trip Day 1, Thursday

Sunday, November 14, 2010

John had a work conference in Virginia so we added a few extra days and went to see DC here is all the fun we had.  Our trip began with an early 4 am flight.  We had one layover in Atlanta and from there flew into Charlottesville.  It was a bumpy ride so we did not get much sleep, so at this time we were running on 4 hours of sleep.  We rented a car and drove to DC.  The landscape in Virginia is beautiful, the trees are changing colors and it reminds me a lot of home.  We were tired and it was raining but we decided this was a good time to visit Arlington Memorial Cemetery. The cemetery is so large it has shuttle buses you ride everywhere.  We stopped at several areas including: the Kennedy gravesites, General Lee’s home before they buried soldiers on his lawn, and the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  
Eternal Flame at Kennedy Grave

Field of soldiers

General Lee's home

Tomb of Unknown Soldier

 The tomb of the Unknown Soldier has the remains from WW2, WW1, and Korea that were never identified.  They actually had a soldier from Vietnam but were able through DNA to identify him.  The tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded by soldiers who are there no matter what; they also have a symbolic method of changing the guards that is pretty neat to watch.  I never expected the cemetery was so large; it was a sobering site to see all the soldiers and famous people who were buried there.  Even though it was raining and we got soaked, it was a worthwhile stop.  After this we went to the Hilton Garden Inn-Arlington and went to sleep.

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