That’s how many names are on the Wall of the Vietnam War Memorial. Did we save the best for last? You tell me. First up, after waiting in line for three hours Roy and Marty scored four tickets to the Premium Exhibit at The Holocaust Museum. So Linda and I had breakfast at the hotel and headed over to meet them. But, getting there wasn’t easy because all streets around the Museum were closed due to the impending Rolling Thunder parade. We finally made it and decided that first up would be a walk to see some of Washington’s iconic sites: The Washington Monument, The Lincoln Memorial, The Korean War Memorial and The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.
Walking past the Washington Memorial we couldn’t believe how high it is! It’s closed for repair due to damage from the earthquake, otherwise we would have run up to the top!! Next, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial with a very haunting sculpture garden of soldiers in battle. And then, “The Wall”. 58,000 names; sons, fathers, brothers, husbands, sisters and wives. Every day people leave thousands of remembrances and every day they are collected to be archived and will eventually be a museum exhibit.
After that emotional experience it was time to find a spot on Constitution Avenue so that we could watch Rolling Thunder. The Founders of Rolling Thunder were ordinary men who understood that they had a right to have their voices heard and proceeded to lay down the plans for a gathering in Washington, D.C. during the 1988 Memorial Day weekend to protest the government’s lack of action in accounting for POW/MIA’s. Their arrival would be announced by the roar of their motorcycles, a sound not unlike the 1965 bombing campaign against North Vietnam dubbed Operation Rolling Thunder. The number of participants/spectators in the Memorial Day weekend Ride for Freedom has grown from 2,500 to an estimated 900,000.
At noon sharp, the bikes started rolling from the Pentagon. It was so exhilarating with people cheering, waving flags, giving the peace sign; just an awesome experience. We were lucky to find a spot under a tree and spent about an hour watching the parade. Take a close look at one of my pictures. That’s a dog as a passenger!
Then it was time for lunch and our last stop, The Holocaust Museum
What can I say about the Holocaust Museum that hasn’t been said. Man’s inhumanity to man-still happening today. It is a MUST see for everyone, young and old. Some of the exhibits are hard to look at and don’t hide anything that happened. Extensive documentation, videos and displays give you a sense of what it was like for not only the Jews but other minorities that Hitler felt were inferior. At the end, the Museum continues it’s theme with an exhibit of holocausts that are happening today to show that nothing has changed, just the geography.
Dinner on our last night in Washington was at Zaytinya, a modern Turkish/Greek/Lebanese restaurant owned by a celebrity chef, Andre Jose. A big, bold, busy restaurant on two levels it had a great buzz. The food, spot on. The restaurant serves tapas style, the menu so good that it was hard to choose.
So that’s it for Washington. We crammed a lot into a 3 day weekend. Do I like Washington as a city. No, not especially. But as a city where you can spend a week going to museums,
