We parked the car near the White House and started what was effectively a 4-mile Bataan March around the city's war memorials with Kevin taking really good pictures of me taking really bad pictures.
Kevin's photo.............................................................My photo
We started at the White House and the kids did not seem to be as impressed as I thought they might be to know where the President lived, but then we ventured on around the building to the Ellipse and then to the Washington Monument. Lev was upset it had been sold out for the day and we could not go to the top, but we snapped a few pictures and continued down to the WWII Memorial and then along the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial.
Kevin's photo...................................My photo
So, as a usual, if not calculable, occurrence whenever the kids go anywhere: Daniel needs to pee at the most inopportune time. Here I am, surrounded by flocks of people paying their respects to sacred war memorials and there is not a bathroom in sight. But I have a kid holding his C-Rations like a grenade whose pin had already been pulled.
"Can I go pee over by that wall?"
"You mean the solemn black granite one with the 55,000 names on it?...I think not."
"You mean the solemn black granite one with the 55,000 names on it?...I think not."
Well, it was really difficult to find a tree that wasn't part of one of the memorial landscapes, but we think we found one and Daniel...well...he memorialized it.
We proceeded up through the Vietnam War Memorial and on to the Lincoln Memorial.
My photo
The Lincoln Memorial is made of three rooms; one with the President sitting high atop his marble perch, and two side rooms used for kids to run around recklessly while their parents yell at them for doing so; at least that's what my family thought they were for.
Kevin's photo
My photo
We made our way back outside and worked our way around the other side of the reflecting pool to the Korean War memorial. It is a sweeping display of larger-than-life soldiers meandering through a rice paddy that leads up to the thought-provoking phrase, "Freedom is not free".
I asked Lev what he thought that meant and after a moment he replied, "It means you need to give up something to get it." At the age of 8, I'm not sure he could have come up with a better answer.
My photo
My photo (after Kevin put it through his Magic Machine)
With still over a mile and a half to get back to the car, Molloy began to falter ("my knees are broken", which almost sounded like, "Go on without me!") I searched the sky for M*A*S*H choppers, but none materialized. I alternated walking her and carrying her just to complete her exhaustion and before I could pull the car into traffic she was snoring.
Lev understands that not all freedom is free, Daniel understands that not all trees are for pee, and Molloy understands that long walks are not for the wee.
Mission accomplished.
My photo
The Lincoln Memorial is made of three rooms; one with the President sitting high atop his marble perch, and two side rooms used for kids to run around recklessly while their parents yell at them for doing so; at least that's what my family thought they were for.
Kevin's photo
My photo
We made our way back outside and worked our way around the other side of the reflecting pool to the Korean War memorial. It is a sweeping display of larger-than-life soldiers meandering through a rice paddy that leads up to the thought-provoking phrase, "Freedom is not free".
I asked Lev what he thought that meant and after a moment he replied, "It means you need to give up something to get it." At the age of 8, I'm not sure he could have come up with a better answer.
My photo
My photo (after Kevin put it through his Magic Machine)
With still over a mile and a half to get back to the car, Molloy began to falter ("my knees are broken", which almost sounded like, "Go on without me!") I searched the sky for M*A*S*H choppers, but none materialized. I alternated walking her and carrying her just to complete her exhaustion and before I could pull the car into traffic she was snoring.
Lev understands that not all freedom is free, Daniel understands that not all trees are for pee, and Molloy understands that long walks are not for the wee.
Mission accomplished.
