STONE MARBLE AND METAL (overview)

Beginning at the Capitol Building and working my way east to Arlington is a lesson in humility, respect and awe, current residents of the White House not withstanding.

Every building, statue and memorial merits its own post. I will try and temper my disgust for what many current "politicians" are doing to this nation, with the respect and love I have for my country, my founding fathers and my fallen countrymen and women.

I didn't write a word while visiting DC, I was trying to absorb everything I was seeing and feeling. My feelings ran the gamut of human emotion. Hate, love, fear, resolve, anger, joy, sorrow, exuberance, shame, pride.

I know I have a tendency to sometimes overstate things when I write, my biggest fear is that I come off as some pretentious asshole. I don't mind being thought of as an asshole, I am in good company there, it's the pretentious part I'm trying to steer clear of.

So for the record, I do not claim to be a writer. Yeah, no surprise there; I just claim to be honest. Well, at least I'm less dishonest than most who reside in this town, er district.

Honesty is a two edged sword, it is something we all claim to desire and possess. This week I stood at the marble feet of the pinnacle of honesty, Honest Abe.

I walked by a building that seemed to mock the concept of honesty, The Department Of Justice.

I saw another building that was in desperate need of a name change. The Department Of Treasury would be more accurately described as Warehouse Of United States I.O.U.'s.

The Internal Revenue Service building (at the risk of being audited) would be more aptly named Obama's Enemy List Accounting and Reckoning. 

I have wanted to visit DC for as many years as I can remember. For the last several years I have been waiting for the perfect time to go when the Cherry Blossoms were plentiful and the ne'er-do-wells were absent.

The Cherry blossoms come and go every spring, the ne'er-do-wells unfortunately seem to be perpetually in season.

When the last minute opportunity arose to accompany the young lady I'm dating and her son on a business trip to DC I jumped at the chance!

We would be staying just 1/2 mile north of DuPont Circle and a few blocks south of the Adams Morgan neighborhood in a historical significant place known locally as the Hinkley Hilton

This (smaller in real life) section of the hotel was almost another Dealey Plaza but for the heroic reaction of Secret Service and the highly skilled on-call Presidential surgeons.

This is what the scene looked like last Friday, I can imagine it took this hotel many years to overcome the unwanted infamy bestowed upon it. 

The White House was a mere 2 miles away from the Washington Hilton, easy walking distance if I had an abundance of time.

Working with four days and three nights meant taking advantage of DC's Metro system to save more time for walking between the sights of The Mall and paying respects to monuments and memorials.

One thing I found out real fast about DC, just because you can see it don't mean you can walk to it fast.

I could see the Washington Monument from my hotel room but it would take a spell to walk it.

I made the trip with Renee and her son . She had to attend a day and a half of seminars so me and Renée's son ventured out on our own and made the most of that time doing guy stuff like the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum among other sights.

Although Renée lived worked and studied in DC for five years. she had never been Arlington National Cemetery so we would wait till she was free to see that.

The sights and sounds of DC gave much food for thought and most things I saw and did got the squirrel cage in my brain rolling and I knew I couldn't adequately describe this trip in one or two posts. American History bored me to tears when I was a young lad in knickers listening to the Schoolmarm drone on and on about Redcoats coming and trying to get me to "remember the Maine".

It took not being required to memorize dates and names to make me enjoy learning about what it took for the United States to unite and the cost of freedom.

It took seeing what most of the world doesn't possess to make me appreciate what we do and price paid by others to get and keep our freedom.

Losing our freedom is the challenge we are facing now; It seems that's it's not a question of if but of when. I pray for political climate change. And soon!