On Sunday we had a huge day of tourism planned around DC and surrounds. As posted earlier, the list of places we had to visit was extensive! I have also uploaded photos from this day to my Flickr account so you can see what I am posting about! 🙂
Mount Vernon

Old Town Alexandria

Union Station

The Mall

Jefferson Memorial


Lincoln Memorial

Roosevelt Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial

Korean War Memorial

Arlington Cemetary

Iowa Jima Memorial
After ‘breakfast’ of a donut and hot chocolate (after such a sugar rush I realised I am never meant to have this kind of breakfast again!) we were on our bus and on the way to the Jefferson Memorial which is a stunning memorial located at the Tidal Basin in DC which during summer is in a full bloom of pink due to being surrounded by cherry trees.
Next we made our way to Arlington Cemetary. I had visited this a couple of years ago and it is still one of the most moving experiences. We witnessed the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Here is some precise information about what we saw.
At the start of the ceremony one of the Guards shouts of the need for silence and for everyone to be standing. This other appalling tour group were visiting the site at the same time. There was a guy beside me and a girl beside him. When we were first watching the Guard on duty before the changeover I heard her say something along the lines of “This is just ridiculous!”. Then the guy ended up crouching. He continued to crouch down even after the instructions to stand. It took the guard to directly shout at this man for him to stand. The ceremony went for about 10 minutes and was amazing to see. As Marni pointed out, the stone ground where the ‘change’ takes place before the replacement guard walks along the mat, was actually worn through from the repeated steps! Then over to the Kennedy Graves – which is always extremely moving. RFK’s gravesite is the only gravesite in Arlington that is a simple wooden cross.
We then made our way to the Iowa Jima memorial, of which I got some great pictures before we went to the FDR Memorial which is between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorial. This is a differently kind of memorial where you walk through each of his presidential terms in an open-air setting with lots of water features. To see his statue at the start of the memorial, in a wheelchair was a lovely tribute. Apparently when the memorial was being planned, his family was against such a statue but I think it really gives the memorial a personal touch.
From the FDR memorial we headed to Union Station for some lunch. Union Station is stunning – I can’t get enough of the place! I managed to squeeze in 10 minutes in of frantic dressing and undressing in the changerooms of the Ann Taylor store (my favourite!) for some tops that were on sale. It was then back onto the bus where we headed to Mount Vernon – the home of George Washington. On the way to Mount Vernon we had a quick tour through the Old Town Alexandria area which is streets of historical homes and stores that, like many of the DC areas, is picturesque and… expensive.
Mount Vernon is quite a drive from DC itself, but it was a lovely drive and the tour guide gave us an overview of Mount Vernon. It was left in a sad state and the Mount Vernon Ladies Association purchased it in 1858 and have run and operated the estate ever since – restoring it all.
In a nutshell, the Mount Vernon Ladies Association has done an AMAZING task of restoring the grounds and ensuring a legacy remains. We entered the main part of the centre for a film before heading out to the actual home for a tour of the rooms. The grounds have been maintained as a direct reflection of what it was like when Washington lived at Mount Vernon. Right down to them planting the same vegetables that were planted back in the day. To enter the house we had to join a queue that was quite long but steadily moving. It was here that we found out a few things that made us all SO excited to be there. The day we were there was actually George and Martha Washington’s wedding anniversary. Out of the million visitors that the estate welcomes each year only about 3-5,000 people actually get to see the ‘3rd floor’. This is only opened over the twelve days of Christmas and it was going to be the last day it was going to be accessible before it was closed again. We felt so lucky and couldn’t wait to get exploring! So we lined up some more before being welcomed into the staff quarters by a lovely Mount Vernon staffer who introduced us to what we could expect. The anticipation was building!
After lining up some more, we finally made it in to the first room of the house. The very stately dining room that had been meticulously restored and everything is exactly where it was when George Washington was there. (This is true as when they were there everything was painstakingly catalogued with its location and what it actually was so the Ladies Association had that to work off). We then got to exit that room and spend some time of the back verandah which I can only say is absolutely breathtaking as it looks out over the land to the Potomac River. We stayed here while we were waiting to actually enter the main part of the house when John came to tell us we really have to start heading back to the bus. I am not kidding! After lining up and finally getting ‘so close’ to the house and as our anticipation was overflowing with excitement we… had to turn around and leave. It was almost as hilarious as it was frustrating and definitely goes down as the ‘Definitive RMIT Moment’ of the Study Tour so far.
So we sulked all the way back to the bus before heading back in DC to make a stop at the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam War memorial. It was dusk and the sun setting over these monuments was stunning and it was great to see the reaction of the other students to the Lincoln Memorial especially. To say we had a jam-packed day is somewhat of an understatement.
The bus back to College Park was very quiet that is for sure and we headed for the local Chipolte Grill for some dinner before an early night before class began on Monday. Eeek!