Trip Report 2

My friend Gerhardt wants more trip report.  So I think I will show the war memorial sites, which I saw on my last day in the city.  I cannot now believe that I left them for last.  It was a glorious day, however-- too beautiful to be squandered on excellent museums even.  To shorten our northern winter we Edmontonians will absorb, inhale, consume any beautiful warm day to the max.

I walked fromt he naval circle metro station straight west along the south lawn of the White House. 

(The picture below is from another day, actually taken in the evening, looking north from the Washington memorial.  See the people straining to look up at it.  I think it is almost 200 m tall.)

Ok, we are approaching the World War II Memorial, which was very impressive.  Each State had it's own individual memorial with a victor's wreath.  There were the bigger wreaths hanging in larger structures to indicate the victories in the Atlantic and the Pacific.  There were present many visitors including veterans and amputees and families having their picture taken by the wreath for their own respective state.  All quite moving to see.

When I was there, I was very grateful that America indeed had finally finished off this horrid war.  All Germans surely were praying for that.  Too bad it took so long to take down Hitler and his army.  My poor father-in-law was stuck in this war, drafted pratically as a boy.  Both Martin's and my families became refugees and displaced people.  This is how we all ended up in North America, really.

I grew up listening to all the horror stories which made big impressions on growing minds, and now some of us feel we are the decendants of those who lived and we have to tell our stories, too.  Hence, some of my Silesia posts.

Anyhow, the WW II memorial was quite grandious and so it deserves to be.

(Looking from the reflecting pond in front of the Lincoln Museum.  Under the US flag flies a little flag for those missing in action.  The thought makes me almost weep.  This flag flies everywhere; also in the Capitol Rotunda.)

All of which makes me think of those presently serving in the military, including my new Canadian in-law's.

Garry, I think that's enough for today!  Just two memorials.  I took a lot of pictures because my husband was not with me.  He does indeed feel now that he has seen quite a lot.