October 28 - 2017 Dumfries, Virginia

MONUMENTS/MEMORIALS

 
We spent Saturday and Sunday in Washington DC, finishing up on monuments(statuer)/memorials(mindesmærker) and museums. There are plenty of all 3.

This post will be all about monuments 😊. Not necessarily in the correct historical order, more in the order we saw them. Museums will follow.

The Jefferson Memorial


Thomas Jefferson
Wise words from a wise man


 
 
 
 
Franklin D Roosevelt

Roosevelt is the only president who has done more than two terms.
He got elected 4 times. Up until then, there was a tradition not to do more than two terms. Roosevelt broke that tradition. After that, the constitution was changed, so you can only serve 2 4-year terms. (Actually 2½ term, but that is another story).















The memorial is big (guess it has to be, in order to mark 4 terms).
It must be almost half a mile (800m) long.

It is VERY impressive.





Eleanor Roosevelt
(The only first lady to be part
of a presidential memorial)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt








Franklin Roosevelt is also the only president
who has been physically handicapped

 
 
 
 A strong memorial. The inscription on the statue: "out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope" was taken from his famous "I have a dream" speech and was the inspiration for the theme of the memorial.

 

 

 
 
 
The Lincoln Memorial
 

After the Washington monument this must be the most famous monument in Washington DC.
 


 
 
 
The Korean War


Another impressive memorial. There are 38 statues of soldiers in the field.
They symbolize the 38 nations taking part in the UN mission.
And they also symbolize the 38th parallel (breddegrad) that became the border when a ceasefire was eventually agreed upon.


 

 



 
 
 
 
The Korean War has a tendency to be a forgotten war. But it was more than a dispute (strid) over a border and MASH.
It was a war that could have escalated into World War 3.
The dead and the missing combined, totaled way over a million soldiers!

 
 
 
 
The Vietnam War  
 
 


 
Not at all as impressive as the other ones. You may get the impression that one had to be made. 
 
 
 
 
The World War II monument on the other hand was very impressive.
 
 
 
Minnesota to the right of the arch,
and an Eisenhower quote from D-day underneath
 


There are still WWII veterans around.
We saw a group of at least 30, this man was one of them.

 
The Washington Monument
 
 
Probably the most iconic of them all. 
 
 

 
Some of the 50 flags surrounding the monument.
The capitol building in the horizon 


Iwo Jima monument

Another very iconic monument. It is the WWII Marine Corps monument. It is in Arlington, near the cemetery, but is closed because of renovation. I would really have liked to see that.
 

Then last night I was driving around the area near our campground, which is also the area where the Marine Corps Base Quantico is.
And there on the corner of the street leading to Quantico was a copy!! 😊
Pulled over right away and took pictures.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Written by JJ
 
 
P.S.
One more monument for the scrapbook!!😊😊
 
 


October 26 - 2017 Dumfries, Virginia


After many days of history and politics, we decided to take a day to spend in the beautiful nature, that this area of the county also has to offer. We were not disappointed!

We went to the Skyline Drive, in the Shenandoah National Park, in the Appalachian Mountains. The Skyline Drive is a road that was built in the 1930’s, especially for offering the best scenic views possible to those using the road. It was built for the re-creation of body and soul, for those visiting. They did a great job!
 


 

The weather was nice – a bit cold (up in the mountains it got down to 39 degrees (ca. 5 grader celcius)), but mostly sunny. There was a mist on the mountains, which gave a nice effect. And the trees are changing color here now. That made the scenery even more beautiful. Elevation gets up over 4000 ft. (1200 m) in places.  

Yesterday I teased JJ about all the pictures he took, of all the white head stones (gravsten) at Arlington. Today was my turn to take too many pictures. They end up looking a lot alike, and it is almost impossible to choose which are best, but I will try. Here are my choices. See what you think….

 











 
 



 
Written by Mary