Again, the boys had us up early for a nice breakfast. We packed up the room, and headed towards the Lincoln Memorial. After driving past it yesterday, I really wanted to see it up close. We found somewhere to park (for free) a short walk away. The boys were actually able to run across some sports fields before crossing the road to get to the memorials.
First stop was the Korean War Memorial. This features 19 statues that depicts solids on patrol facing an American Flag. It is dedicated to 1.5 million men and women who served in the Korean War. Thats a lot of people. This was a pretty moving memorial.
Next we walked to the front of the Reflecting Pool. I had to hold Seb's hand very tight, as I was afraid he would make a run for the water.
It was a blazing hot morning, and was only about 9.30am. There were quite a few people around, but not super busy. My timings in avoiding crowds had been ace so far...
The Lincoln Memorial is something else. It is so grand, and beautiful. The memorial was dedicated in 1922, and has been the site of many famous speeches. It is a tribute to Abraham Lincoln, and the 36 columns that surround the structure represent the 36 states in the Union at the time of Lincoln's death. Around the top of the structure are the names of the states.
Inside sits a 19ft statue of Lincoln. Pretty grand. The decor inside is amazing too, with the Gettysburg address and Lincoln's second inaugural address both carved into the marble.
As I stated earlier, the Lincoln Memorial has been the site of many famous speeches and addresses. Not many are more famous that Martin Luther King Jr's 'I have a dream' speech. We had to wait for some tourists to move off the spot on the floor before we could get the photo below.
The Lincoln Memorial is amazing. A kinda wish we had time to do more of the monuments/memorials, but the kids wouldn't have stood for it, no matter how much ice cream we promised them. Washington D.C is definitely a place I want to go back to, but when we are older, and don't have the kids in tow.
Now onwards and upwards to NYC. It took about 4 hours to get there, driving through Baltimore
and around Philadelphia. Those first few glimpses of the city were amazing.
The traffic, however was not. We had to travel through Manhattan Island and out the other side to get to Brooklyn, where we were staying. This is one of the times I was grateful we had an E-Z pass. This is basically a prepaid transponder that fits in your car, and enables you to go through tolls at slow speed, and the cost of the toll gets taken off your account.
Brooklyn is an interesting place. Again reminded of parts of London, where one street looks dodgy as hell, the next is once as pie. The urban density is immense. We got to our apartment at dinner time and were greeted by the owner. It was 2nd floor of an old brownstone, with one bedroom with 2 double beds. The living area had a sleeper sofa, but there were no doors between the 2. The owner is an artist, and his work was on the walls. Very good. We also had access to a balcony. We walked to the local store, and this was your old style corner store, like the one you used to get in England before supermarkets ran them out of business.
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| The view from our apartment |
The boys had a toast dinner, while we indulged in beer. As Seb was in a bed here, he was a nightmare, and it took Paul laying with him, then me laying with Isaac to get them to go to sleep. But they went eventually.
They would need it for the mammoth day the next day touring the city
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