memorials memorials and more memorials

first stop of the day. time check: 9.30am
The United Stated Holocaust Memorial Museum


Problem was that we needed to obtain passes in order to go in, so we had to join a super long queue that extended all the way along the sidewalk. finally got tickets for 2.15pm. tried to get tickets for the mint too, but they were all gone by 10am, since it opened at 8am.

so we went off to our next stop: the Washington Memorial


ok it was supposed to be a 'Charlie's Angels' pose, but we look like James Bond or something else instead. owellz, we had other cool shots there too, but its not in my cam.


The Washington Momument is surrounded by many american flags, and overlooks the reflecting the pool and the lincoln memorial, below.


ok fine, just a poseur picture with the lincoln memorial in the palm of my hand.

here's the reflecting pool that reflected the lincoln memorial if u stand on the side of the washington memorial; vice versa.


ok here's a closer look at the monument from the outside, and the inside, where the man himself sits...


between these 2 momuments there is actually a massive world war memorial but it's so massive i can't get a picture of everything, havent tried the panorama feature yet, so i havent joined the pieces together haha.

anyway, we walked somemore and got to the korean war memorial, which was kinda cool cos of the scupltures:


walked forever, around the humongous tidal basin, to get to the Thomas Jefferson memorial. He's the guy who penned the declaration of independence, and later on became the 3rd president of the US.

the massive walls bearing his speeches, this is the one i like the most, and see how debbie pales in comparison to the statue of Jefferson, which faces the white house, probably telling bush to stay on his toes... haha

ok fine, you can't really see The White House below, but it's in between the trees in the distance (looks like the camera's zoom wasn't powerful enough after all... sigh) notice how nice the sky is! i just had to take some random shots...!


ok enough of Jefferson, it was time to go back to the Holocaust Museum, but they didn't allow photos, so we didnt. it wasnt what i expected it to be tho, maybe cos it was too crowded and the school children were too noisy. but it was like reliving my history lesson all over again, how hitler rose to power cos of lousy hindenburg, and the night of the broken glass and his aryan race thing. but i learnt a lot too, especially about the different ghettos, and how the jews were deported and packed into trains. when they arrive at the ghettos, they'll be told to strip so that they can take a shower. all their belongings were confiscated. they were put (in the thousands) in a chamber which had shower heads, except that poisonous gas emitted from them, not water. they died in minutes, and within hours of arrival at the camps. their hair was shaved off and sold to make different things, and then they were cremated. horrible. but of cos, in the midst of all the cruelty, there were stories of the heros who hid jews in their homes, and saved the lives of thousands of them. it was a heartwarming and emotional 2 hours we spent in that museum.

as if things weren't morbid enough, we headed off to the arlington cemetry next, in virginia. it's the most famous cemetry in the US cos the kennedy family and lots of other famous people were buried there.



the grounds were HUGE, and we were quite afraid of getting lost. it was about 6pm, and it was gonna get dark soon... but we found the grave of the kennedies alright.. there's JFK, his wife, daughter and brother...


the tomb of an unknown american soldier from ww1 was quite special. members of the US 3rd division infantry kept virgil all day, and there was a ceremony to change gurads every half and hour, which we saw. i have it on video, no pictures.


there was also the tombs/ memorials of those killed in the challenger spaceshuttle (1st pic), and the recent columbia space shuttle that crashed during its return to earth in 2003 (2nd pic).


ok that's all for the cemetry, and pretty much for the rest of the day. went to pentagon city for dinner (it's a huge shopping mall but we didnt shop. at all. the guys did buy some stuff from abercrombie tho, but that's cos they live there... )

some random pictures to round up the day...

saw this on the metro, quite funny. people here keep right, not left. somehting i CANNOT get used to...


guys, dying to ORD? hur hur...


can u believe esmond walked around with his jacket like that the whole day? freak. haha.


ok, thats all from me today. what a long post. it was a pretty sobering day.