From: Dan Trumble
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007
Subject: Washington, D.C. I - Trumbles w/ Monuments and Stuff
Greetings.
As I send this I am in Lima, Peru where I arrived this morning from Bolivia with my colleague, Dave Reed. Before I came to South America, Beth and I had the opportunity to go to Washington D.C. to witness a promotion ceremony for Bill Chambers, my Brother-in-Law (more on that in a separate message). We arrived at night on Friday, 30 November, and we rented a car (which turned out to be PT Cruiser). While Beth was on the cell phone with Bill getting directions to their house I was already driving and I missed a turn because I passed it before all of the directions had been relayed by Bill. We would have been better to get the directions and THEN to leave the rental car place…Oh well, live and learn. Anyway, the turn we missed was off of the George Washington Parkway which is a very nice road to drive on but it has relatively few exits. So, we basically ended up going about 9 miles until it ended and we could turn around and come back. It was a nice little drive. After some additional touring of the city as we took the ‘scenic route’ we eventually arrived at Bolling Air Force Base where Bill and Bonnie live and where Bonnie had arranged for us to have some of the visiting officer quarters (more on that later as well).
On Saturday morning, 1 December, Bonnie led us to a place where we could park and take the subway into the city. She helped us figure out what fare we needed to pay in order to get there and back and we bought the tickets, boarded the subway, and off we went. Well, at some point we needed to change subway lines but we kind of messed things up and exited through some turnstiles that we should not have. We then needed to re-enter since we shouldn’t have exited at that place so that little extra exit and entry meant our tickets no longer had enough money loaded on them to get us back we had wasted it on an extra exit and entry to the subway system. Oh well. We figured things out and emerged on the National Mall from the Smithsonian subway station.
It was a pretty nice day (as you can see from the below pictures) but it was pretty cool and when the wind blew it was not very comfortable at all. Perhaps a heavier coat or a windbreaker or something would have been helpful. We tromped around and saw a lot of the famous things and some of our experiences are documented in the photos below. These photos are not always the ones that best show the monuments but they do have Beth and/or me in them (at least for the most part). Some better photos of the monuments and stuff will follow in a different message.
After a long day of seeing many neat and historic things, we purchased the additional fare we would need to get back to our rental car at the subway station where we had parked it in the morning. We managed to negotiate the change of trains this time but when we arrived at our final destination we emerged from the wrong side of the subway station and came out on the side where people catch busses rather than the parking garage side where our car was parked. It was dark out and it would have been a little bit of a hike to hoof it over to the parking garage so we ended up buying one more ticket each so that we could re-enter the subway station, walk to the other end, and emerge where we needed to emerge. So, in the end, the subway cost us twice as much as it should have if we had done everything right.
On Sunday morning, 2 December, we went to church with Bill and Bonnie and then after having lunch we headed back into the city (this time we drove) and walked around the area where the Capitol building, the Library of Congress, and the Supreme Court building are. We also visited the National Archives and walked over by the White House. It was kind of a rainy night and you will see that we look pretty rough in the White House picture but it was still a good time.
On Monday, 3 December, we attended the promotion ceremony at the Pentagon and then after returning to Bill & Bonnie’s and having some lunch we stopped by the National Archives again to pick up our phone that we had left the previous day when we’d gone through security, then we went back to the airport and Beth came home and I went to Bolivia.
A good time was had by all.
The Washington Monument
We are actually not holding the Washington Monument in our hands and fingers here. It is just a trick of photography! In the second picture you can see someone a bit farther down the steps trying the same thing.
World War II Memorial
The shadowy images in the lower picture are the shadows of Beth and Dan
This picture was taken from out front of the Lincoln Memorial.
A – US Capital Building
B – Washington Monument
C – World War II Memorial
D – Reflecting Pool
The Lincoln MemorialThis picture is taken from basically the exact same spot as the one above except I moved over to the other side of Beth. I’m not sure she moved at all. Perhaps this is of little interest to you, but there you go.
Clockwise from top: Abe, Dan, Beth
Korean War Memorial (the Lincoln Memorial can be seen in the background)
Vietnam War Memorial
There are books with listings of the names that are inscribed on the wall and the location of each name. I could only think of a single name of someone who had given theirlife in Vietnam but I was able to find his name (James W Widdis Jr).
Washington D.C. World War I Memorial
FDR MemorialThe FDR Memorial is a big sprawling thing and is not all that great as far as memorials go but it is quite pretty. It would be a good place to go to sit and read a book on a nice Spring day.
Jefferson Memorial 
Library of Congress
That is Beth in the foreground
The Capitol Building
The Supreme Court building
This is the back of the building. Beth is the one out front.
The White HouseBeth is pictured here with some hoodlum (it’s Dan)
The National Archives
Ben Franklin statue in front of the Old Post Office
