Tuesday, April 18, 2006
AN EIGHT-MILE WALK marked our Easter Sunday, and hereby I propose that it become a tradition. At least when the weather is that nice.
As I said to Jacqueline at some point on the Memorial Bridge, we are very fortunate to live in a place where a random however-many-mile walk just happens to put us on a path that tourists pay thousands to get to. I wish I had brought my camera: We walked by the House office buildings and then the Capitol and the Botanical Garden, and then the Mall and the Smithsonian museums, and then the Washington Monument and the World War II Memorial and the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial and the aforementioned bridge, which leads to Arlington National Cemetery. Along the way there are views of the White House and the Ellipse and the Washington National Cathedral and the Old Post Office Pavilion, etc., etc.
Instead of doubling back, we decided to walk along the Potomac on the Virginia side back to the 14th Street Bridge -- the only not-so-scenic portion of the walk. That route took us past the Navy and Marine Corps Memorial and the Lady Bird Johnson gardens to the Jefferson Memorial and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Holocaust Museum and then along the southern edge of the Mall, where you get the departments of Agriculture and Energy, and Health and Human Services on one side and a different view of the Smithsonian museums on the other. And one flowering tree and tulip garden after another. Back in the ho-hum residential neighborhood, we have to settle for glorious Victorian and Federal row houses.
I'm happy, but I'm a little bit sore.
As I said to Jacqueline at some point on the Memorial Bridge, we are very fortunate to live in a place where a random however-many-mile walk just happens to put us on a path that tourists pay thousands to get to. I wish I had brought my camera: We walked by the House office buildings and then the Capitol and the Botanical Garden, and then the Mall and the Smithsonian museums, and then the Washington Monument and the World War II Memorial and the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial and the aforementioned bridge, which leads to Arlington National Cemetery. Along the way there are views of the White House and the Ellipse and the Washington National Cathedral and the Old Post Office Pavilion, etc., etc.
Instead of doubling back, we decided to walk along the Potomac on the Virginia side back to the 14th Street Bridge -- the only not-so-scenic portion of the walk. That route took us past the Navy and Marine Corps Memorial and the Lady Bird Johnson gardens to the Jefferson Memorial and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Holocaust Museum and then along the southern edge of the Mall, where you get the departments of Agriculture and Energy, and Health and Human Services on one side and a different view of the Smithsonian museums on the other. And one flowering tree and tulip garden after another. Back in the ho-hum residential neighborhood, we have to settle for glorious Victorian and Federal row houses.
I'm happy, but I'm a little bit sore.
