three paces through the room: Ode to the Makers of Monuments

I spent last week from Sunday through Friday in Washington DC for a week long training at the GAO Headquarters. They put me up in a really nice hotel (where presidential hopefuls and former presidents have stayed) at the government rate of course! Even though I was in training all day-I did have some time to see lots of friends from grad school and old work buddies for dinner. It was nice to visit with everyone and I learned a bit about GAO too!

My hotel (The Mayflower) is a historic building that they've restored. It's pretty fancy and very close to lots of great restaurants and just a few blocks from G.W. Bush's current home.

I met my friend Maggie for dinner one night in Georgetown which is just rows of little shops like this (though they are mostly chain stores like Ralph Lauren and Banana Republic).

On my last night in DC my friend Vered and I went to dinner and then took a hike around the monuments because I had been in DC all week but hadn't seen anything yet!

Our first president

The Washington Monument after dark across the reflecting pool

the first glimpse of Honest Abe (i was struck at how busy the monument was at dark on a weekday night)

I always get a little choked up at this memorial because it's so well done.

I had never been to the Korean War Memorial which is very close to Lincoln. It's extremely moving. The wall along the middle of the memorial is etched with the faces of soldiers and lit from the ground. And then on one side of the wall or life-size statues of a platoon of soldiers seemingly marching through Korea. They are also lit from the ground and the look like ghosts. I could hardly breathe when I was walking through it.

World War II memorial was very different with every pillar marked with a state name in an elipse with lots of water rushing along the outside and the inside of the monument. Standing in the middle is overwhelming and loud with the water. It was grandiose but really didn't affect me as much as Korea.