I stayed in Herndon, VA and my class was in Reston, VA both of which are a dozen miles from DC. As a result, I was only able to go to DC once during the 3+ days I was out there. I took the bus and then the metro to get there on Thursday afternoon and was able to spend about 7 hours in DC.
If you've never been to DC, let me warn you: it's big. Yeah, I know it's the tiny little dot on the maps, but things are farther apart than you'd think. I vaguely remember the Million Man March back when I was young, but hadn't really realized how big a place the national mall must be if it could hold 1,000,000 people. The biggest crowd I've ever seen in person is the 65,000 that fit in LaVell Edwards Stadium. The Mall would fit that crowd 15 times over. It's big.
So, basically, I attempted to walk the whole thing in one looooong afternoon. I took many pictures, and for some of them I even slowed down long enough for them not to be a blur. I entered my basic path into Google Earth which places a minimum walking distance for my afternoon at 12.5 miles. (Since this path is a straight-line approximation to my actual journey, the true distance I walked must be longer. I'd guess more like 15 miles.) My legs ached, my feet complained, and I barely stopped to eat, but it was well worth it. So here's a picture of where I went with some of the major stops identified. I plan to compose a number of posts over the next little while (remember, ask and ye shall receive . . .), as this is clearly too much stuff to fit in one post.
The main stops we'll be visiting are:- The Metro
- The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
- The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
- Washington Monument
- National WWII Memorial
- Korean War Veterans Memorial
- Lincoln Memorial
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- Memorial to the Signers of the Declaration of Independence
- Potomac River
- Jefferson Memorial
- Washington Monument (night)
- The White House
- The US Capitol
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