Both were breathtaking in their own way. The Iwo Jima statue is so much larger than you think it would be. People standing at the base of the statue are only half to a third as tall as the pedestal on which it stands. It’s really quite impressive. And I was taken with the detail, as I often am with sculpture. Someone took the time and effort to chisel into stone the folds of fabric when a pair of pants has a bended knee. There was detailing on each pair of boots. Color me impressed- especially since the stitches on the boots were probably each bigger than my hand.
That was pretty amazing, but the changing of the guard was the most impressive thing. There is a video in the photo album, and though it is over six minutes, it’s worth a watch. Every thirty minutes, the precise, crisp process begins. There is one member of an Army Honor Guard there, and another two come out. One inspects the weapon that the other will wield to guard the tomb of the unknown. When the very thorough inspection is complete, the precise movements occur to replace the old with the new, and the tomb remains guarded.
When we left Arlington, we made our way to some of the monuments we either hadn’t seen or probably only briefly glanced at in prior visits. The Thomas Jefferson monument is enormous, but is not in the main drag as these things go. It’s on the other side of the tidal basin from the White House, and the view is pretty fantastic. We spent a good amount of time there, then we headed to the Franklin D. Roosevelt monument. That is laid out in four distinct sections, owing to his four terms in office. Each section (term) has a water feature, and each one focuses on the challenges he faced in that portion of his very long presidency. This was a rather unique monument, as the statues weren’t as large as most, and everything was at ground level. You walked through the sections as if they were rooms. The statue of Roosevelt at the beginning of the first term space was actual size. It was just a man, wearing glasses and sitting in a wheelchair. We managed to go through it all backwards, though, so we began at the end of the fourth section where the water feature was more elaborate than the first three. I suppose we began with the finale. Fun fact, they do have a statue that features his Scotty dog, Fala. I’d need to research a little and verify this, but I suspect it’s the only monument in DC where a Presidential pet is so honored.
I had seen a bit of the FDR memorial before, but somehow, I never made it past the very beginning. I didn’t know it was so large. It was pretty great. From there, we went to the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial. I want to like that memorial more than I do. He was such a great and looming figure in American History, and certainly, a special person to be honored in this space amongst so many Presidents and high ranking government officials. The idea of the sculpture and its execution, though, really fall flat for me. The idea was derived from a statement of his, wherein he spoke of a Stone of Hope from a Mountain of Despair. I get it. There’s no need to show his statue as a chunk of rock hewn from a larger chunk. And the overt symbolism doesn’t stop there. The statue itself, while expertly carved with great detail shows his legs descending into unfinished rock with rough edges, as if to signify that the work of equality is, as yet, undone. I like a good metaphor as much as the next kid, but this one is all just a little too spelled out for my taste. I like a little more nuance. To each his own, I guess. I’m happy it’s there, but I just wanted to like it more.
As we were leaving the MLK memorial, we heard a few thunder claps, and so we decided to find one of the city buses to take us back to a Metro station. We stood at the bus stop, and who should show up but one of our trolley drivers. She was clearly about 45 minutes behind schedule, but since she was going the right direction, and since our passes were all day, we hopped on and learned a little more about stuff in DC. Bless her, too, because it was very informative, and the ride took us back to a spot that was right across the street from a very cool bar. We stopped in there for a little wine until the majority of the light rain dissipated, then we walked to a metro station.
Our plan was to ride the metro back to the Virginia side of the river where our hotel is, head to a grocery store to restock on breakfast food and sunscreen, then grab a bite on the walk back to the hotel. So, we closed out the day with two bags from a local Safeway in our hands, walking into a really neat, little taco shop. After that, it was time to sleep. It was another long one. Today, we don’t have a spelled-out plan. Instead, we have a list of options. We’ll wake up slow, check the weather, take stock of how much we want to cram into a Sunday and make our way from there. In the meantime, as always, here are our photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/i5YWxcScDLHgbJqLA
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