Night ride through Washington D.C. Part 1

Yesterday, Mom and I checked out the diner at the campground while walking the dogs. After meeting a nice man named Lee who showed us all the cool gizmo's of his rig, we ate breakfast at the diner and looked around the cool plaza. Then, we went to the Cherry Hill Campground Office and got good info on the tours they offered around D.C. Judy, the person who was telling us the info, highly recommended the night tour, which in her opinion, is very fun. We also met a nice lady named Earlene, who we gave this blog address too. Hi Earlene! (if you're reading) I hope I didn't spell your name wrong.

Anyway, we rode out for an hour or two, in search of a sign that said, "Welcome to Maryland." We never found it.

At 4:30, we prepared to get ready to board the night bus tour. It would be picking up directly across from the office. We ate dinner, hamburgers and hot dogs on our grill, and then got jackets for the ride.

Right in the nick of time, we got out of the jeep, parked it, and got on the bus as Mom said to the driver, a tall, buff, 50 or so man, "Just in the nick of time."

He laughed.

We got in, and met a nice family from Vermont, and a couple from California. We continued talking to them for the whole ride.

We were in traffic for a while, stooping on the outskirts of Washington D.C. We talked to them some more, and entering D.C. , we stopped at a place called Union Station. People got on, and the driver told us his name was Earl, but people called him (or he called himself rather) Big Al. He was a very nice man, and throughout the whole tour he would make jokes, mostly funny. But some, like "What did Dela wear? A new jersey." was cheesy.

He told us he was the tour guide, and that we would be going to our nation's capital. We finally entered Washington D.C.

In the 4-5 area, we saw the capital building, The Mall, The Washington Monument, and made many videos and pictures. Then, Big Al informed us we would be stopping at The South Side of the White House. The bus creaked to a stop, and Big Al said we had 25 minutes. We got out, and went right, and across a street, instead of going right and across a street. We walked this way, and saw people going in the yard of the White House (or so we thought). It didn't look like the picture, so a few eyes were wide. Then, I looked on the building top and saw the word's: U.S. Treasury Department. We then went left and went across the street, and saw the White House from the south side. It had beautiful flowers and a white building in the background. It was blocked by a black gate. It still made some really good pictures though.

Going around D.C., we learned a lot of cool facts and saw some pretty awesome sights before getting to the big stuff. We saw some of the Smithsonian and got more pictures than ever of the Capital Building.

As sunset came, we passed by the Arlington Cemetery and saw and Tomb of the Unknown Solider. Then, as night fell, we saw the notorious Iwo Jima monument. It was very moving to see it before my eyes. We would be going back to this place.

Big Al gave us leave of 30 minutes to see the Lincoln Memorial. Going up those steps, I saw Abraham Lincoln sitting in his chair with one hand clenched and one open. It was so big! And standing on those steps, we could see the Washington Monument and Capitol Building right by each other.

On the left side of the room, was the Gettysburg Address. It goes as follows:Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The 2nd inauguration address:

At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention, and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it--all sought to avert it. While the inaugural [sic] address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war--seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.

One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the Southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" If we shall suppose that American Slavery is one of those offences which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South, this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a Living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope--fervently do we pray--that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether"

With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.

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The Gettysburg, was to remember those that died and lost their lives defending our nation. The 2nd address, was to wipe away the past and start anew. Those were both great speeches. And Abraham Lincoln, was a great president, who's life was cut to short.

This is already pretty long, so I will cut it into another part!