Arlington

Morning came before I was ready.  The sun was at least up, so my body was half convinced it was indeed time to get up.  Emma and I had barely unpacked the night before, mostly just crawling into bed after arriving at the hotel, so getting ready to leave was pretty straight forward.  Shower, clothes, make up and go.  We met Rick and Kim at the car and got cozy in the backseat with our luggage for the drive to our next hotel in the Arlington area.  But first, breakfast at a diner with a gift shop.  Emma and I were impressed with the size of the candy.

The drive was intense.  Drivers in Maryland and Virginia don't have much in the way of personal space, and cutting people off seems to be part of a regular commute.  Once we arrived at our hotel, Rick did not get behind the wheel again until it was time to leave Monday morning.  We did make ues of the hotel's shuttle to the metro station at Pentagon City, and aquainted ourselves with the train.  

Our first stop was Arlington National Cemetary.  The weather was surprisingly hot for October, and I was glad I brought a pair of shorts.  The cemetary is vast and hilly, and definitely somber.

We saw John F. Kennedy's grave site.  The flame did not show up well in pictures.

We witnessed the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, followed by a ceremony for some firefighters.  There wasn't a lot of information about the firefighters thing, but there were many in attendence wearing dress uniforms.  Plus one guy in a kilt.

I liked the amphitheater.  I have included some of my attempts for cool looking architecture shots.  Maybe someday I will figure out how to do those properly.

Once we had reached the uncomfortable temperature of rivers of sweat running down our bodies, we got back on the train to rest our feet for a few, and head to the Pentagon and 9/11 memorial there.

 We had to walk around three sides of the Pentagon to get to the memorial, and there were posted signs saying photographing the Pentagon is not allowed.  I generally follow rules, but... not always.  We were able to view the part of the Pentagon that had to be rebuilt.

Once our feet were good and tired, we made our way back to the train station and hopped on until the "Pentagon City" stop.  There we met our shuttle to take us back to our hotel.  I'm fairly sure we missed death or dismemberment by a very small margin.  That driver was insane!  We ran stop signs, found ourselves in the middle of intersections after the lights had turned red, nearly took off other car's bumpers, and took turns like a race car.  All the while our driver was singing along to the radio and snapping his fingers in time to the music.  There were more than a few pleas sent heavenward that we would survive the ride.

Thankfully, we did. 

We got checked into our hotel, only to discover that instead of the room with two beds that Emma and I thought we were going to have, we got a room with one king sized bed.  It's weird sharing a bed with anyone other than Ryan.