Washington DC 2

Of course, you can't go to Washington without stopping at some of the monuments.  Well, you can, but then everyone back home will accuse you of being a lazy-arsed bastard who spent all his time eating room service and watching in-room movies.  Ahem.  Consequently, Caro, Sue, Luke and I began our next day at the Washington Memorial.  It was unfortunately closed for renovation, but even from the distance you have to say that George Washington does have a truly impressive erection.
 
I'm sorry.  But the God of Filthy Innuendoes would never forgive me for missing that one.
 
We continued on to the Lincoln Memorial, sitting above the Reflecting Pool, which is actually more green and scummy than reflecting, and has ducks on it - but is still very pretty.  As for the memorial, I suspect everyone's first impression on seeing that famous statue of Abraham Lincoln up close has to be, "Jesus, what huge feet he's got."  I'm sorry.  It probably shows a lack of respect on my part, but god, what a hoofer.  Caro also told me that his hands are posed in sign-language for "A.L." to which Sue responded, "Oh you mean for blind people."  She was suitably embarrassed when I pointed out to her that very few blind people actually know sign language.  Probably spent too long in the sun chasing baseball bats if you ask me.  On the walls of the monument are the words of his Gettysburg Address, a very short speech, which I suppose is bad news if you are stonemason who gets paid by the word.  Still, it is an amazing bit of oratory, considering Honest Abe is supposed to have made much of it up at the last minute.

From there we went to the Korean War memorial and the sombre black wall that is the memorial to the soldiers of Vietnam.  Of the two, I was surprised to find that it was the Korean memorial that I found more touching.  Maybe it's because the statues of the soldiers making their way through a pleasant garden in Washington, with the frightened faces and their sculpted rain-capes evoke so much more than the sombre black wall.  Mind you, the wall is extremely sobering, what I had never realised was that it tapers away at each end, becoming steadily thinner - a clever trick with perspective, creating the impression that the names stretch on and on into the distance.  The Vietnam memorial was crowded with families, friends and other servicemen, leaving flowers in silence while a veteran burnt some sage.  The wound of that war may have healed with the passing of years, but the painful memory lives on, affecting American thinking and policy to this day.
 
If it sounds like that day in Washington was pretty heavy, well it was.  We'd also just come from the Holocaust Museum, which has to tread a very fine line between being educational, respectful and truthful while avoiding morbidity and sensationalism.  It achieved all that by keeping the more shocking images to a minimum, but made an impact with the more simple displays like huge piles of shoes from the victims.  I heard a few kids asking how it could ever have happened which means that the museum must be doing its job.