Day 11: June 14, Monday
Today started out with the bright promise of sight-seeing in a sauna! In matching DC t-shirts to commemorate our honeymoon when we got matching Famous Potato t-shirts from Sun Valley, we headed off to the White House Visitors Center. We watched an interesting video about the history of the White House which included a look into some of its most famous rooms. Exhibits showed lots of first family pictures and told fun anecdotes about the families, especially the children. Then we went outside and looked at the White House from the other side. Beautiful. Michelle Obama reinstated the kitchen garden for fresh vegetables as a part of her healthy eating platform--which was fun to see.
Now we needed to do some serious memorial viewing. On route we came across the national headquarters for the DAR. Knowing it was a treasure trove of genealogical information, I just had to stop and take a peek. They were showcasing an exhibit of quilts highlighting the life of Lafayette. Because of his immense popularity, part of the exhibit told how many cities, counties, and even children were named after him in the 1820's - 50's. I have found a couple of Lafayette's in our family line so that was fun to learn. The building had a gorgeous research library that I had to restrain myself from entering--someday I will.
After our brief, cool, DAR diversion we were on course to view the Vietnam Memorial. There is a book at the beginning of the memorial that lists all the veterans and where to find them on the wall. Not knowing any specific names to look for, we continued on. Seeing all the names listed felt very sobering. The ability to see yourself reflected in the black marble is especially powerful. The statue of Three Soldiers which accompanies the wall was being refurbished so it was difficult to view but amazing nonetheless.
Since now we were close by the Lincoln Memorial, we decided to take a daytime look. Since I had already had the grand stair experience there, we went to the elevator entrance. Well, that's when everything started to go downhill. Initially the somewhat air conditioned room felt good, then the waves of nausea began. What to do?? Visions of me hurling all over Lincoln were not helping. Hoping that after cooling off a bit I would feel better, I found a corner and sat on the floor. Long story short, about 20 minutes later I was paying homage to the porcelain monument. So not how I had this day playing out in my mind! Not knowing if this was heat induced or salt-sweating induced (probably a combination of both) how to get to a metro without becoming even worse was now the challenge. Luckily, a taxi pulled up just as we got to the closest street and he took us to the nearest metro. Hallelujah!
After laying down and taking a nap while Rheid did a bit on his own, I finally felt good enough to cross the street and try a bit of dinner. Not exactly the exotic "it is our 25th anniversary" dinner we were expecting to have, but it has stayed down so far. Almost made it eleven days without any shenanigans--unfortunately seems a bit symbolic of our past 25 years. At least I avoided making a spectacle of myself, well, except for the poor lady who had the misfortune of walking into my no-lock stall as my "experience" was at its peak…sorry.
Headed home bright and early tomorrow!
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