Posting 13: Arlington & Shops

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Originally uploaded by JohnConn.

We drove to the Pentagon and parked the walked around to the side of the Pentagon where American flight 77 hit on Sept 11. The building has since been repaired and you would never know anything had ever happened there. The area immediately in front of that 'face' of the building is fenced off and a memorial will soon be established there. We caught the Metro to Arlington and after visiting the Women's Memorial, headed up to the Tomb of the Unknown's for the changing of the guard at 12. After we went to some of the other memorials and went off looking for the Apollo 1 memorial site (Apollo 1 was the the one where the astronauts were killed on the launchpad when there was a fire in the lunar module and the door couldn't be opened in time). Anyway, we couldn't find that one and we gave up. An old guy pulled up and offered us a lift to the visitors centre which was a huge relief since my blisters were still sore.

Next we hit Costco and the malls at Pentagon City and did some more shopping.

Posting 12: Million Man March V2 and more

Sunday 16 Oct - The "Million's More Movement's" march on DC and more sightseeing

 

I went into the Mall area of DC around 11am catching a train full of black people from Anacostia Metro station.  The mall was full of people selling T-shirts, giving out Militant newspapers and saying their bit.  A small stage was set up at the Captiol building end of the mall and there were various prominent black speakers delivering their messages throughout the day.  Lots of people from the "Nation of Islam" and other prominent black groups like the NAACP.  Funny to see so many people dressed like "Malcolm X" in the one place.

 

I only had a short look around and then went to the Holocaust museum which we missed the last time.  I managed to get a 1pm ticket to the 'permanent exhibit" which is basically the entire museum.  Funny that they do things the way they do.  Those that have been here will know what I mean - the main exhibit is viewed in a very linear manner and it's pretty narrow, so I guess they use a ticket system in order to control congestion through the exhibit.  Anyway, it's an incredible place and really well done - a pretty disturbing place. 

 

After the Holocaust museum I did some more wandering around and hit some more sights.

I have sprinkled some pics below....

All,

 

I have sprinkled a few pictures in the stories below....check them out.  Click on them to go to Flickr to see all the pics from this trip and others.

 

J