We started the day by standing in a long line waiting to see if we could get tickets to go up in the Washington Monument.
We were lucky to get two of the few tickets left for the day. We went up to the top of the Washington Monument at 6:00 pm. It was wonderful. Here are some pictures from atop the monument.
Reflecting pool with the World War II Monument in the forefront.
I thought this was a cool picture of the shadow of the monument from inside of it going across the ground below.
Washington Monument from ground level looking up. You may notice that about 1/3 of the way up the stones change in color. This is the rest of that story...
"When the monument was under construction in 1854, the Washington National Monument Society ran out of money and the project ground to a halt. Twenty-five years later, the U. S. Government took over and completed the upper two thirds of the structure by 1884 using marble from a different quarry". That is why it is two different colors.
We also attended the Rolling Thunder 2015 Motorcycle Rally.
Rolling Thunder is an annual motorcycle rally that is held in Washington, DC during the Memorial Day weekend to call for the government's recognition and protection of Prisoners of War (POWs) and those Missing in Action (MIAs). The tribute to American war heroes started in 1988 with 2,500 participants. Now approximately 900,000 participants and spectators are involved with this annual demonstration in Washington, DC.
This took place on Constitution Avenue which was closed to traffic for this rally.
This is a picture of the Washington Police who were also in the ride. It was so awesome to see this.
We finished our day with a free concert on the lawn of the Capital Building. The Capital Building is undergoing some renovations however it was still great to see.
Prior to the start of the concert they made an announcement that the Secret Service had found a suspicious vehicle nearby and warned us that they were going to check it and there was going to be a loud noise and that we should not be alarmed.
Sure enough, shortly after the announcement we heard an explosion!
In the news the next day we learned that the Secret Service had found a pressure cooker & a propane tank in an abandoned car & they blew up a pressure cooker. It was determined that these items were not a threat, however, they did not want to a chance with so many people attending the concert.
Thank goodness for the Secret Service!
We really enjoyed our stay in Washington, DC with many wonderful things to see and not enough time.
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