Well, if you held your horses waiting on this post, I hope you gave them plenty of water. I couldn’t stand it any longer, and I just had to take a break from posting and start digging through all the papers I brought home.
It was like taking a kid to a candy store and telling them not to touch or try anything. I would look over at this huge stack of papers sitting on my desk and just be beside myself wanting to dig in.
So, I did. I’m sorry. The one thing I did discover is, it’s going to take me MONTHS to sort through all the information I brought home. It’s unbelievable. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy, happy, happy about it!
Now, on to day six so I can get these trip recaps over and start sharing some of my finds with you all.
This recap is actually from Wednesday, Aug 7th. I know right, a whole month ago. Uggh!
I got up early again, and Leslie dropped me off at the Café du Parc on her way to work. From here, I got my pre-ordered bus ticket (thank you Leslie!) and I got on one of those Big Bus Tours. If you are ever in a city, and you have time, you should do this. My ticket included a two-day bus pass, a boat ride, and a free ticket to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum. What’s really cool about this is, they hit all the monument’s, museum’s and any thing you can think of. You can get off anywhere you want, and then get back on the bus anytime you want. The bus usually comes about every 20 minutes.
This is a map they gave me, and you can see they have four different loops; the red, green, blue, and yellow. The numbers are stops and you can see what the stop is at the bottom of the map, which makes it really easy to decide which ones you want to get off the bus and look at.
The map was great, but then I figured out they had an app, and after I downloaded it, it was much easier to use than the map. Using GPS, I could pinpoint my location and then figure out which bus I wanted to take to the next location. I rode along on the bus until I had driven by every single thing and then I picked a few things to go back and see.
The first place I got off the bus was at the Lincoln Memorial.
One cool thing about the bus ride is also the tour guides. They tell you all kinds of interesting facts like some scenes from Forrest Gump were filmed here. I already knew that because I love the movie, and I am a huge fan of Gary Sinise. I mean I like Tom Hanks and all don’t get me wrong, but Gary Sinise does so much for our Veterans and I have huge respect for him.
This is the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. I must be standing close to where Tom Hanks stood right? I don’t see Jenny running for me though!
I took this picture of the other side of the memorial because this side has Arkansas on it.
One thing that was a bummer was all the scaffolding around Lincoln. Some crazy freak of a lady threw green paint all over him a couple of days before my visit, which you can read about here, so they were cleaning it all off. They did an excellent job getting all the green off. I hope that lady has to pay for all that because apparently she hit more places with the green paint than just the Lincoln Memorial.
Then just a short walk away is the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial and the Korean War Veteran’s Memorial. I first walked to the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial and this is what I could see when walking towards it.
Then I saw The Three Servicemen’s statue.
Then as you walk up and you look at the wall and you realize that each name on this wall is the name of a soldier who gave the ultimate sacrifice, it’s very humbling.
I don’t know if you remember a while back when I made this post about cousin Danny Michael Gray, who was one of these very soldiers listed on this wall. If you have time, watch the video that cousin Harry Short made about him, it is very good. I wanted to find his name on the wall, so I went up to a volunteer who carries around a book. You tell him the name, and he looks him up. This shows his name, rank, date of death, and his location on the wall. The 40W is the panel, and the 57 is the line number where his name appears on the panel.
Here is the panel.
And here is his name.
I decided to do a rubbing of his name and so I went back to the volunteer and got two pieces of paper and a pencil and as I started, this very nice lady came up to me and asked if I would like her to take a picture of me doing the rubbing. I said yes, so this is it. She asked me about Danny, and as I told her about him, all of which I knew from Harry’s very good video, I started to cry. And she cried, and then us two strangers stood there and hugged and paid our respects to a man we had never met. It was an experience I didn’t expect when I walked up to the memorial, and it was one I will never forget. And why did I not get that ladies name?
And yes, as mentioned in previous posts, there is that bad hair day on full display.
I mailed one of the copies to Harry. I know he probably had a rubbing already, but I wanted to send it anyway. It was my way of showing him I cared about Danny and was very thankful that he took the time to make the video about him. Danny will never be forgotten!
Next, I decided to take a little walk and gather myself together and while…
Squirrel!
Oh sorry. I got distracted. This little fellow came right up to my feet and I regretted not having anything to feed him as I know that’s what he wanted. And as you can see, he was tame enough to sit there long enough for me to get the camera and take a couple of snap shots of him.
Anywho, while walking for a bit, I came up to the Women’s Memorial.
Then, I decided I would mosey on over to the Korean War Veterans Memorial.
It was such an eerie feeling walking down the wall and looking at all the faces looking back at me. There are more than 2,500 images on the wall.
Next, I decided my poor feet had enough for the moment so I decided to make my way back to the bus stop. And yes, I got there just as the bus was pulling out and leaving me behind. So I waited, for nearly 45 minutes. So much for a bus runs every 20 minutes. I finally got on the next bus and rode that sucker until I had enough wind in my hair, and my feet quit screaming. Then I decided to get off the bus near Ford’s Theater and eat a bite. I took this picture while I was waiting to get off the bus. It’s not very good, but after I ate and came back to Ford’s Theater, I forgot to get a better one, so this is it.
This is the balcony at Ford’s Theater that President Lincoln was in when he was shot on April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth.
He was then taken across the street from Ford’s Theater to the Petersen House, where he died the following morning, April 15, 1865 at 7:22 a.m. The pink building is the Petersen House.
Then, I used my free ticket to Madame Tussaud’s and I really enjoyed this. It was so neat to see all the different wax figures. I’m going to share a few of my favorites.
Here, I got to sit in the Balcony with Pres. Lincoln. It was really eerie to sit here next to this wax figure because he looks so real.
Back in the day, I had these books called the Value Tales. I loved these books, and I loved to read even from an early age. If you don’t know what Value Tales are, I feel really sorry for you. You can see about them here and here. They are books written about historical figures illustrating the value of a positive characteristic. I had one about Abraham Lincoln and his Value Tale was about Respect. As a result of having these books, I knew about many, many historical figures from a very young age.
I also had a Value Tale book on Harriet Tubman, and her Value Tale was about Helping. So, what’s my point? I don’t know. But seeing these statues of people I have known about for a very long time, was really cool to me. For instance here is Harriet Tubman in the wax museum.
I did not have a Value Tale book on Rosa Parks and I wish I would have. I might have taught my children better about Rosa’s bravery in not moving her seat on the bus instead of me jumping in the front seat of the car when someone yells, “Shotgun!” and standing (or sitting really) my ground by yelling back at them “Rosa Parks!!” and not moving. Hey! This worked when I was a kid. Now my kids know who she is and what she did. Anywho, here is Rosa at the wax museum.
Here’s Martin Luther King. I can’t believe he didn’t have a Value Tale book either.
Here’s ole’ George Washington. He’s standing in a boat, which you could stand in also and have your picture made with him. I didn’t really want to get in the boat because there were two boys fighting over the coat you could put on. They evidently don’t have Value Tales or they would know to share, right?
Here’s Theodore Roosevelt.
And the Kennedy’s. I swear this one of JFK, made me feel like he was looking right at me.
They had all of the presidents, but this is the last one I will share here. Ole’ Ronald Reagan. One of my favorites.
Speaking of favorites, Johnny Depp. If he had a Value Tale, could it be on sexiness? Ok, I guess not. But he would definitely be the winner of that category hands down! Hubba Hubba!
What up Oprah! If she had a Value Tale, it would be on Giving. I wish I could have been on one of her shows when she was doing all those give-aways to people and they drove off in new cars.
Oh, Whoopie! How I wish you knew just how funny you were in the movie “Jumping Jack Flash”. The scene where you catch your dress in the paper shredder is one of my favorites!
This is one they had for a September 11th memorial.
And here is Madame Tussaud herself.
And here is the creepy of all creepiness. These wax figures of the heads of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were actually made by Madame Tussaud herself. She was actually commanded to make a death mask from their guillotined heads. She then made the wax figures from the death masks.
Then I rode that bus back to a couple of blocks away from where Leslie works, walked to her office and enjoyed a nice cold beverage soaking up the AC in her break room until she got off work. Can you believe I did all that in one day? Me either. Neither could my feet. They hated me.
Oh, and remember my way back cousin by marriage Ross Perot? Well, this poster is actually hanging in Leslie’s office. I had her take a picture of me with it and I sent it to him. I thought that was cool, unlike my windblown hair.
When we got back to Leslie’s apartment, I laid on the pull out bed and planned my route for the next day, while Leslie cooked dinner. That was a nice treat!
Stay tuned, I swear I’m going to get these posts over with!
