Monuments by Moonlight

Our hotel is on the corner of K Street and 4th Street NW in Mount Vernon Triangle, which I had read was a safe neighborhood. So it was a little disconcerting to hear a woman screaming from the street below when we were upstairs this afternoon. We found out from the front desk that someone had snatched her purse/bags while she was on the sidewalk nearby. Needless to say, that made us rethink our plans to walk the 0.75 miles to Union Station this evening and called a cab instead.

We grabbed a quick dinner from Raising Cane's inside Union Station before the 7:00PM check in for the Monuments by Moonlight Tour that we had reserved with Old Town Trolley Tours. Here's the view we had looking southwest at Columbus Circle and the Capitol while we waited to board the trolley...

The Freedom Bell is a double-scale replica of the Liberty Bell

Once on board, we rolled up the window covering so that we could attempt to take unobstructed pictures from our seats, but the trade-off was that the ride was a little breezy and got colder as the night wore on. But this was definitely a great way to see DC after dark! If we were to do it again, we'd probably try one of these other options, such as the electric cart tour, to see if the photo ops would be any better, as most of the photos we took from the bus were super blurry. Or I could just get a new camera/lens! 😉

After leaving Union Station, we drove past the National Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II, the Senate Fountain, and the east side of the Capitol along First Street SE. Our driver/guide did a great job narrating as we went!

Then the route took us down Independence Avenue SW past the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial, the Smithsonian, and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. The first spot where we could get off the trolley was at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, which are located next to each other on the west side of the Tidal Basin. 

We had about 20-25 minutes to walk around, so we went to the MLK Memorial first because it wasn't finished when we visited DC in 2010. The official dedication date of the memorial was August 28, 2011, the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

There was a full moon tonight, so this really was a "monuments by moonlight" tour! Seeing it illuminated at night was breathtaking! 

Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope

Engraved on the wall behind the sculpture are several quotations representing Dr. King's ideals of peace, democracy, justice, and love. Here are few which struck a chord with us...

Washington National Cathedral - March 31, 1968

Strength to Love - 1963

Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech - Oslo, Norway - 1964

Letter from Birmingham Jail - April 16, 1963

Strength to Love - 1963

Stride Toward Freedom - 1958

☑ Unit #195

From here we walked towards the FDR Memorial along the Tidal Basin for the views of the...

Thomas Jefferson Memorial

Washington Monument

Interesting to see the differences in the unedited photos from an iPhone 15 and a DSLR (15-year-old Nikon D90)...

Because we needed to head back, we didn't actually go through the FDR Memorial, which was fine because we had spent quite a bit of time when we were last here. Then the trolley brought us over to the west end of the Reflecting Pool, along with a horde of other tour buses. Again, because this wasn't our first visit, we decided to skip the Vietnam Veterans Memorial altogether and see the Korean War Veterans Memorial and Lincoln Memorial since we only had about 20-25 minutes. I think it would be hard to get to all three in that timeframe unless you were just snapping a few pics and moving along quickly.

The Korean War Veterans Memorial is especially haunting at night. Statues of nineteen servicemen are on patrol in a triangular field. The polished granite wall bears the etchings of over 2,400 period photographs of Korean War servicemembers whose roles augmented and supported the ground troops. A Wall of Remembrance was added to the memorial in 2022. It lists the names of 36,574 American servicemen and 7,114 members of the Korean Augmentation to the United States Army (KTUSA) who gave their lives defending the people of South Korea. 

Then we walked back to the Lincoln Memorial... 

Too bad Alfred Hitchcock spoiled my shot

Our final stop of the tour was the US Marine Corps War Memorial, or perhaps more familiarly known as the Iwo Jima Memorial, near Arlington National Cemetery.

In honor and in memory of the men of the United States Marine Corps who have given their lives to their country since 10 November 1775

On our way back to Union Station, we drove past the White House and down Pennsylvania Avenue (I think). By this point we were tired and cold, so it was hard to pay close attention to where we were and what our driver was saying. When we arrived, a *lot* of police cars were there with lights flashing, so traffic was really snarled around the station. Rather than getting an Uber, we went to the taxi stand because they had a dedicated lane for cabs. Thankfully we got back to the hotel without any issues.

Tomorrow, we'll lace up our walking shoes for a trek around the Mall...