Stretching over Christmas and New Years, I managed to disappear for about 11 days. A drastic and fantastic escape from reality. I think we slept in 4 different states? Yes, but we somehow managed to come home rested. Beautifully rested.
I took a pic for y’all – a pic of the most memorable moment of our trip. Drew and I found ourselves in DC for 18 hours. It was one of the quickest stops, but left a deep imprint on our souls. Neither of us had spent any prior time in DC, and wanted to inhale it for a moment. We breathed deeply. Our hosts took us on a midnight drive around the city, which is BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL at night. Our first stop, of course, was the White House. Standing on the sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue, touching the iron fence that somehow protects our president, just inches away from being mobbed by the invisible Secret Service guys that stand watch at all hours… I’ve never felt so safe or so scared in my whole life.
But that wasn’t the most impacting moment. What left a grand-canyon-sized imprint on my heart was our 20 minutes at the Lincoln Memorial. It’s huge. It’s magnificent. It’s grand. It’s breathtaking. It’s overwhelming. I’ve never understood why people set up “memorials” of things… I’ve never understood why the general public will go on and on about all the statues, monuments, and memorials at DC. Last week I understood. There’s a transcendence that waited to greet me there. A “larger than life but still only human” sort of grandeur that is inspiring. Motivating. Captivating.
To think that we climbed the exact steps that supported Martin Luther King, Jr. when he declared his dream to the world.
To think that we were looking at a massive sculpture enshrining the very President who turned our nation’s history upside down with that famous Emancipation Proclamation.
To think of all the marches, protests, and historical moments that have stamped out the grass between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.
I could hardly take it in.
I went to DC when I was 15 and ever since then my heart feels a pull to go back. I loved every second of it. It was amazing. Surreal. My favorite was the Capital Building. Overwhelmingly beautiful!
Dang. I want to go back.
i have visited DC once before and also loved it. it’s one of those cities that constantly gives you goosebumps. we plan on going back when our kids are a bit older and can enjoy it… of course, i think they probably won’t appreciate it as children the same way we do as adults!
Yeah.
looks fantastic. i haven’t been yet…but i’ll be there in about 5 weeks.
I went when I was a freshman in high school and was challenged to a race to the top of the steps. I lost but is sure was fun! It was amazing and I would love to go back again as an adult…..it is just hard to appreciate the magnitude of it all when you are 15 years old. We were too busy looking for hot guys!
Drew and I are already hoping for another trip, so we can actually take time to see stuff… I’ll be chillin’ at the Smithsonian while he’s drooling over books at the Library of Congress. Y’all have NO idea how nerdy that man is!
The summer after I graduated high school our church youth group took a trip to DC. We had a musical worked up that we’d practiced months and months and already performed at several local churches. We made several stops on the way to DC and sang there too. Well, we had “reservations” to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Oh. My. Gosh. That was absolutely fantastic!!!! I don’t know how our youth leaders ever arranged it or found the connections to get it all approved, but I’m so thankful they did. It’s an experience I’ll never forget. To this day if we’re watching a movie that has a scene in it from the Lincoln Memorial or a picture looking out over the Reflecting Pool to the Washington Monument, I always say “I SANG RIGHT THERE!!!”. =)
We took a vacation to DC a few years ago. It was FABULOUS! We spent a week with some friends who lived in the burbs (Rockeville, MD) and they showed us the sights… all at a liesurely pace. It was fabulous! I think the one that impacted me the most was the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial. Powerful to walk that wall and run my fingertips over the names engraved there… God bless them!
I went on a school trip when I was in 8th grade. Those three days were both long and short – long enough to make me love the place, and short enough to make me long to return.
Just sumthin’ about that place.
I LOVED that the buildings, while HUGE and MAGNIFICENT, were not “tall” … They didn’t tower like most large metropolitan downtown areas. They just sat there like marble bricks. And went on and on and on for blocks.
been to DC many times..its about two hours from me…bumming you were that close, and I didn’t see you!
TWO HOURS FROM YOU!?!? Dang. I probably ate lunch in your back yard one day! We didn’t actually know we were going there until right after Christmas (most of this trip was spontaneous). And I was on a “no internet” ban. LOL
the way to survive internet ban is to have everyones numbers so you can text..takes the edge off
and had I recieved a text, I would have showed up next to Lincoln..hahaha yah me and Lincoln go way back! 
love DC, it’s awesome
Darla:
That would’ve been awesome!
Dan: You been? Tell the wife I said hey! I know she lurks around here…
did you know that’s one of my most favorite things (abe at night)?
(http://gritandglory.com/2008/05/04/hangin-with-the-boys/)
no way
I forgot about that. And about making fun of how short you are!
ha ha!
and i’m not short. i’m conserving space.
Wow! You enjoyed your vacation very well. One day I will enjoy it as well!
I’ve never been, but we’re hoping to take a day trip there while we’re in New York at the end of this year for my 21st.
I’m sure it will highlight my government-related nerd-dom.
i love dc. it might just be my favorite city.
I think I could spend weeks there. And the little row houses are the cutest things I’ve ever seen!
sad I missed you in my neck of the woods…but dc sounds amazing!
I went 20 years ago but am going back with my mom in late April. Excited!
I grew up there, so I’ve seen most of the sites several times. Living away from it though … I really appreciate it more and more as I go back home. It really is beautiful. And impressive. Imposing. But artistic. Such a sense of grandeur. But not ostentatious. Yeah. We have a beautiful capitol.