Tuesday, June 8, 2010

layover adventure

Hi remember me??? Golly, where does the time go?
Recently me & my dh flew up to Wisconsin for my nephews wedding...more on that fabulous event later... but on the way we had a connecting flight through Washington DC with a 4 hour layover.

Not wanting to sit in the airport for 4 hours we decided to go exploring and we found out that Arlington National Cemetery was just over the hill from the airport, and here it was the day before Memorial Day.
How could we not go????
We had never been to DC before but everyone was so nice. When we got to the metro station we had no idea how to buy tickets and a very nice resident helped us out and pointed us in the right direction on the correct train. Mind you... we are from the burbs and have never been on a metro train or subway. I can read a map backwards and forwards but this was altogether a new experience for us....and fun!
Anyway, we found our way to Arlington with Jeff pulling our carry on baggage along with us. Gee, I bet we didn't look like tourists LOL
It was warm that day and by the time we got off the metro and up to Arlington we didn't have a whole bunch of time there but we are so glad that we went.

I was unashamedly moved to tears when we rounded the corner on the pathway and saw the endless rows of headstones marking the graves of our brave service men and women. All of the graves were adorned with flags for Memorial Day.

We also saw quite a few of the Rolling Thunder motorcycles but we missed seeing the huge motorcade of bikes that is there each year in support of our veterans.Wasn't quick enough with the camera though.
This is the memorial for service women...
and this is a memorial we saw for the 101st Airborne......
I wish we would have had more time to take the tour bus through, but we didn't want to miss the plane.
Next time I think I'll try for an eight hour layover!
We did make our way back and even met a nice couple that were there on a day trip and were coming to Florida this week. We made plans to meet them downtown for ice cream when we got back but alas I caught a bug of some sort on the way home and so have been sleeping on and off all day.
In fact I think I feel another nap coming  on, more on our Wisconsin vacation later.......