9 am church. Amy was skeptical a number of times that 9 am was the only close church. Surely there was one at 11 am. Not that we could see. We got the girls moving around 7 am because we still had to take the Metro to church and then walk another ten to fifteen minutes. We were still a couple of minutes late and walked in after the meeting had started. Front row. Boo. It was a great meeting though, and equally great for the girls that we stayed only for Sacrament Meeting. This building had been renovated from a plain looking brick building to a stately classy meetinghouse.
We took pictures out front and then walked a short ways to find a Metro stop. Close to the church building. I had blisters from walking in my church shoes. We hopped a ride on the Metro back to the hotel where we changed out of church clothes and put our well-worn walking shoes back on.
Kristen started most days with her hair down but with the heat and humidity, usually ended up with a high pony tail to keep her mane off her neck. She has fabulous thick hair. We were fortunate that the weather was as lovely as it was. It was pretty humid the first days after we arrived, but less so as the week went on. Yay us!
There was construction on the Metro on Sunday, so we had to take a roundabout trip to get to Arlington National Cemetery. We changed trains two times, but each time we got off there were mostly nice Metro workers helping people navigate the trains. I made the mistake of taking a picture of this backpack at the Pentagon stop and was yelled at by some dude that no pictures were allowed. It was a Metro stop dude. Not the Pentagon.
We finally reached our stop for the cemetery. It was packed with many visitors, tourists, and Junior ROTC. And it was hot. We made our way to JFK's tomb and then on to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where we were able to watch the changing of the guard. I had sweat dripping down my back as I stood there. I could only imagine what the officer was feeling in his uniform.
This was another day of lots of walking, especially through the cemetery, but we passed the time looking for tombstones with an Angel Moroni, signifying an LDS individual. We found three. In the sea of tombstones, my thoughts kept coming back to the idea that there was still room for more. It will continue to be filled with many more men who give their life that I might be free.
We walked along Sherman Way out of Arlington Cemetery to the US Marine Corp Memorial (Iwo Jima). It was an emotional moment as well.
Amy was rubbing blisters on her big toes. We had to stop at CVS to get her some blister band aids. I picked up some shoe inserts because my heels were killing me. Even before leaving on vacation. Not sure if it is from the running I have started, but they were painful. We found a Potbelly's for lunch.
The Metro ride back to McPherson Square was so much quicker than our trip there. In fact, I was surprised that we were already back to our stop when we arrived. I am not much for directions and Chris gets the metro system so much better than I. I would just get us lost if I was in charge of navigating our trips back and forth.
We had a short time to rest before scheduling an Uber ride to visit one of Chris' coworkers who had invited us over for Sunday dinner--Jason Warfield and his wife Karen and baby Joy. It was a lovely change of pace, the food was delicious, and the girls had fun playing with Joy (especially Kristen). Jason's dad, Charles, also joined us for dinner. Delightful people. They were kind enough to drive us back to our hotel even though they had to take two separate cars. Kristen chose to ride in the car with Joy and Karen so she could have some more baby time.
We were all in bed by 10:00 pm and happily so.