Today is Sunday, a day of rest and worship and remembrance of God.  I wouldn’t say that I rested today.  I did worship in my chosen way this morning.  And I definitely remembered God today.  In fact, we planned to do “Sunday appropriate” sightseeing today in order to get more out of our remembrance of God.  You’ll understand as you see the places we visited today.

Our plan started with attending the Crystal City Ward sacrament meeting this morning at 8.  That meant that we would have to be up early in order for all of us to shower and eat breakfast and drive to church.  When I finally attempted to swing my legs out of bed after fighting to sleep a few seconds longer, my feet felt as if they were carved from all the cement and stone we walked on yesterday.  Trying to sit up, I was numbly aware that my head was struggling to stay vertical, like a slowing top threatening to topple.  We managed to make it to church before the meeting started.  The meeting was good, but the AC was broken so the room was pretty warm.

After church we changed into street clothes, packed lunches, and headed for Arlington National Cemetery.  The first thing that struck me was that the cemetery is gigantic and beautiful.  We saw the popular grave-markers like JFK and Jackie O (and the Eternal Flame), Bobby Kennedy, (new addition) Ted Kennedy, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (and an honor guard change).  Some people were finding graves of relatives or friends, but most people were of the tourist variety like us.

Next, we hopped on down to the Lincoln Memorial and saw the giant Abraham Lincoln sitting in majestic authority over all the seemingly ant-sized tourists.  The impressive scale of the monuments and buildings here in DC keeps me in awe.  President Lincoln sits looking out between thick Doric columns towards the 2000 ft long reflecting pool and the Washington Monument, Capitol building, and Library of Congress in the distance.  I stood at the top of the steps and looked out on the view that stone Lincoln has.  He’s a lucky piece of marble.

We looped toward the car by walking along the Vietnam War Memorial which is the black wall with all the names of casualties from the Vietnam war.  It was different than I thought I would be.  I expected a linear wall, uniform in height.  The actual wall is cut from the ground in a “V” shape, with 70 panels of names on either side of the point of the “V”.  As you walk along it, you start at the park level and gradually slope down to the lowest part at the center and then slowly ascend the other side.  It’s a place I’ve always wanted to go, so I got to check that off the list.

Healy Hall, Georgetown University

Shea mentioned suggested to go see Georgetown University, so we did.  It has some of the coolest old buildings that I have ever been in.  We walked into Healy Hall and toured the beautiful wood-paneled halls ornamented with antique furniture, murals, and displays.  The actual assembly hall was all wood-paneled walls with ornate woodworkings and moldings.  The entire experience reminded me of a mix of Hogwarts and Beauty and the Beast.  Plus, everything I touched creaked, telling me it really was old.   Shea later looked up how much it costs to attend per year: $63000!

National Cathedral

On our way out of Georgetown to our next destination, we drove up Massachusetts Avenue along the area of Embassy Row.  Our heads were like ping-pong balls being contested by world champion Chinese ping-pongers.  Left and right, the flags of Mexico to Iraq, Britain to Romania, and so many more passed by.  I think this might have been the closest to foreign soil I have ever been (since the embassies are part of their respective countries).  Intermixed with the embassies were houses, churches, and a mosque.  Sorry, I didn’t get any good pictures of any of it.  (But I think I’m more bummed about that than you will be).

As I shift my position, my joints and muscles audibly voiced their protest of their mistreatment over the past few days.  They just have to hang on for one more day.

Darth Vader on the National Cathedral. I don't blame you if you can't find it.

The next sight we saw was the National Cathedral and if you’re like me and thought that it was a Catholic cathedral, you my friend are incorrect.  It’s an Episcopal cathedral.  I learned so much in there; naves, transepts, crossings, rood screens, boss stones, the Glastonbury Cathedra (literally the seat of the Diocese), et cetera.  If you are in DC on a Sunday, this is a great stop to make.  I highly recommend a guided tour.  Without a guided tour it would have been neat, but I learned so much from our docent.  The nave is 2 football fields long, there are 200 stained glass windows (one of which has a moon rock embedded in it and another is made of 10500 pieces of glass), 9 chapels, and one Darth Vader grotesque (hard to see because it’s so high).

Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Keeping with the Sunday theme, we then visited the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, a Catholic church building.  We entered on the Crypt level and toured a large chamber with every wall engraved with the names and information of people.  Almost every inch of wall was covered.  Off to either side of the room, and every room we went in, there were little alcove-chapels with an altar to kneel at and pray to the different saints represented.  Each alcove had ornate mosaics covering the walls.

Crypt Church

The most interesting room to me was the Crypt Church.  The church (basically just a chapel under the main nave and altar) was dark tile and had an early-Christianity feel to it.  Upstairs there was a Mass being conducted.  We sat through the blessing of the bread and wine, but were in need of more physically substantial nourishment than that, so we took our leave quickly and as unobtrusively as possible.

After dinner we decided to make one last stop to top off our spiritual tanks for the day with a visit to the Washington Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Maryland.

Washington, DC Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Shea took us the scenic route which consisted of lots of trees and a great view of the river.  The temple is off the road a way, shielded by the thick forest that is ubiquitous near there.  The temple was beautiful white with shimmering spires reflecting the fading light.  We walked around the temple and then toured the Visitor’s Center since the temple was closed (this being Sunday).  The main attraction of the Visitor’s Center was a sculpture display that represented the various times of Christ’s life and ministry.  All the sculptures were so meticulously and carefully crafted, resulting in each truly being a work of art that conveyed a message.

We returned from our long day and that brings me up to now.  I will be going to bed late again tonight because of my desire to keep up the blog each day.  I can’t imagine what I’d do if I skipped a day.