Arlington National Cemetery to Visit Uncle Kermit

We decided to visit J's Uncle Kermit at Arlington National Cemetery Sunday afternoon.  The weather had warmed up a bit and the sun was playing hide and seek in the clouds.  The lighting was spectacular. 

This is a very somber place.  It is full of the graves of military men and women.  Some died in battle, some, like Uncle Kermit, came back and lived well past their service.  But one also can't help to notice that even in death, there is a separation of rank.  The picture above is mostly generals and admirals. 

Wives, and in this case a son of a military man, are also buried here.

All this green space attracts lots of birds.  This mockingbird rests close enough to capture.  There were lots of robins and some blue birds - a special treat for us westerners who don't generally see them. 

While this is mainly a resting place for the dead, it is also a park for the living.

This large amphitheater is connected to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Here's the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  This is an example of tradition winning out over modern efficiency.  The guards have a very ritualistic routine.  This website has some FAQ's about the Guard at the Tomb.  But keep reading into the comments, some of which challenge the information in the beginning.  Another, seemingly more official site is Tombguard.orghttp://www.tombguard.org/site.html which has similar FAQ's plus lots more history. 

Below is a brief video I took of the introduction to the changing of the guard.  My battery light started blinking so I stopped at this point.  Here's a longer video of the guard.



Here's a CBS news report that goes a bit behind the scenes of guard duty.  It does have a commercial at the beginning.

There's a lot of history here:  The Space Shuttle Columbia.  

The Space Shuttle Challenger.

The Iran Hostage Rescue attempt.

The USS Maine.

We finally made it to J's Uncle's grave.  J went to the funeral in 1989.  The last time we were at Arlington together, Uncle Kermit was our tour guide. 

Gen. Channault and Gen. Stilwell were rivals.  J1 (our son) had read Channault's autobiography and I had read Stillwell and the American Experience in China.  When we visited Kunming, China - where both had served and rivaled - we had very different perspectives on which one was the good guy and which not. 

Off in the distance you can see the Washington Monument and the Capitol across the Potomac. 

Here's John F. Kennedy's grave site.  Nearby is Robert Kennedy's, a simple stone and a white cross.  Someone had left a red rose. 

And here lies Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

J1 read that there were over 300,000 people buried in Arlington - more than live in Anchorage.  It is important to honor our dead, but one must be careful to do so without glorifying war.  Fighting to protect one's country is clearly an honorable activity, but war itself is not, and using honor to induce men to unnecessary wars is despicable.

I'm not a Statue

I was taking pictures in the farmers' market at DuPont Circle in DC and I was looking at the street musician through my camera when he let me know he wasn't happy.  I'm generally pretty easy going about photos.  The people are far more important than the photo.

So we talked a while and so I suggested he get his advice to photographers on video so here it is.




Just out of curiousity, let's see how the YouTube video compares to the Viddler.

DC Sunday - Walk to DuPont Circle Part 2, Farmers' Market

We stopped at JoltNBolt for a late breakfast.  Actually, Anchorage time it wasn't so late. 

Prices were surprisingly reasonable.  Four of us ate for $26.  Double click to enlarge any picture.

DC Sunday - Walk to DuPont Circle Part 1

J's building.  The rest doesn't need comment. 

Just a walk in the DuPont Circle neighborhood.

[UPDATE 3:11 DC Time: Here's the video - it's short but gets you more into being there. J's high speed internet makes uploading video so much easier!]

To Minneapolis and DC

I'm guessing this was over British Columbia or Alberta.

It was flat down there.  I think this was North Dakota.  

Still flat.  Outside Minneapolis.  

The Mississippi River and Minneapolis (or is this St. Paul?)[Thanks Funk]

There were green leaves outside the terminal and this moose inside.

This ad was in the Reagan Airport in Washington DC.   The little box says "That's the impact of America's oil and gas industry."  Like most others,  I have no context for a number like that.  I didn't even know how big the whole US workforce is.  I know there are about 300 million people in the US, so maybe 50% are in the workforce and the rest are children, retired, or unemployed.  So I looked it up.   Here's what the Bureau of Labor Statistics says about the number of people employed in oil and gas.

On this chart, oil and gas extraction employs 162,900.  So where do the other 9.04 million people come from?  Are these all the people who work in gas stations?  Maybe it includes everyone in the car industry?  And people who make gas stoves and boilers.  But if we didn't use oil and gas, wouldn't there be support industries for whatever else we used?  And why is this sign in a Washington DC airport?  So Congress members are careful not to mess with oil and gas?

If the number of jobs is important, then Congress needs to be sure to support State and Local government because, according to the chart - below the part I excerpted - they directly employ 19 million (not with the mysterious multiplier that got oil and gas impacting 9 million).  More than half of that it for education.  

See, things turn political before you even leave the airport in DC.  We got picked up by J and his gf.  I was in the backseat eating still warm from the oven cake with delicious, messy chocolate inside that came with the ride, so this picture of the Lincoln Memorial is a little blurry, but I figured I needed something clearly DC here.

Then there was the find a parking place dance that left J and me inside the building while the women were supposed to pull up in back to unload.  But miraculously, a parking place appeared.  But I did see this sign inside.  (I messed with the phone number so my two readers don't call.)

This red box and these two shoes were sitting on a bench in across from the sign.  I guess there are lots of boxes and shoes moving through this lobby. 










It may be only 9:30pm in Anchorage, but it's 1:30am here, so I'm checking off.  But I did get some non-blog writing done on the plane.  :)

And I didn't even worry about what was happening in Juneau.  27 hours left for the 26th Legislature.