Biking the Monuments: Part 2

If you missed the first half of our tour, start there, otherwise, onward!

By the time we got to the Vietnam Memorial it was pretty much dark.  Which is unfortunate considering the wall is black.

But it was still really amazing and sobering.

There were lots of fireflies in the grasses under the trees.  Very cool since this is only the second time I've ever seen them.  And also this really weird undulating buzzing sound coming from some trees, but not all.  We guessed that they were cicadas.  Did I mention they were loud?

We zoomed by this pond - with an island for the Founding Fathers - and luckily we were at the front of the group so I could stop and take this photo and then catch up to the end!

The WWII Memorial is really pretty at night with all the water and lights.  There are quotes all around on the walls and the pillars in the background are one for each state.

It's just to the west of the Washington Monument, but you don't even hardly notice it in long pictures because the Monument is just so big.

The last Monument (not a Memorial as it was started while Washington was still alive) we just sat below it and talked about it.  The history is so incredible.  It was started and then stopped for something like 100 years.  People called it a disgrace to have a half finished monument in the capitol.

And the top triangle part, the whole thing, is made of aluminum!  It had just been discovered and since they didn't know how to refine it they thought it was going to be a very precious metal like gold so what better thing to put on top of the monument!

Our very last stop was in front of the White House.  No, you can't really get this close, I just have an awesome zoom lens!  They used to only fly a flag over it when the President was home, but in recent times they decided that was a security risk so now they fly it all the time.

And finally we were done... and starving!  So we walked about 12 blocks up to Chinatown to try and find this noodle place, only to discover that we couldn't eat there.  We did get a couple of take out egg rolls and then wandered around trying to find some place that had a kitchen open after 11pm!  We ended up at Clyde's and while the atmosphere was really cool the food was just mediocre.  This was kind of our date part, but I was practically falling asleep over my food.  Guess I need to get out and bike more... or else it had just been a long week already!

Many thanks to my sister-in-law and brother-in-law for keeping the boys so we could go and do this!

And now to post without as many pictures... sorry it's taking the blog forever to load!

Once again this post was partially sponsored by Bike and Roll and we had a fabulous time!  They have locations in Chicago, Miami, New York, and San Francisco as well.