The Great CAmerican Roadtrip : There and Back Again - Day 3

Day 3 began at a (not) so bright and early 6:30 a.m.  Donned in running gear, we were out the door by 7.  The morning was beautiful as we headed towards our first stop, the Jefferson Monument.  We beat the crowds and were able to marvel at the pristine nature of the monument.  

In the center of the columned dome stood Jefferson himself, a bronze version anyway. The granite walls surrounded him with his famous quotes and words.

We stumbled onto our next stop, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Monument.  It’s not one of the more prominent monuments, and perhaps not one that is typically on the top of one’s list of places to go.  However, it’s an incredible site that allows the visitor to walk through several sections of stone walls, small water falls, pools, quotes by FDR, and several sculptures. It was an amazing experience and definitely one worth going back to.

FDR and his trusty dog, Fala

The Great Depression Bread Line at FDR's Memorial.

Very close by to the FDR Monument was a construction site that we learned was the future Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.  The site plan drawing that showed the eventual memorial looks very cool.  We’ll be sure to check this out when we come back to D.C. in the future.

We continued our run across the street that led us to the Korean War Memorial.  The Korean War is often considered the “Forgotten War”, and it’s great that this memorial reminds us that it shouldn’t be.  A granite wall with engravings of faces of soldiers and nurses lined the side of the Memorial, while the center was of several soldiers in platoon formation shown walking through the tall grass.  

They were “walking” towards a small pool that gave the numbers of all the people who died, were missing, were wounded, and POWs. This Memorial was very sobering and well worth the visit.

Our next stop-the very popular Lincoln Monument.  You all know that the two of us met in Springfield, IL, hometown of Abraham Lincoln.  There we visited the Capitol where he worked as a lawyer, his grave site, and the many sculptures of him around town.  

Lincoln is our homeboy, there is no other way to put it.  It just wouldn't be right to go D.C. without paying our respects to the man.

The Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Monument was under construction and only reflecting what looked like dirt.  We were disappointed, as we couldn't reenact the Forrest Gump scene as we had rehearsed.   However, on the other side of the "Reflecting" Pool was the World War II Memorial.  It depicted the two front war on both sides of a graceful and elaborate fountain.  Very cool.

We decided at this point it was about time to head back to the hotel, so we continued past the Washington Monument and the several blocks to conclude our run. 

PART II

This sign is a LIAR.

Our drive to New York want smoothly, that is, until we got into New York.  The Baltimore, Wilmington, Philly, Trenton route treated us well.  Our (Phillip's) brilliant plan to park outside the city and take the train into Manhattan backfired tremendously, as the Staten Island Expressway and almost every other road to JFK airport was under construction and in utter standstill.  I should have anticipated that 7 million people were going to be headed towards Long Island on a Sunday afternoon, but it slipped my mind.  About an hour and a half of traffic disrupted some momentum, but did not dampen our spirits for a great NYC evening.

It was about an hour trip on the Subway until we were close to our hotel in midtown Manhattan.  It was trendy, but we got a deal and an upgrade, so it was worth it. 

Our trip left us famished, so it was out the door as quickly as we could to Greenwich Village for some pizza at Artichoke.  They are famous for their, you guessed it, Artichoke pizza.

I'll tell you, it was the perfect NY Pizza experience.  They have three locations, so find one of these if you are in the city.  The one that we went to is take out only, so we ordered way too much and headed to Washington Square Park to take in some street entertainment and scarf down our food.  This was certainly a perfect scene.  We were fat, happy, and I had an orange Shasta in my hand.  What else could there be?

Oh yeah, beer.  After some walking around the Village, we escaped to vol de nuit, a discreet Belgian beer bar that you could mistake for a back alley burlesque house if you didn’t know any better.  A good friend showed me this place a few years back, and it wouldn't be a trip to NYC without it.

The rest of our evening was spent walking off our food and beer babies.  From the Village, we headed back to Midtown and played tourists.  I am sad to say that we walked to Times Square, but could only stomach about 5 minutes of the crowds, the cheesiness, and the fake facades that lined the once great buildings of that place (We are old fuddie duddies, I guess.)  A trip by the Empire State Building on our way back to the hotel lined out our day in NYC.  We had much yet to accomplish.  Day four was going to be an all out New York experience starting at 6AM and concluding in Boston.  Time for bed, we are officially exhausted.

We ran into one of Odette's long lost city cousins in front of the NYC Public Library.

Quote of the Day:  As we checked into our hotel, the clerk politely asked us, "Did you experience any delays from the shooting?"  Now seriously, is that a good way to greet your guests?  We assumed that a crime spree had broken out and we needed to lock the doors.  Of course, he was referring to the movie shooting of Men In Black 3 that was happening just a few blocks away.

Picture of the Day:

The Fort McHenry (I-95) Tunnel in Baltimore