Something about a big white building somewhere around here...

The following day was filled with more walking around D.C. This time not in the rain. No, this time it was in the sweltering heat. I went to the National Mall (not a shopping center, it's the are with all the monuments) for some touristy picture taking.

Behold! The Washington Monument:


The Lincoln Memorial:


The Department of Agriculture:


There's a brand new World War II memorial between Washington and Lincoln.






plenty of pictures (including two of the white house!) in the photostream.

After the Washington monument, I started making my way to the Jefferson memorial. I'm pretty sure it's the only thing in the area I haven't seen up close. Water in hand and determination on my face I walked all the way down to...where I could see that the bridge over to the Jefferson memorial is way too far away to walk to in 95 degrees with the sun mercilessly beating me down. So I took a picture from across the water (zoomed in to make it look like I'm closer than I am)



and headed in to the nearest air conditioned building for some more water. It happened to be the holocaust museum.

I had to study the holocaust in 7th grade. For the entire year. It was a time when the darkest and most despicable aspects of humanity held Europe in the grip of hatred. Every moment of thinking about what went on is stomach-churning. And it's probably the most important subject in world history. Every new piece of knowledge gives insight into the very bounds of human suffering, and a level of cruelty that is simply beyond most people's imagination. Seeing suffering, we can learn of empathy. Seeing cruelty, we can learn of compassion. This is not an easy subject to learn about, but studying it lends an understanding of the human condition that there aren't too many other roads to.

Taking pictures in there seemed like it would be disrespectful. So I spent a short time in there, walked around, remembered, and left.

I then made my way to the Lincoln Memorial because much of the path was shaded. I took a couple of pictures, then met my host downtown before we met up with a couple of other CouchSurfers to have dinner and walk around town. I forgot to get a picture of all of us though.

The next day I packed all my stuff and headed about an hour north to Glen Burnie to visit my friend and former roommate Brittany. I've been here two days (three if you count the day I arrived) and I leave tomorrow at some point for Roanoke, VA on my way to Tennessee.