The Top of the Washington Monument

I've been back in the USA for 4 months exactly. I went home to WI for a few days, moved back out to DC to take a temporary summer gig with my former employer, got a promotion, moved to Boston for the summer to run a program there, traveled back and forth between Boston and Chicago, went to Green Bay for my brother's wedding, and just got home to DC last week. I have been ON THE GO! Now that I'm back home, it's time to get back to blogging.

When I first set up this blog almost three years ago, I didn't want it to just be a Peace Corps blog. That's why it's not called something like "Embo in El Salvador." So, over the next week, I'm going to attempt to pack in all of this summer's On The Go adventures, and get better and keeping up to date.

On Monday, my good friend Megan said she had extra tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument. Megan and I work together, and this visit is part of one of the conference we run. I've been in and out of DC for the past six years, and still never done this. So, I jumped at the opportunity and met Megan and the students for an 8pm ride to the top. I was bummed when the park rangers said that the monument had been closed because of the near by thunderstorms. Megan gave the students some time to hang around and take pictures, and just when we were about to leave, the park rangers re-opened the monument. We got ourselves in line, and entered at the base of the monument, took a 60 second elevator ride up to the 500 foot level of the Washington Monument, and walked around. If you've ever seen the monument, you know there are windows on the very top, just below the flashing red lights. That's where we were. The views are beautiful, and it was an incredible experience. I was just a little bummed that the windows were dirty, and it was difficult to get an ok picture. But, I guess it's tough to get someone out there to wash the windows.

Here are some pictures of the evening.

(The WWII Memorial, empty Reflecting Pond, and Lincoln Memorial with an orange sky in the background.)

(The Washington Monument.)

(Washington, flags and Lincoln. There was a beautiful sliver of a moon just over Lincoln that doesn't show up well in this picture.)

(The flashing red light, from the inside.)

(Storms off to the left that almost thwarted the day.)

(The Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial.)

(The National Mall and Capitol Buildings.)

(The White House - just left of center behind the ellipse.)

(The circles at the bottom are the WWII Memorial, with Lincoln in the background.)

(I think the Washington Monument is more beautiful at night.)

So glad Megan thought of me and got me a ticket!