Monday, March 06, 2006

A fair 6.5 mile jaunt for day 2 in DC

So, I used a nifty from Yahoo! to form a list of places and restaraunts in Washington DC that we have done so far. Here is the link to the list w/ dates. I will be updating this every day with more places that we see or eat at.

Moving beyond fascinating internet finds, we had a fantastic day. Woke up, ate our free continental breakfast and then made our way to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was a beautiful sunny day outside, and it helped me take better brighter shots of the attractions that fell within our jaunt.

The Holocaust museum was fascinating, with a comprehensive set of exhibits showcasing the Holocaust. It made me very sad to watch the videos and photographs of barely alive skeletal remains of concentration camp prisoners and the mass extermination of the Jews. This event will survive in history as a monument to human insanity, and as one of the worst genocides in modern history. The last one I can remember on this scale was the Holy Crusades early last millenium. What saddened me the most was to find out that most countries stood by and watched the atrocities. US only joined the fight due to Pearl Harbor. One thing amongst many stood out to me. It was US's refusal to bomb the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 because there were prisoners at the camp, even though that would have saved hundreds of thousands if not millions of lives in the future. And then in 1945, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuked to end the war and attain world peace and stability. Again, why the friggin' double standard?

After buying a few things at the Museum store along with stickers for my laptop lid, we head out to the National Mall. We saw the Washington Monument (which reminded me of Shiva's linga; US's phallic symbol), the WWII memorial, Korean War memorial, Lincoln memorial and Vietnam war's veteran memorial. Jessi had found a great home style fast food joint called Ben's Chili Bowl which is completely Black owned. We had a great chili dog and cheesy fries. I really wanted to try their milk shakes but the machine was broken apparently. Since then, we just walked back to the hotel and chilled out here and relaxed after a long day of walking and exploring. We even saw portions that tourists normally don't see such as the ethnic residential areas.

Tomorrow, we are going to be little productive while visiting a few more landmarks. I also hope to get a hold of UMD and schedule an earlier visit.

PS: Andi is in Poland with her mom, and having a blast. Check her blog out (Andi's blog).


Tags: Life, Internet, History


[Listening to: a world less blue - amanda rogers - daily news (3:56)]

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