D.C. Monuments Tour - Part 1

Hullo!! Sandy Bear here...

Ajdin posted a quick blog on our Cherry Blossom tour but I wanted to do my own post as well - share my thoughts and impressions, you know!

So... we started off by heading for the Metro station... Ajdin did a beary good job of keeping Ozzie, Scooter and myself in a group. Herding stuffies is a bit like herding cats you know!

We didn't have long to wait before a Metro train arrived.

Being an independently minded little bear... I was trying to figure out where we were and if the train that had pulled in was going where we wanted to go but...

I have to admit... I got a bit confused! So many colours... so many stops!! It almost looks like the London Tube map!

Luckily, Ajdin knows the Metro like the back of his paw. "This is where we are... this is where we're going and this is how we're getting there. Get on the train!"

Whew... it's a good thing Ajdin is so beary organized!

Ajdin then gave us a bit of a tour guide talk while we were on the Metro. We were going to Washington, D.C. To a big park near the White House, on the Potomac River. There are a lot of monuments there... a lot and while we couldn't see all of them... he hoped that we would enjoy our tour, particularly of the cherry blossoms. (good talk Ajdin!) He was beary professionally dressed too in his official Stuffie Tours shirt!

After a fairly long Metro ride (at least in little bear terms)... we arrived! Ajdin got us some info at the Information booth and we were off.

I got a bit side-tracked thinking we were taking a BigBus tour but Ajdin said we were doing a walking tour... Good thing I wore my hiking boots. I must say... Ajdin with his long legs managed to set a comfortable pace for all of us stuffies.

Let's see... we visited the World War II monument.

It is beary pretty with a pool and a fountain and is fairly new - only opened in 2004! Each of those granite pillars in the background has the name of one of the US states on it... and the territories (like Puerto Rico).

Next up... we visited the Korean War Memorial. It too is fairly new, only being opened in 1995. There is a group of statues that represent a squad on patrol in full combat gear. It must have been rainy in Korea cause they all look like they are wearing rain gear.

There was a low wall at the memorial which commemorated the 22 United Nations countries that fought in the war. That's my country!! Canada!

Next... Ajdin took us to the Vietnam Memorial. There were a lot of people there.

But we were the only stuffies...

This memorial has plaques and plaques of the names of the fallen and missing American soldiers from the Vietnam War. There are over 58,000 names on these plaques.

That is a beary lot of names.

On my plaque, I noticed a John A. Welsford Jr. He was a Marine, Private First Class, born in Spokane, WA (which is close to us on the West Coast). He started his tour of duty on January 16, 1969 at the age of 19. He died on July 5, 1969, in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam, a few weeks shy of his 20th birthday. He was a casualty of friendly fire. Sad.

Finally, Ajdin took us to see the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial. I'm glad Ajdin didn't act like some human tour guides... you know... the ones who carry a little flag or hold a closed umbrella up in the air. He was a beary confident tour guide... and I think we were good clients too!

It is beary impressive and I'm glad we got to see it!

Stay-tuned for the next installment of our tour...