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Eastern Cities Tour 2002
By: Melanie

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Dave and I flew back east in May 2002 to visit the lovely cities of Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York.  It was a fabulous trip!  There is so much to do in each city, we tried to do it all, but didn't even come close! 

In Washington DC, aside from sightseeing, we were able to visit with my McAlarney family.  We gathered at my Aunt Carol's house, and even went to my cousin's baseball game.      As we always do, we had a great time hanging out McAlarney-style!

We visited a whole bunch of monuments in Washington DC.  The Lincoln Memorial: .  Powerful, as always.

The Vietnam Memorial, where they were adding someone's name on the wall. 

The Korean War Memorial.     This is a relatively new memorial.  These statues are life-size and very detailed.  As you walk up, the first soldier you come to is looking over his shoulder at you, and motioning with his arm at you to "come on".  It's eerie, amazing and very sad.

The FDR Memorial.  This is also a new memorial.  It is a series of landscapes that you walk through, representing the timeline of his presidency.  This is me with a Great Depression breadline.   This is a pretty amazing memorial.  Notably, it's the first one to contain a statue of a First Lady, the amazing Eleanor.

Jefferson Memorial.   One of the loveliest memorials, and certainly the most picturesque.

The Washington Monument:   And, the Washington Monument from the Jefferson Memorial:   Beautifully restored.  It's difficult to appreciate, standing at its base and looking up, it's almost to much to comprehend.  Happily, this is one of the popular spots that is going to timed entrances, which in my mind is one of the greatest brainstorms in this century.  No more waiting in line for three hours to get to the top!  Show up at your appointed time, go through the metal detector, have your bag searched, and up you go. 

While at the top of the Washington Monument, we saw the First Dogs being walked on the White House lawn!  Talk about a brush with fame... 

Speaking of the White House: Unfortunately, the White House is one of several sites in Washington DC that is closed to tours and visitors due to 9/11.  Not that I blame them, better to err on the side of caution.  Still, I remember fondly my earlier visit to the White House and I wanted to go again.  The FBI building is another one we went to visit and found closed.  The Capitol claims to be open, but it was locked down tight the day we went by.  Metal detectors are the norm, we even went through one to get to a food court.  Twice.

We went to other sites in DC as well.  We went by the Supreme Court .  That tiny dot at the top of the steps is me....it's a big place.  There was a single protestor out front, but then he left.  We visited the Holocaust Museum and Memorial.  Despite having to share the Museum with an amazingly ignorant and disrespectful woman whose grating voice shattered the silence, it was still a heartbreaking and powerful reminder that we must never stand silent against evil.

On a happier note, just like Portland had cows, DC had donkeys and elephants, appropriately enough.  Here's two of them:

Our visit to Philadelphia, and indeed the whole Eastern Cities Tour, was prompted by my cousin Jennifer's graduation from college.  We were lucky enough to get tickets to the ceremony, and had a great time enjoying graduation festivities.    Philadelphia was a lovely town, with some great neighborhoods filled with old old buildings.  They also have one very nasty Bed & Breakfast, but we won't talk about the horrors of our one night there!  We toured Independence Hall , and saw the Liberty Bell.  We tried to go to the Mint, but that's another 9/11 closure.  We visited Ben Franklin's grave, and according to custom, tossed a penny for good luck.  Strangely enough, Dave's first three pennies landed rolling, and rolled right off!  Feeling a little freaked out, happily the 4th one finally stayed put.  We're not quite sure what kind of luck this means we'll have, but the rest of the trip went fine.  Thanks Ben!

We eventually reached New York, after a visit with my grandparents on Long Island.  The first thing we did was take a boat ride around the island of Manhattan, going over to the Statue of Liberty and going under the Brooklyn Bridge .  We went by the place where the Twin Towers should be.  Some of the buildings were still draped in black covers, damaged.    I prefer this photo I took during our trip to New York in 1997: .  Still, the spirit of New York is strong.  It will always be an amazing city.

After the boat trip, we were joined by my cousin Jennifer and we did a whole bunch of other stuff.  We rented bikes and biked through Central Park. We went around the whole park and saw Belvedere Castle and Bethesda Fountain .  We even got yelled at by real New Yorkers for biking the wrong way! 

We took a special side trip up to the Upper West Side to visit a very famous place: .  Looks familiar, but you can't quite place it?  Think Seinfeld...