True Magic = D.C. Monuments at Night

Well, it has been a little over two weeks here in the Nations capitol and I have realized that all the monuments here are MUCH cooler at nighttime than they are during the day. Don't get me wrong... they are beautiful, but there is something just Mickey Mouse Magical about seeing them lit up.

Us Hinckley interns decided to start a "Monuments by Night Tour" of which I of course was the docent. haha, no really I just have all the tourist books from Borders, so I just act like I am and annoy everyone with historical captions as we are passing everything in my book. Haha, I love it! We have had three organized tours so far, with perhaps three more to come.

Tour #1
We began this tour at the Capitol Building and walked the National Mall (the green patch of grass that runs from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial) to the Washington Monument. You wouldn't believe it, but they had literally thousands of fold-up chairs on the grass ready for George Washington University's (GWU) graduation ceremony. It was so cool.... how cool would it be to have your commencements with the Capitol building in the background?

Meagan, Kasi, and Suneeti ready for the trek!


Seriously.... do I work for Busath or what?


Kasi, Me, Meagan & Marko near the steps of the Capitol


"The intern children sang as they walked ... and walked... and walked..."

"Look Ma.... we're monuments!"

Tour #2
Continuing where we left off, we got off the Smithsonian exit of the Metro and started this journey from the Washington Monument and traveled down the Mall to Lincoln Memorial. Just before you reach the Lincoln Memorial, you run into the new World War II Memorial, just built in April 2004. It has lit fountains, wreaths, and state walls (see below) commemorating the more than 400,000 people killed in battle with a star for every 100 killed in battle, all of which overlooks the Lincoln Memorial. The Lincoln Memorial BLEW ME AWAY ... it was so gorgeous. I have been there before, but never at nighttime and I thought it was so cool to see the reflection in the water and the beautiful hazy sky atop the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I tried to catch this with my camera, but it isn't the best in the dark.

Washington Monument at Night


"Ohhhh say can you see......"


We interns basically run this city..... attention sir!

My footage of WWII Memorial by night....via YouTube

UTAH PRIDE --> Even at the WWII Memorial


A picture of the 4,000 stars, each representing 100 lives lost in WWII


Once again trekking --> this time to Lincoln Memorial


The picture doesn't do it justice! GORGEOUS....


The gang with President Lincoln (such a good man!)



OK --> so these two pictures are basically these are the best picture EVER!


Cameron Beech, Suneeti Agrawal, Suzanne Schmidt, Jeff Sbaih, Kasi Goodwin, Rochelle McConkie, and Meagan Kline atop Lincoln Memorial steps...

Well... these are just the first of many "nighttime tours" we are going to take, with Tour #3 (Jefferson Memorial) and Tour #4 (Vietnam Memorial and Korean War Memorial) coming up soon, get excited for some more posts!

--Randy