Christmas Eve in the District

On Christmas Eve I desperately wanted to get outside. If I had been with my family in New Mexico we would have been walking downtown Santa Fe. So, I thought, "why not start a new tradition?" I convinced Kenyon to join me on this adventure by promising that we would visit the Martin Luther King, Jr monument - which neither of us had seen.

This ended up being a wonderful suggestion...if I do say so myself. The night wasn't too cold. There were only a select few with the same idea. So, there was ample parking and no crowds - a rarity indeed. However, the Park Rangers were on duty and happy to talk to anyone who happened by their post. It was like having a private tour of some of our national treasures. Fabulous!

We walked by the Washington Monument on our way to our first destination. In case you didn't know, the iconic monument sustained damage during the recent earthquake. It is currently marked off with yellow tape as they work on repairs. The cracks are visible from the street.

Stop one: Lincoln Memorial. A must see on any sight-seeing visit to the District...and one of my favorite stops no matter how many times I've seen it.

Due to the lack of crowds, I saw something I have never seen before. Carved in the stone on the steps of the Lincoln memorial is a message commemorating MLK's most memorable speeches. Sort of an X marks the spot. We stood on that spot and looked out over the reflection pool (under construction) to the Washington monument beyond and imagined the crowds of people who came to hear those inspiring words.

It was a perfect lead-in to our next stop, the newest memorial in the District and the only commemorating something besides war and someone besides a president, the Martin Luther King, Jr memorial. The Park Ranger at this stop had flyers about the memorial and was happy to answer my many questions.

Kenyon posed for a picture with this great man looking over his shoulder. All around the edges are MLK's inspiring words. We read the quotes aloud...it wasn't like we were disturbing any one else. When we finished reading the quote about the character of a man, Kenyon said, "that just gave me chills."

Then we made our way toward the White House - though the Obama's were visiting a warmer climate (Hawaii) at the time. Just across the street is green space called "President's Park." This is the only place the entire night we encountered a crowd.

In President's Park stands the national tree. I am told the tree lighting ceremony is fun. Perhaps we will participate in that next year? For now, it was nice to see the tree lit up with 50 trees surrounding it - one for each U.S. state.

just Sheri, establishing new traditions