A Visit to Arlington

The day after the Bye Bye, Bei Bei party, we got up and made our way to Arlington National Cemetery. Veterans' Day was going to be the next day, so we thought it was decent timing (it did cross our minds that it might be slammed, but we decided to chance it. It worked out fine.). 

We started at the visitors' center and did our best to explain to the girls what kind of cemetery this is.

Our plans were fairly fluid, outside of wanting to see the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. So, we generally followed the map toward the tomb, seeing what we could along the way. It was chilly (not freezing), but it was a gorgeous day to be strolling. 

Our general direction

We veered off for a while to check out the Women in Military Service Memorial, which turned out to be one of my favorite exhibits that we saw while in DC.

I loved these little vignettes dedicated to the role of women in all of the major wars of the 20th and 21st centuries. It was fascinating!

Each of these vignettes included posters from the era, which were so interesting, too.

I cried a lot of tears at this exhibit of "Wings for Val" and the Wings for Val Foundation.

We couldn't spend as much time at the memorial as I would have liked, but I highly recommend this exhibit if you visit Arlington.

We made it in time for the Changing of the Guard. I can't say that it was a particularly meaningful experience for us overall, given the TREMENDOUS efforts required of Brad and me to keep our children quiet and respectful. We had talked with them about this beforehand and had prepped to the extent that we could, but it was still just a very difficult task and meant that we saw/experienced very little. We'll go back one day and try again when everyone is older and more capable of understanding.

We threw in the towel and began making our way to the cemetery exit and discovered that we could actually appreciate the ceremony a bit better from this lower angle. The girls could get their wiggles and words out, we could see a bit, but we weren't disturbing anyone or being disrespectful of the moment. Wish we'd realized that earlier...

They enjoyed locating local landmarks they recognized.

We made a brief stop by JFK's burial site and the eternal flame. It was very brief, given that the children were very much done at this point, and we needed to head out so that we weren't risking showing inadvertent disrespect. I literally started sweating with the physical and mental effort. 

It was a beautiful day, and I think we had the best visit that we could, given the ages and stages of our children. We'll take them back one day, and hopefully, they will be able to see it with grateful eyes.