Welcome to DC!

Now that we're in our nation's capital, and neither of us are in the classroom, we will be stepping up our blogging efforts. To start, we took this balmy January day as an opportunity to explore the National Mall.



Oooh, look! A herd of Segways in their natural habitat. Or is this called a pride? A flock? We don't know.



One of our first stops was the Vietnam War Memorial. It is a very emotional memorial, filled with the names of those who lost their lives fighting in Vietnam. The marble is polished to reflect the images of everyone who visits the memorial.



Each name on the memorial is preceded by a symbol. The diamond signifies that the individual died during the war. The cross signifies that the person remains missing or was a prisoner of war. Only 780 individuals on the wall have the cross preceding their names.



Next time you're got a penny in your hand, take a close look at the Lincoln Memorial on the back, and you'll see the outline of this gentleman.



With the Lincoln Memorial facing east, it doesn't get great light at sunset if you look at it straight on. But if you get the right angle, it's quite stunning.



The newest memorial added to the Mall is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, which opened in August 2011. The inscription on the side of the monument reads, "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."



Finally, a shot of the Capitol from a distance since it turns out that the Mall is really big...