We are visiting Washington DC during cherry blossom season in the middle of March.
In this episode were showing you highlights of a walk around the tidal basin and along
parts of the mall showing you some of the great monuments.
We were there on a most unusual day because the museums had just shut down, March 15,
due to the coronavirus pandemic and yet the city was still open and people were out enjoying
the park and the monuments.
The orders to close the stores and restaurants and maintain social distance had not yet been
issued.
This video provides a poignant view of normal times and reminds us about those days that
will soon return when we can all be out enjoying the parks together.
The walk is going to visit monuments to some of America's greatest tragedies – disasters
from which we fully recovered.
So let this be our reminder that while times are very difficult today, they will improve
and we will get back to a new normal, hopefully better than ever.
And the beauties of nature, with cherry blossoms in full bloom can help raise our spirits.
Come on along and enjoy a virtual trip from the comfort and security of your home, as
we take a stroll around the beautiful Tidal Basin and National Mall enjoying the people,
the memorials, monuments, flowers and food.
There's a remarkable collection of food trucks along the mall lined up on both sides of the
street, especially on the weekend.
We are here on a Sunday.
We will be showing you more of these food trucks a little later in the episode.
We had arrived in Washington just in time for the beginning of the cherry blossoms spectacular.
We will be showing a lot of these beautiful flowering trees coming up shortly.
We arrived in Washington by Amtrak train from Philadelphia – just takes about an hour
and 1/2, and the trains already were running quite empty, so we had plenty of room to spread
out and relax and enjoy the ride.
The train was quite modern and very clean and it delivers you right into the heart of
the city, arriving at Union Station.
Not just a train station, this is a grand building that offers much more than you might
imagine, such as a modern mall with dozens of shops and thirty-five places to eat.
When it opened in 1907 this was the world's largest train station and covered more ground
than any other building in the country.
It was modeled after the ancient Roman baths of Diocletian and interpreted in a neoclassical
Beaux-Arts style by the brilliant Chicago architect, Daniel Burnham.
Considering the situation, it was not very busy today, but normally it gets 24 million
annual visitors, making it the most visited attraction in town.
There were so many taxis out front that each driver had to wait on this line four hours
to get one customer.
Our plan was to spend four days in Washington and see all the museums and visit the monuments,
walk around downtown, go to a whole bunch of restaurants.
But since the museums were closed, we had to change our plans and leave after one day.
So we made the most of our time as you'll see in this episode, with a big walk around
the Tidal Basin visiting lots of the major monuments and enjoying those cherry blossom
trees.
We were here on March 15 and benefited from a relatively early blossoming.
Normally it's the last week of March when they are in peak season, extending a few days
into the beginning of April, but here we are enjoying the blossoms already.
We've started out next to the Jefferson Memorial and we're going to walk partly around the
Tidal Basin, visit the Roosevelt Memorial and then on to Martin Luther King, and then
over to the mall to the Korean War Memorial, and then passing Lincoln's Memorial to the
Vietnam wall, onto the World War II Memorial, and then finally passing the Washington Monument
and have a look at that row of food trucks.
This route is about three miles long and it is one of the most impressive walks, especially
now with the flowers in full bloom – not only the cherry blossoms but a nice variety,
including some large magnolia trees.
I first saw DC on a school group visit and even today that is still a way that many young
people first get here.
You can see why they call it a Tidal Basin and at this moment, it's high tide.
Twice a day there are 250 million gallons of water coming from the Potomac River, which
is actually an estuary at this point.
This lovely canopy of cherry blossoms forms a delightful tree tunnel overhead that leads
us to the FDR Memorial.
President Roosevelt was a great man who created the New Deal for social justice, leading us
out of the Depression and through World War II, with his brilliant First Lady, Eleanor,
at his side.
Roosevelt was one of our most admired presidents who inspired the public with his intelligence,
capable advisors, and straight talk delivered just once a month over the radio in his fireside
chats.
At the same time he was a humble man who insisted that no memorial be created for him, and as
a result, there was just an engraved boulder near the Archives until this memorial was
built.
The Tidal Basin is part of the West Potomac National Park and covers an area of about
107 acres and is on average ten feet deep, and you can rent paddleboats from a concession
over on the east end of the basin.
Cherry blossoms are definitely one of the major attractions of the Tidal Basin, especially
on a beautiful day like this, and with all of the museums closing down the day before
and tourists still in town with their hotel reservations intact, there is nothing much
else to do today, so everybody came down to the Tidal Basin, it seems, including many
DC residents.
For them it's one of their local parks.
It brings out lots of dogs and their dog walkers, sitting for family portraits.
The Tidal Basin, the park and the National Mall were all created in the nineteenth century
and have been a treasure ever since.
This area is constantly evolving.
For example, the most recent addition is the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
It opened in the year 2011, featuring a heroic thirty-foot-tall statue of our greatest civil
rights leader.
Walk behind the big statue and continue another 300 meters northwest through a delightful
park area and you will reach the Korean War Memorial.
The group represents an advancing platoon, consisting of fourteen Army, three Marine,
one Navy, and one Air Force member, with each statue about seven feet tall.
During the war, 54,000 American soldiers were killed and 103,000 were wounded.
It's located 300 meters from the Lincoln Memorial, an easy walk.
Or you can ride one of these popular electric scooters.
The monument resembles the ancient Parthenon.
The thirty-six columns around the building represent the thirty-six states that existed
at the time of his death.
The massive, brooding statue was carved by Daniel Chester French.
200 meters further brings you to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
It was the most controversial of all, when it was dedicated in 1982.
The names of 60,000 Americans are engraved in chronological order of their death during
the war.
But surprisingly, that chronology does not begin as you first enter the Memorial but
it starts in the middle as a park volunteer will explain to us shortly.
This has become one of the most moving memorials.
Despite some initial opposition, it portrays a painful situation that many visitors lived
through, utilizing the stark minimalism of a tragic black marble slash in the ground.
Maya Lin's revolutionary design focuses your attention on the war's deeper issues, rather
than glorifying the combat.
Volunteers are here to help and explain.
It was dedicated in 1982, very controversial, just like the Vietnam war, but I think it's
withstood the test of time.
I think it's a fitting tribute to the men and women we lost.
Aha.
And you are here to answer questions and help people find the names.
Yes sir.
So this was actually the main point is it?
No, no.
This is the start.
1959.
The first known deaths, US military deaths in country, were '59, that's why '59 there
is the start.
The casualties are chronological by date of death, it is all the way out to the end of
the wall.
The last casually, out there, the next one, in order, is that and, come down feel up this
wall to the end of the war for the US, '75.
Oh, wow, that's interesting.
Another brilliant move by Maya Lin.
Yes, the designer knew what she was doing.
She very specifically wanted one wing to point to the Lincoln Memorial and the other to the
Washington Monument, two well-known symbols of our freedom.
They just point right at the monument.
No doubt about it.
Wow.
We need these stark reminders to help guide us into a better future.
It's a 600 meter walk through the Constitutional Gardens, passing this lovely pond with more
cherry blossoms, heading for the World War II Memorial.
The reflecting pool was drained for maintenance, turning it into a pedestrian promenade.
The World War II Memorial was dedicated in 2004.
The plaza forms a ring of columns that represent the US states and territories, with one side
symbolizing victory in the Pacific and the other side representing the Atlantic front
victory over the Axis in Europe.
Columns representing each state are joined together by a bronze cord symbolizing their
united effort.
Designed to honor the 16 million Americans who fought during the war, and especially
the 400,000 who were killed in action.
The Washington Monument completes our walk around the Tidal Basin and memorial monuments
on The Mall..
Now it's time for lunch and there is no shortage of places to eat today.
The lunch trucks are lined up on 14th St., Southwest right next to the Washington Monument.
Washington has become famous as one of the food truck capitals of the country.
There are hundreds of these trucks all over the city and especially concentrated here
at the National Mall.
Some other locations they gather include the L'Enfant Plaza, Farragut Square, Dupont Circle,
Metro Center and Union Station, but they are especially clustered here on the mall.
You have probably never seen this many food trucks gathered in one place, and they are
on both sides of the street.
How many do you think there are here?
I counted them.
There are sixty food trucks all in one block, extending over 200 meters from Jefferson Drive
to Madison Drive where you'll see the new National Museum of African-American History
And Culture.
The Smithsonian Museum features a comprehensive look at the history and current status of
black culture in America, featuring civil rights, clothing, education, family music,
literature, photography, and so many other aspects of African-American culture today.
There are quite a few benches stretched out along the block where you can sit down and
enjoy your meal, and you'll find other benches scattered throughout the mall.
The trucks are decorated with a dazzling pictorial display of the menu, all of these delicious
foods is very mouthwatering, and the prices are posted right up front, very reasonable,
ranging from about eight dollars to twelve dollars for your typical lunch, and sometimes
you'll get a free sample.
What you got?
Beautiful.
Quesadilla.
Well that covers our one-day visit to Washington.
I'm going to leave you now with an extended look at this amazing collection of food trucks,
enjoying the beautiful colors, the signs, the people out walking and I remind you, this
was photographed just a few days before there were major nationwide shutdowns due to the
coronavirus.
People had not yet been cautioned to maintain social distance and stay home as much as possible,
so these hard-working food truck vendors were able to find plenty of customers.
Even though dining in restaurants has been prohibited during this time of the pandemic,
takeout food is perfectly fine and important.
And that way these food trucks can play of very useful role in helping to continue to
feed the public.
It's okay for them to remain in business.now, with customers maintaining the appropriate
social distance.
However, because of the collapse of tourism and the shutdown of most offices, they really
don't have many customers at this time.
It seems there has been a decrease of eighty percent and their level of business.
But if you do see a food truck, here or in your own neighborhood, it's okay to have a
safe, inexpensive and delicious meal.
We all look forward to the near future, when we have beaten this virus into submission
and can resume our normal lives once again.
Meanwhile, I have another thousand travel movies on my YouTube channel that can provide
some nice entertainment from the comfort and security of your home.
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