Monuments by Moonlight

The DC monuments by moonlight are awesome! Last Friday, the Maryland Hiking Meet-up Group I belong to joined up with the Sierra Club for a memorable (for a number of reasons) sneaker hike around the monuments. The hike was lead by Jim Finucane, a knowledgeable and fun hike leader. Jim’s leader apparel included a beanie with a propeller on top – not exactly suited for the 30 degree weather but most appropriate for his personality – he said it was a gift and that he really needed a place to wear it.

Toby, Liz and I were late getting to the meeting point – by about thirty minutes. We took the subway in but traffic getting to the Greenbelt station was terrible. And of course, we sat on the train for another ten minutes before it left the station. We got to Federal Triangle and went looking for the group – first our part of the group (Kellie, Daryl, MaryC, and Dega the dog) which we eventually met at the Washington Monument and then the other part of the group, the Sierra Club part. We finally merged outside the Air and Space Museum. You would think it would be easy finding a group of 15 people at 8:00PM on a Friday night on the DC Mall – wrong! The miracle of cell phones made it happen!

So we missed Jim’s tour of the Capitol grounds – with all the construction for the inauguration on the 20th. We stopped at the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden and admired the great art from above as it was closed for the evening. Then we were off to the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial. The Jefferson Memorial was awesome in the moonlight (and has indoor heated restrooms!). From there we walked along the tidal basin to the FDR Memorial – what an awesome place at night – having been there during the day, I had no idea how different it came across on what was rapidly becoming an overcast and cloudy moonlight night. We wondered through the Korean War Memorial with haunting soldiers on patrol, past the Lincoln Memorial, and though the Viet Nam Memorial. By this time it was nearing 10PM and there were still folks there doing charcoal rubbings, reflecting and mourning – will it ever end? One remarkable thing about the hike was that the fountains were all working – the fountains at the WWII memorial and those at the FDR memorial – I think it must be that they are putting on a good face for the inauguration crowd because they would otherwise be down for maintenance this time of year!

About the time we were at the Jefferson Memorial – I got this craving for Chinese food – Chinatown Chinese food. At FDR I voiced it again, and by the end there were six of us headed to Chinatown. Micah, a wonderful young man on the hike and a Washington “foodie,” recommended Full Kee Restaurant on H Street. So sometime after 11PM – the six of us descended on Chinatown for dumpling soup and a few entrees of some really fantastic ethnic dishes. Since we had been hiking for about four hours in about 30 degree weather, I really welcomed the hot tea too.

I got home somewhere around 2am, I think… and didn’t get up until about noon the next day. Talk about sleeping in after a wonderful hike.

I recommend the monuments in moonlight. I would love to take my camera and try to capture some night time images. Visitors beware – I feel a need to alter my DC tours to include some “night life” as well.