Statues and Sweat

Tuesday 10th June

Today after a personality test where I discovered I was Green i.e have a need to be super organised at all times, we embarked on Oakleys Death Tour. Now I'll set the scene for you, we were in D.C, it was built on a swamp, it has some of the highest humidity found on earth (well.....maybe not but its my story and I can write what I like), we were in near 40 degrees heat and in day 3 of three consecutive days of temp at least in the 90s, a first since 1993. So where do we go......we could go to a pool and relax with a mojito or possibly a shopping Mall to enjoy the coffee with some wee deserved air conditioning ....no...no, what we do is we walk the whole way around Arlingotn Cemetary, Lincoln Memorial and FDR Memorial. Now I was told we would sweat in D.C, but I never expected this, we were all hot, sweaty and drudging our way through the memorials in the splitting heat. I believe it is here where true friendships are made as it did not matter what you did...everyone looked like they were suffeering from a lack of water, when we found a garden hose we all clambered round it to fill our bottles, it was like we'd found the holy grail!. We bonded so closely that we each shared the driest shirt to wipe our brows......friends for life! On a more serious note however Arlington was fantastic, we saw the funeral of what we assumed was a WW2 veteran and I believe it is the only correct way to honour the fallen men and women who have died or served in the armed forces, from the Civil War right up tot he War in Iraq and its a place where it drives home to you, more than anywhere else possibly, the commitment these people have made for our democracy. Lincoln Memorial was huge...and provided a welcome break from the sun, it is also where Judith found her artistic talent for taking pictures and where we learnt that the birds in Washington will literally attack you if you for your food should you take the risk of sitting on a veranda to drink your bucket of coke and ton of fries.