As soon as my feet hit the floor, I was in pain. I also noticed how bad my burn really was. I think my sunburn was so bad that it was numb and it didn't even hurt for the first two days. So I sent Daniel off to CVS to buy me some aloe vera, sunscreen, and foot inserts for my shoes. CVS in Watergate wasn't exactly the cheapest place and he ended up spending $30 on my items. Isn't he the best!? I have also noticed that the nail on one of my big toes has a purple bruise from all the pressure of walking on it. So looks like I will be wearing nail polish until it grows out.
Daniel and I decided that today we wanted to go see Iwo Jima and the Arlington National Cemetery. It was a few miles away from the hotel and so we decided to take the metro. As soon as we got off, we headed over to the map to figure out how to get to Iwo Jima. While we were looking, some other people that were around our age were looking at the map also. Well this guy walks up to all of us and ask us if he could help us since he lives in this area. We ask him the best way to get to Iwo Jima and he tells us that it is a long ways away on foot and it would probably be better to walk for part of it and then hop on a bus to take us the rest of the way there. Anyways, he just kept talking and talking and so finally Daniel and I took off while the other people that were at the map got stuck with him. A few minutes later, he caught up with us and said that he would walk with us since he was heading that way. He tells us his name is Gill and that he has been working in Washington D.C. for a few months and that he was going to be here for about 6 months. We also found out that he is from San Antonio and so we talked about Texas a little bit. He also was telling us some great restaurants to eat at and places to go. Well we get to his place and he gives us his phone number just in case we need to ask him something. After he leaves, we continue walking to Iwo Jimo and discovered that it was right across the street from his apartment. So he kinda exaggerated a little on how far it was. I guess he was just lonely and wanted someone to talk with. We visited Iwo Jima for a little while, and were amazed at the size of the statue. We had no idea how big it was. After a few pictures and a couple history lessons, we decided to go ahead and walk over to the cemetery.
We walked almost everywhere at the cemetery. Also since it was Memorial Day, every single grave had an American flag next to it. We got to walk through the Arlington House (Robert E. Lee's residence). The only bad thing was that they had to remove all the furniture because they are remodeling the house. The best thing about the Arlington House was the view. We also got to see the changing of the guards, the Women in Service Memorial, the Tomb of the Unknowns, the Memorial Amphitheater, Kennedy's Memorial, Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial, and much much more.
After spending most of the day there, I decided that after climbing up and down all the hills at the cemetery that I was ready to go home and relax. We ran into a nice LDS family on the train on our way back and had fun talking with them. It's kind of funny how you can just tell that some people are LDS. After getting off, we ate at Potbellys by our hotel and then just relaxed the rest of the day.
