Monumental

Truly, seeing the Lincoln Memorial has been a bit of a bucket list item for me.  Many years ago before I even met my wonderful husband-to-be, I had a boyfriend with a family in Virginia - right outside of DC.  We went to visit them one Christmas and I had one wish...  to see the Lincoln Memorial.  

Throughout the trip there was always something to keep us from going.  It was cold.  There would be crowds.  Blah.  Blah.  Blah.  We were there a week and the most I saw the entire time was one of the Smithsonian Museums.  I might have been a little bitter.  Pretty sure that was the beginning of the end.  

It is OK though because that disappointment made the actual moment much more cool.  One morning at the conference I got my booty up out of bed and went for a run.  It was beautiful.  The hotel was about a mile from the Capital building so I went that direction.  I had a pretty decent idea where I was so I just meandered.  I turned and ran down by all the various Smithsonians (all of them - not one of them, thank you very much!). I kept going and ended up at the Washington Monument.  

At that point I really needed to head back to the conference for the first session BUT...  around the corner of the Washington Monument I glimpsed the holy grail.  The big dog.  THE bucket list item.  Like in Paris when Mark and I decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower in the freezing cold because it was "just right there," I thought to myself, "I can't stop now!  It is "just right there."  Needless to say ginormous scale can play tricks on you and it was not "just right there" but it was oh, so totally worth the effort (just like in Paris!).  

I found myself walking up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on a beautiful, crisp morning a little before 8:00 - tired but happy.  I was joined by about 200 junior high students on some tour but it did not matter.  They were behind me as I walked up the stairs alone.  

Pictures really can't do this amazing monument justice and to say it is beautiful is doing it a disservice.  It is spellbinding.  The scale of the memorial is impressive of course but the intricacy of the stonework along with his words carved all around him make Lincoln seem real - which is weird considering he would be 28 feet tall if he stood up.  (Interesting fact - the reason he is sitting is because if he stood he would be taller than the Statue of Freedom on top of the Capital building which is against the law.) 

I stood there alone and gazed.  I had my hard won moment and like all moments, it eventually passed and I had to turn away.  I had a good run ahead of me but I made it with a big smile on my face.