Arlington

After we got here, we decided that Arlington Cemetery would be pretty easy to get to.  Little did we know, NOTHING is easy to get to here.  I swear, somebody doodled all over the back of the blueprints that were supposed to be the roadway design.

Rant over.  Today in the cemetery, there were a bunch of soldiers putting out flags in preparation for Memorial Day tomorrow.  Every single stone had a flag.  If you haven't been there, it's hard to imagine exactly how many stones there are.  Let me tell you, there are a lot.  The entire property actually used to be a plantation that belonged to the Custis family, into which Robert E. Lee married.  As it turns out, George Washington was Robert E. Lee's step...grandfather-in-law (or something).  Whatever.  I'm not very good at history, as some of you may already be aware.  Anyway...the feds seized the Arlington Estate like a year after the Civil War began and they converted it into the cemetery we know today.  The plantation house is still here though and so are the gardens and the slave quarters.

Definitely a beautiful place.  It would've been a little eerie and very sad if there hadn't been so many people today.  Dad remarked to me that it was fitting we start our trip there.  It's good to be reminded just how many people have paid the ultimate price just so that we might be able to live lives without fear.