We arrived 15 minutes before 10 AM. The National Cathedral was still closed, so Robert, Jan, and I walked around it looking at the plants surrounding it and at its tall walls. Maybe because it was Good Friday, the entrance was free. As we kept approaching the altar, we heard singing. Beautiful voices, beautiful music. The Boys Choir had its rehearsal. Robert sat next to us and listened. When I finally got up, he reluctantly followed me.
We stopped at the Lincoln Memorial, walked toward beautiful World War 2 Memorial and farther toward Washington Monument. We didn’t reach it. It was a cold morning, and we had a few other places to visit. Besides, the tall obelisk presented itself most magnificently from the distance.
We took pictures in front of the White House fence, drove past Supreme Court, walked toward Capitol, but didn’t enter it.
We didn’t make any arrangements to visit our senators or representatives. We will do that after Robert and I read a few easy (2, 3 grade level) books on branches of government. When we come again, Robert will recognize all these places as relatively familiar. The mixture of known and unknown will help Robert to make the next step. But, since Robert didn’t read any of those books yet, and by now probably has forgotten appropriate chapters from his Social Studies workbook, there is no point of planing next visit to Washington DC yet.
On a way back to Interstate 95 North, we got lost a few times. Robert didn’t mind. He kept quiet. By 3PM he certainly had to be hungry, but he didn’t mention french fries or any restaurant’s name until Baltimore.
Was he thinking about what he saw? What impact the structures and crowds had on him? I don’t know. After all Robert never explains himself.