Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument

The long-time headquarters of the National Women's Party became one of the newest national park units (#thanksobama) on April 11, 2016 -- also Equal Pay Day.

Motto of the National Women's Party

The Thinking Woman... 

#votesforwomen!

"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. 

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

~ 19th Amendment (1920)

We've come so far but we've got so far to go

#someday

National World War I Memorial

Theodore Roosevelt Island

Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac

19 foot, 43 ton block of sunset red granite quarried
 35 miles from the LBJ Ranch in TX

"All my life I have drawn sustenance from the rivers and from the hills of my native state. ... I want no less for the all the children of America than what I was privileged to have as a boy."

~President Lyndon Baines Johnson

And so: "The Johnson Administration added 3.6 million acres of land to the National Park System, including Redwood National Park, Arches National Monument and many others."

The LBJ Memorial, located in Lady Bird Johnson Park, was intended to "be a living place where people could enjoy the pleasures and beauties of nature, not a great stone building or a bronze or marble statue." 

And, so we RECREATE:

#epicjumpingshot #recreating

National Mall

Constitution Gardens

Fun Fact: This 50 acre park in the middle of DC used to be below the Potomac River.

Urban Oasis

Frederick Douglas National Historic Site

Lincoln Memorial

Lunch Break at the Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. 

- Abraham Lincoln

The Gettysburg Address

..."and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

-Abraham Lincoln

The reflecting pond is back to reflecting!

Thomas Jefferson National Memorial

Out for a lunchtime stroll...

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

58,000 names; no other words needed.

reflections

Korean War Veterans Memorial

Lunch time stroll...

Mary McLeod Bethune Council House

Mary McLeod Bethune founded and became the first president of the National Council of Negro women. Her home still stands, just south of Logan Circle in Washington DC and contains the National Archives for Black Women's History, the only institution in the US dedicated to this purpose.

"The great need for uniting the effort of our women kept weighing upon my mind. I could not free myself from the sense of loss, of wasted strength sustained by the national community through the failure to harness the great power of women into a force for constructive action I could not rest until our women had met this challenge."

~ Mary McLeod Bethune

World War II Memorial

Oscar, my fur brother, enjoys National Parks too!

President's Park (White House)

A visit INSIDE the White House necessitates an #epicjumpingshot

Library <3

perspective

Piano played by Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, etc.

Ford's Theater National Historic Site

Celebrating Abraham Lincoln's Birthday at Ford's Theater with an American classic, Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie.

The infamous box. Or booth... pun intended?

Tip: Get the full Ford's experience by catching a show at Ford's Theater, but arrive at least 30 minutes early to check out the museum containing artifacts of Lincoln's presidency, including the clothes he wore the night he was assassinated.

Also on display is the .44 caliber deringer pistol that belonged to John Wilkes Booth.

Washington Monument

Tip: Skip the lines and sleep in! To ensure you are able to enter the monument when you visit, pay a small ticket fee and reserve your tickets in advance at www.recreation.gov.

Looking north... to the White House

Looking east... to the Capitol

Looking south... to the Jefferson Memorial and Virginia

Looking west... to the Lincoln Memorial

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site

Lunch time stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue

Rock Creek Park

Sunday Afternoon Hike

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”  

~ Rachel Carson, Silent Spring