DC_2010

DC Visit #1
July 2010
SP(Q)-2 Davis Returns to Washington

In early 2010, Linda, my sister Jeanne and I concocted a plan to take Mom on a trip back to the city where she was stationed during World War II.
Mom was in the U.S. Navy as a member of the WAVES (Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service), and was in DC from 1943 to 1945.
Somewhere along the way, she met a strapping young Navy machinist mate from Cleveland who apparently caught her eye at some USO club (trying
to get information out of my mother is like squeezing orange juice from an apple.) Even after 65 years, she still won't say what she did in the Navy.
"I was in communications" is about all we can get out of her. "They told me not to talk about what we were doing." As far as I know, she wasn't a spy.
All we know is that she was stationed at the Navy Annex near American University, which was a Navy communication center during the war. We're
pretty sure that she did some sort of codebreaking. She's very good at word puzzles, and would clean Pat Sajak's bank account if given the chance.

Jeanne and Rob met us in Frederick, Maryland, on our way to DC. We hit the I-495 Beltway right about rush hour (which starts at noon and runs
until about midnight.) I was in the lead, and had figured to get to our hotel in Alexandria by way of the Beltway. The GPS did something kinda freaky -
it overrode my planned route, warning us of massive traffic backups ahead, and automatically re-routed us off the freeway and onto surface streets.
Off we went, with Rob driving behind us, trying to keep us in view, as we headed off into Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Georgetown. The GPS
is a great device which shows you exactly where to turn. What it doesn't show are things like parked buses, idling taxis and swarms of pedestrians.
Linda would periodically text Jeanne to let her know where we were going, in case we got separated, but no issues came up. We arrived intact.

Our first destination was, of course, the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum (which I refer to as The Holy of Holies.)

We put Mom in a wheelchair, not because she was incapable of walking, but because it was simply easier to haul her around that way.

From NASM we headed across the Mall and went to the National Museum of Natural History. This display was about a
NMNH staff member who willed his Great Dane and his own body to the museum to be displayed as skeletons.

It's a real Moai! I build these out of snow in the wintertime.

After touring NMNH, we headed up to Capitol Hill for dinner...

...at Las Placitas! (big surprise, right?) No trip to DC would be complete without a pilgrimage to Placitas.

Mom even took a sip. She wasn't impressed. She liked her steak, though.

The next day we took Mom to the Women in Military Service to America Memorial adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery.
We were given a tour by the memorial's Education Center Deputy Director, retired Navy captain Jan Fitzsimmons.

Mom now and a photo of her in uniform in 1945.

The exterior of the memorial, which was once the ceremonial entrance to Arlington National Cemetery.

After touring the Women's Memorial, we took a tour of cemetery on a tour bus.
Anybody care to guess why there's a baseball on this Civil War veteran's marker?

We had dinner at a restaurant at Union Station called America.
Mom used to come here to catch the train to New York City.

After dinner, we took Mom to the World War Two Memorial between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.

"Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country can never be repaid.
They have earned our undying gratitude. America will never forget their sacrifices."
Harry S Truman.

On our way back to Ohio, we stopped by Mom's old homestead near Farmington, West Virginia.
This is part of the Davis clan, with my cousins Sharon (in the center, with her husband and daughters
on the left) and John, and my Aunt Agnes next to Mom.