Monumental Journey

Yesterday I got a wild hair and decided to wander around the National Mall and take some photos for Flickr. Granted, it probably wasn't the best idea to go out in the middle of the day in 90 degree heat and wander around for over three hours, but If I wasn't gonna do it who would?
You think you've got what it takes? Well, here's the route (approx. 8 miles):I started at Union Station, walked down to the Capitol, down Independence Ave. past the museums, around the Department of Agriculture, up to the Mall, around the Washington monument, over to the WWII memorial, down the reflecting pool to the Lincoln memorial, went inside and around the Lincoln Memorial, for some unknown reason decided to walk over to Virginia and back across the Arlington bridge, went over to the Vietnam memorial, over to the Einstein Memorial, and then (apparently overcome by heat exhaustion) decided to walk another 15 blocks up to the Big Hunt (aka: The Drinkin' Memorial) for a few beers.
Those "few" beers turned out to be 8 beers and one shot in the span of 90 minutes.
I then took the subway back home, fixed dinner, and switched on the Cubs game. I fell asleep sometime during the 1st inning. I woke up just in time for the post-game, and then spent the rest of the evening trying (in vain) to get back to sleep.
Dammit.

Here's some highlights:
I was meeting up with a friend for lunch at Union Station, so I decided that afterwards I would stop by the Capitol and then wander around the Mall area to get some shots for my Flickr page. The one thing I really wanted to get was a shot of the US Department of Agriculture building. A couple of months ago I was walking past when I noticed this: It's part of the facade and predates WWII, but I wondered how many of thousands of people had walked by that building every day and never noticed the details. I had to get it.
While walking past the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum I noticed these awesome chili peppers used for decorative landscaping. I'm so freakin' jealous. I have 6 sickly pepper plants that are on death's door and those rocket huggin' sons of bitches down at the Smithsonian have hundreds of beautiful fully-loaded plants that are just being used for decoration. Fuckers.

I had to visit the Einstein Memorial, but all I could think while I was there was "cousin-fucker". Damn you, Ed.

All-in-all, It was a pretty damned fine day. For way-more pictures click over to my Flickr page.
Enjoy.