"Head...Shoulders...Knees and...SOCKS!"

This morning as I made my coffee stop at the Dunkin Donuts, I saw this large group of 25-30 people leave the hotel next door and start heading my way. My first thought was "Oh crap! Must enter store before they do!" But they all stopped when they got to the bus stop in front, then piled on the bus, presumably to get down the road to the Metro. I noticed that some were wearing their veteran's caps, and all of them were dressed like tourists - and I thought "Oh crap! The veterans have landed! And they all brought their entire family!"

Memorial Day weekend in DC is always interesting. Usually it's because we are inundated with Vietnam Vets on their motorcycles, and they have a huge ride-in down to the memorial. I used to live right across the street from a hotel, and the bikes were always really loud! This year though, not only do we have all the Vietnam vets, but we've also got thousands more WWII veterans and their families in town for the dedication of the new WWII memorial. Tribute events started taking place today, and I've been watching the tents and crowd control fencing going up all week. Some of my colleagues are volunteering to assist on the Mall with this weekend's activities. I also offered to help, but my shift is tomorrow afternoon, so I get to avoid the really really large crowds and street closings.

This afternoon on my lunch break, some friends and I went into the Holocaust Museum for their "Tribute to Liberators". One very touching moment I saw was when a woman apporached an Liberator and said "I am a Holocaust survivor, and I just wanted to say thank you." and they hugged. She then added: "Of course I was liberated by the Swedish Red Cross, but thank you nonetheless for all of your sacrifices." They continued to speak for a minute or so and then went their separate ways. Now I'm not one for sentiment, but it really made those of us that watched this exchange think about all the sacrifices these soldiers made for their country and the freedom and rights of others.