A Place of Reverence and a Place of Clanging

Kinsey and I decided to go to Arlington National Cemetery last weekend and didn't think we'd spend much time there. We figured we would go to JFK's grave and the Tomb of the Unknowns and that would be it. We were not aware just how vast Arlington National Cemetery is. It's over 600 acres and contains over 290,000 graves. And it is really beautiful. All rolling hills and trees.

All those stark, white marble gravestones make for some gorgeous pictures. We didn't realize that not all the tombstones at Arlington are in the typical marble style. There are some really ornate ones, including many shaped like the Washington Monument.

One of our first stops was John Fitzgerald Kennedy's grave with the eternal flame. He's buried next to his wife Jackie and two children who died at less than a year old.

The Tomb of the Unknowns was quite the interesting sight to see. They have the changing of the guard every half hour, so Kinsey and I stuck around to see it with quite a large crowd of people. I thought it was pretty interesting but Kinsey said she wasn't much of a fan of military pageantry.

There was this huge marble amphitheater right by the Tomb of the Unknowns. I guess they use it for state funerals or something?

Like I said earlier, the cemetery was really hilly and at the top of the highest hill was Robert E. Lee's home. It provided quite the view of DC.

The grave of William Howard Taft, the 27th President of the United States and the 10th Chief Justice of the United States. Taft and Kennedy are the only two presidents buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

This is the Netherlands Carillon (just north of the cemetary), which was a gift from the Netherlands to the United States for their help during and after World War II. Kinsey and I came across it when we were visiting the Iwo Jima Memorial. We saw a schedule for concerts (its a bell tower) and decided to come back for one of them.

The concert was kind of neat. We were able to climb to the top of the carillon and watch the lady play the bells. She said it was very similar to playing the piano and that if you could play the piano, you could play the bells. McKinsey, being a piano player herself, offered to take over for awhile, but the bell lady didn't seem to keen on the idea.

A video of the rockin' bell concert.

In order to climb to the top, you actually have to pass within a foot of some of the larger bells. It was loud, but quite the experience.

Looking back on Arlington National Cemetery from the Netherlands Carillon.