A Place in History

We were recently in Washington, D.C. for my husband to attend an annual ACR meeting which is always held in the beautiful month of May.  For years the meeting has been held at the Washington Hilton Hotel.

Washington Hilton Hotel

1919 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.

Washington, District of Columbia

Some organizations choose this hotel for their large meetings due to the very large meeting rooms and the huge International Ballroom located in this hotel.  

I'm sure you have heard about the yearly event, "The National Prayer Breakfast" which is held annually at the Washington Hilton.  This Prayer Breakfast is attended by approximately 3,500 guests including international invitees from over 100 countries.  The prayer breakfast is hosted by members of the United States Congress and has taken place since 1953.

Another huge annual event that takes place at the Washington Hilton is the "White House Correspondent's Dinner."  This group is an organization of journalists who cover the White House and the President of the United States.

To  step back in time a few years ......  At the Washington Hilton Hotel on March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States, delivered a luncheon speech to the AFL-CIO who make up fifty-six national and international unions.

When the speech was over, President Reagan walked out of a small side door called the President's Walk and walked right on the sidewalk you see in the above photo, right by the flowers. 

We are all familiar with this time in history, when right at that moment, our president was hit by a bullet from John Hinckley's gun who was standing on the sidelines with some of the press.  The bullet actually missed the target and ricocheted off the side of the president's vehicle and then hit the president in the underarm and into the lung.  Fortunately we know he did recover to be as good as new.

   The below photo was borrowed from the Internet.

I remembered all of the news accounts of this attempted assissination and set out to ask the security guard at the Washington Hilton hotel to show me the exact spot where Ronald Reagan was shot.  He was so helpful and actually took me to the exact location and pointed out the exact place on the sidewalk where the near tragedy happened.

 If you look at the double arches and stone wall you see it is the exact same spot.

How peaceful everything looks today compared to the photo taken at the time of the shooting.

I would have thought there would have been a historical marker placed somewhere on that stone wall noting the place and time in history where President Reagan was shot.

We flew into Washington for the meeting and planned to rent a car for the drive back home.  We wanted to see the beauty all through Virginia and Tennessee on the way home and hopefully try to capture some of that beauty with my camera.

We also had high hopes to visit around Washington after the meeting was over.  But, the weather forecast told us the rain would continue for another couple of days.

White House with Washington Monument in the background.

We decided we would wait for another visit, without rain, to take photos of all the beautiful landmarks in and around Washington, D.C.  

It was very nice to attend this annual ACR meeting and to visit with old friends again.

When the meeting was over we got an early start and headed on our way driving south-west toward the beautiful city of Charlottesville, Virginia.  That would be our first stop on the drive back home to sightsee around a little.

Thanks for coming along as we stepped back in time and visited a place in history.

Wishing you beautiful Spring days and many blessings wherever you may be!