I’ve passed Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C., before, but had never visited. I put it on my current list of 101 Things in 1001 Days in hopes of finally making it there. On the morning of July 4, 6of8 and I “covered” the cemetery. We got there early and pretty much had the cemetery to ourselves. The cemetery is like a TARDIS–tucked away in a tiny spot in D.C. but much bigger on the inside than it seemed.

I really enjoyed this cemetery because of its diversity. There are people buried there from the 1700s through today. There are people buried there with all sorts of backgrounds–culture, religion, etc. And so many of the grave markers are unique–things I’d never seen before. We even managed to find a few snarfs there.

There were a few literal graves. Such as this coffin in a tomb. Or Hill on a hill.

 

Here are some of my “general” photos of the cemetery:

 

I learned quite a bit as well. Six taught me a new word: columbarium. There were a handful of graves with both freemason symbols and symbols that looked like upside-down stars. I discovered these were for Order of the Eastern Star, a Masonic organization for men and woman. I also noticed a lot of symbols that looked like the letters P and X together. After some searching, I discovered that these were Chi Rho crosses, a warrior’s cross.

 

I couldn’t resist taking some nature photographs:

 

But my favorite thing was the variety of gravestones. Here are many of my favorites throughout the day–ranging from statues to poems to works of art to different languages:

 

I really liked this planter as the birds (I swear they’re birds) looked like something you would see from Brian Froud’s workshop or in Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal. Just look at those faces. Are those Skeksis or what? http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Skeksis

 

And here are two more photos. One is of my favorite gravesite of the day–it looked like the earth was embracing it. If I were to be buried, I’d want it to be in a spot like this. The other photo is me being artistic :-)

I didn’t get to see some of the “big names” who are buried there like Upton Sinclair and Gore Vidal & partner. So that means I’ll just have to make a return trip sometime.

NOTE: I’ve been holding off on updating this journal because I never finished my Boston recaps. I promise to come back to those!