There was a real bonus for the participants in the Southeastern Minnesota Honor Flight during the May 2 visit to Washington, D.C.

As stated in the last column, we left the nation’s World War II Memorial at 1:05 p.m., our time, and boarded the three buses designated for the participants in our Honor Flight.

Our U.S. Airways aircraft was scheduled to leave that evening. So for the rest of the afternoon we toured our nation’s capital city.

Our bus went past several huge government building, including the Department of Agriculture, to a place called the old post office. Here, the bus stopped and we gained a new passenger. He was a local guide who then took us on a tour of this city.

Among the places we saw were the Department of Justice , Navy Memorial, the Civil War GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) Memorial, the Newseum, Embassy of Canada, and the U.S. Grant and Garfield statues out in front of our nation’s capitol building.

Not far away I saw a building which revived a few memories. It’s one of three

large structures used for the offices of members of the House of Representatives and their staffs.

In October 2001 my wife and I went to Washington, D.C., on a bus tour. During this time I went to one of those buildings to interview Stephanie (Brand) Passingham, then of Clarks Grove, who was the press secretary for First District Congressman Gil Gutknecht The article based on this interview with Stephanie and Gil appeared in the Oct. 17, 2001, issue of the Tribune.

Our tour went along the National Mall where we saw several of the Smithsonian buildings, the back of the White house across the ellipse, a multitude of older buildings and the famous Mayflower Hotel.

Our bus went around a portion of Dupont Circle which has to be one of this city’s most challenging places for traffic congestion. At this point we went on Massachusetts Avenue into a part of the city called Embassy Row. Just about every building for quite a few blocks had a flag of a foreign nation on a pole or on the front side of the structure. We passed the Naval Observatory and the home of Vice President Biden and on to the Washington Cathedral for a drive-by look.

Then our route went through Georgetown and across one of the Potomac River bridges into Arlington, Va., past one of the gates for Fort Myer and a portion of Arlington National Cemetery on the way to our next stop.

For three members of our Honor Flight group from Albert Lea, former World War II Marines — Lupe Gasca and the Doty brothers, Glenn and Jim — this particular place has very special meaning. It’s the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, and better known as the Iwo Jima Monument. This huge statue is based on the Joe Rosenthal photo of the flag raising on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi on Feb. 23, 1945.

We again crossed on a Potomac River bridge back into Washington and made our last stop near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial with its poignant long wall listing the casualties of this war, plus the nearby statues honoring the men and women who served in that Asian area. Then we walked past the front of the Lincoln Memorial and on across the National Mall to the Korean War Veterans Memorial. Meanwhile, our bus went to the other side of the Mall and we made the trip back over the Potomac River to Alexandria, Va., and the Reagan Airport.

We left Washington at 7:30 p.m. and arrived back in Rochester at 9:40 p.m. There was quite a crowd of family members and several honor guard units from area veteran’s posts to greet us. Anyway, I arrived at my home right at midnight.

As some people may know, I’ve been wearing a pedometer for many years. It’s part of my own personal AARP/Blue Zones Vitality Project, or whatever. I zero out this pedometer unit each morning. So, based on the walking done in two airports and in our nation’s capital, I had a total of 11,800 steps for May 2. That’ a lot of worthwhile and inspiring walking during a very special one-day trip.

Ed Shannon’s column has appeared in the Tribune every Friday since December 1984.