Today, Pope Francis was in Washington, DC for a two day visit to President Obama and tomorrow he intends to address the Congress.  Preparations have been underway for the last several weeks, and the Office of Personnel Management even recommended that Federal employees take leave or telework if possible.  That recommendation made the commute into the city this morning a much more civil affair than usual.

This afternoon on my typical jaunt around Capitol Hill, I noticed that there were three flags on each lamp post surrounding the Capitol Reflecting Pool just west of the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial.

The Flags of the United States of America, Vatican City, and the District of Columbia near the Capitol Reflecting Pool

As is probably obvious, the Flag of the United States of America is on the left.  The Flag of Vatican City is in the center, and the Flag of the District of Columbia is on the right.

One of the great things about the walking that I'm doing is that it affords me the opportunity to see things that I would not have seen if I had been going about my business as I did before I took up pedestrianism.  The experience of these observations often piques my curiosity and points me in a direction where I can learn something that I might not have otherwise explored.

I never knew until today that the Flag of the District of Columbia was modelled on the Washington (as in George) family's coat of arms with roots dating from hundreds of years in the past from Durham, England.  I would not have recognized the Flag of Vatican City, and I did not know the quasi-official name for the Flag of the United States of America.  It was a good day walking, and a good day learning.  I even learned how to embed a GIF in Blogger, which was trivially easy by the way.