Photo by kim.heitmann

It’s finally here, Washington. The day you wait for all year long: Columbus Day! Hopefully all that built up holiday anticipation didn’t keep you awake too late last night. Obviously, we’ll be bringing you detailed coverage of the highlights of this year’s festivities as the entire city gets caught up in Columbus fever.

Oh yeah, and happy Canadian Thanksgiving, too.

National Equality March Brings Out Tens of Thousands: Marriage equality activists descended on Washington Sunday, and both the Associated Press and the Post have big stories. Just as the District appears set to pass its own same-sex marriage legislation, organizers of this march sought to push for federal gay marriage rights instead of a more piecemeal, state-by-state approach. The large National Equality March coincided with President Barack Obama’s remarks at a Human Rights Campaign dinner over the weekend that he would end the U.S. military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, even though he didn’t say when or how he would do that. In related news, the HRC headquarters on Rhode Island Ave. was reportedly vandalized over the weekend.

Teen Shot by Two Assailants on Bicycles: A shooting in Capitol Hill on Sunday evening left one young man wounded and in unknown condition at this time, the Post is reporting. Two suspects were reported to have fled on bicycles from the scene of the shooting, which took place at about 6:30 p.m. in the 800 block of 10th Street NE. The victim could not be immediately identified.

Briefly Noted: Obamas attend services at St. John’s Church … Elderly Arlington man fatally struck by novice driver … Fire disrupts services at Silver Spring Buddhist temple … Runner dies after Baltimore Marathon.

This Day in DCist: In 2007, we revisited the Washington Monument, and in 2006, Logan Circle got new traffic signals.