DC adventure
I get excited by a lot of things, and visiting DC is one of them! Once I took the Metro from the NIH to Foggy Bottom station, I walked to my hotel on Pennsylvania avenue. Which turned out to be the best hotel ever. I have a suite, with a kitchen, dishwasher, and OVEN. Living room, two sinks... for only $120 a night! Amazing.At about 5pm, I headed over to see... the white house! So exciting. I walked for about 20 minutes, wondering when I would starting seeing the White House area. And then there it was!!!! I was so happy!!!!
I walked around the back, and took my picture by the back/front of the white house. I asked some random person to take the picture. She promptly told me that my camera was not properly adjusting the black/white levels, and that she was a professional, and that she knew these things. Okay.... I told her thanks for taking the picture and moved on.
I was on the east site of the white house, looking through one of the gates, when all of the sudden a police parade showed up! Followed by 3 black cars with tinted windows. It was very exciting. They went in through the side gate and then disappeared from view. I felt like I witnessed something special, even though it was probably just a cook arriving or something.
I then went around the front/back of the white house. It was really interesting. There was our nation's capital, many many yards from anywhere anyone could touch it.
I continued walking around the white house area, past the west executive building, where I saw a police car at one of the entrances! With its lights flashing! With a police officer dealing with something in the back seat! Where criminals are normally kept! So then, the police officer left the back seat, and emerged with... pizza's! Yay for pizza for people in the executive branch. Now I know how they are delivered. Very securely.
On the way back to my hotel, I saw my first black squirrel. I've heard of their existence for many years, but never really believed they existed. So that was also very exciting.
When I returned to my hotel, I stopped at Trader Joe's conveniently located across the street from my hotel (I love my hotel). They were having a wine tasting in the store, so I bought a bottle of Simi Chardonnay 2006 Sonoma. Very good. I came back to my hotel room, and ate prosciutto, bread and hummus for the rest of the night.
On Saturday, I spent 6.5 hours walking. I've never walked so much in my life. I went to the Air and Space museum. I expected it to be great. It was kind of boring. It was like "learn about the planets" and I thought "but I HAVE" so there wasn't much for me. What was most exciting was the exhibit from the American History museum, which had R2D2's costume, Lincoln's wife's dress, and the script from the Wizard of Oz. That was cool. 
My favorite part of the Smithsonian was the Castle, which was basically the information building. I loved this building and took a lot of pictures around it.
I walked around the Mall. I hopped into the Natural History museum, then stopped by the sculpture park. Finally, I made my way to the capital building. And I stood and looked at it, wondering if someone was going to shoot me if I took pictures.
There was an anti-war protest going on around the capital. I took a picture of it below.
I also like this picture I took below, because it shows some interesting street signs in front of the capital building. It's like, take that capital building! Yield!
I also like this picture I took below, because it shows some interesting street signs in front of the capital building. It's like, take that capital building! Yield!The highlight of my trip was the Arlington cemetery. I am not especially patriotic, and I mostly ended up going there because I was so tired and the though of sitting down on a metro ride to get there sounded nice. I didn't realize that the cemetery would have so much walking. But it was totally worth it.
There was something about seeing all those people who died either in duty or of old age that really struck a cord with me. It was as if something finally made sense to me after all this time: truly giving your life for your country. Sounds over dramatic, but it was the truth. I looked at so many headstones, wondering what each of the people was like. I also wondered what it was like to be a woman, and your title on your headstone was simply "wife of."
I visited JFK's grave, which was like something out of a movie honestly. Then I went to the tomb of the unknown soldier, and was just in time to see them change the guards. I followed the guards down a path, and was able to watch them taking down the flag at the end of the day. It was one of the most experiences of my life. The flag was so big, and they took so much care with it.
I went back to the tomb of the unknown solider and sat there for awhile, just thinking. Then, I headed back to the hotel.
Sunday I had just enough time to walk to the Lincoln memorial and Washington monument before I had to head to the airport to catch my flight. 
posted by This Monday Morning @ 7:47 PM
1 Comments:
Ah, those photos make me miss DC. I used to live a short walk south of the Smithsonian's south gate, right where that picture was taken if I'm not mistaken.
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