Why is it that when you have more "free time" that you tend to have less free time? I was really convinced that once summer started up and we really didn't really have a schedule that I would have infinite time to do things...aka blog. Boy was a wrong. Apparently not having our days scheduled means that we take on more, which results in us becoming even busier. When I was in college it always went that way....during basketball season I had all the time in the world to do things, but when we were out of season it always seemed like I was crazy busy. I guess because during season I had my days scheduled down to the minute and I didn't take on anything else. Go figure. I am hoping now that we are back in town (for now) and Eric is busy in the evenings with football practice that I will be able to put myself on some kind of a schedule and maybe write a post more than once every two weeks. I have cooked and gotten in a workout for the past 2 nights so I guess I am on the right track. =)
So where I have I been? Last week I was on a little work trip. I had a 3-day meeting for a grant I work on in Washington, D.C. I was kind of excited about it because #1-I had never been to D.C. before, and #2-One of my friends from work who works on the grant with me was going. Every other time I have traveled for work it's been by myself or with a boss, so I was looking forward to having someone to explore the city with.
We flew in Sunday afternoon and after taking only one wrong Metro Train made it to our hotel. I had high hopes of sightseeing that night, but by the time we got settled it was dinnertime and with the conference starting early the next morning we decided to call it a night. We were staying the in the Woodley Park area very close to the National Zoo. We were very close to downtown, but not right in the middle of everything which was nice. There were probably 20 restaurants on the adjacent block so we never really had to go too far for anything.
When we finished out meetings on Monday we decided to jump on the Metro and head over to Arlington Cemetery. I'd read that during the summertime they did the
Changing of the Guard every half an hour until 7pm and was told that it was something that I really needed to see while I was there. We made it just in time to see the very last Changing of the Guard that day and it was very impressive. One of the things that really stood out is how respectful all of the spectators were, even small children were completely silent during the 10 minute procession. And the discipline of the men who guard the tomb is impressive. They are probably some of the most dedicated people in the world to their jobs. The cemetery closed after the last Changing of the Guard, so started to head back, but as we got closer to the Metro Station I realized how close we were to the National Mall. My friend obliged and so we ended up going to the Jefferson Memorial, walking along the reflecting pool, by the World War II Memorial, and the Washington Monument (which recently had it's scaffolding removed after 2+ years). I guess it never really occurred to me how BIG some of those monuments are....they are very impressive. We caught the Metro by the Smithsonian and headed back to our neighborhood where we grabbed a delicious dinner and called it a night.
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| I can't even begin to explain how huge the cemetery was. It was very impressive...and the Changing of the Guard was very impressive. |
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1. The Washington Monument
2. Crazy tall escalator in the Woodley Park Metro Station
3. The Business District from the Arlington Memorial Bridge
4. The Lincoln Memorial
5. Brandi and I in front of the National Mall
6. Me with the Washington Monument
7. World War II Memorial
8. The National Mall...it was crawling with people! |
Tuesday evening we planned to take a
Moonlight Bus Tour around the city. I have head that hop-on hop-off tours are the way to see big cities like D.C., so we booked one with our hotel and set off that evening. We started at he Post Office which is in the process of being turned into the newest Trump Tower Hotel and drove down Pennsylvania Avenue to see the Capitol...holy moly that place is enormous! After that we drove back up Pennsylvania Avenue to one of the most famous addresses on the country 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, the White House....not to be confused with 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue SW, a McDonalds. After that we headed to the Marine Corps Memorial, the Roosevelt Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial, The Vietnam Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial. My favorites were the Marine Corps Memorial and the Korean War Memorial which was quite eerie at night. It's 19 life-sized statues of soldiers walking through a rice patty and no matter where you are standing in the memorial, one of them is staring at you. The other part of it is a wall that has faces of men who fought in the war etched in black granite and they are flawless.
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1. The U.S. Capitol Building
2. The White House
3. Jefferson Memorial
4. The Old Post Office
5. The Dwight Eisenhower Executive Building...it was enormous!
6. The Lincoln Memorial at night
7. part of the The Roosevelt Memorial
8. The National Mall at night |
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1 & 2. The statues in the Korean War Memorial.
3. The Martin Luther King, Jr, Memorial
4. part of the wall in the Korean War Memorial
5. The Marine Corps Memorial |
Wednesday was our last evening in the city and it was supposed to rain. Luckily we'd see all of the things on our list of things we absolutely wanted to see (I decided early on that museums were out because there was no way we'd have time to see them properly in the hour or two we had after our conference ended in the evenings before they closed.) so we decided to explore our neighborhood. Lucky for us our neighborhood included the
National Zoo! Since it was evening and quite warm, most of the animals were inside, but we did get to see most of the highlights like the PANDAS (my favorite), the gorillas and orangutans, and the cutest tiger cubs who were all about driving each other (and their mother) crazy. We stopped for pizza on the way back to the hotel and made it to our rooms right before the bottom fell out. After 2 late nights and long days at the conference being in bed by 8pm and having everything packed up for the trip home the next morning was just what the doctor ordered.
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| I mean how stinkin cute is that panda?! |
I definitely enjoyed the trip and would love to go back sometime to see some of the museums and try some of the cuisine. They had just about every kind of restaurant you could imagine and we took advantage of the delicious food.
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1. Blueberry Glazed Donut from Dunkin' Donuts...this happened every morning
2. Rigatini Romano from Cafe Paradiso
3. Sesame Chicken from Mr. Chen's...most filling Chinese food I've ever eaten
4. Wild Mushroom Pizza from Open City
5. Pecan Pie from Open City
6. Chicken Salad Sandwich from Open City
7. Sour Cream Cheesecake from Open City (if you can't tell, we really liked open city)
8. Tuscan Pizza from Italian Pizza Kitchen
9. Tiramisu from Italian Pizza Kitchen |
If you're wondering how people don't weigh 150,000 lbs up there it's because they walk everywhere and they run all the time. In the mornings when we headed to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, we dodged runners, in the evenings when we set out on our adventures, we dodged runners. It was crazy. There were probably as many joggers as their were tourists at the National Mall, which made me wonder if the people who live in D.C. realize the history all around them. Working in Montgomery, AL, I know I don't think much about all of the history around me. I walk by Martin Luther King, Jr.'s church and the exact spot where Rosa Parks famously refused to move to the back of the bus every day and rarely give it a second thought. I guess when something like that is part of your every day world, it doesn't seem that interesting. I guess that's human nature.
As much as I enjoyed the trip I was so glad to get home to Eric and the puppies. I may love to travel but I love being home with the ones I love just as much!
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