So here's what really happened

So the details of my DC trip are not terribly exciting, but I did a few things that were interesting. Missy, Heather, Falon and myself got up super early on Thursday, drove there, got into the city and saw the National Art Museum first. It was pretty cool, but honestly, I was kind of bored. I love people who are artistic and I like most forms of art - paintings, pottery, sculptures, anything crafty, etc. - but I just really am not interested in paintings of a bunch of old noblemen of the 1600s. I like modern art; these paintings were just really boring. How many pictures can you look at that are titled "Old Woman Reading Book"? That's what I thought. So when we looked at the sculpture gardens and moved on to the Smithsonian American History museum. This museum was pretty interesting, but honestly, I just don't care a lot about presidents or wars or... much of anything about American history. I guess it was cool to see the first US flag and the formal dresses the First Ladies wore, but we tried to move quickly through all the exhibits since we were seeing everything in DC in two days.

After a few more museums we made our way to Chinatown to eat dinner. This was a really strange experience because... it was totally American. We got off the Metro and had to walk and look to find a Chinese restaurant, and we finally found one called "Chopsticks." The food was pretty good, but we had a bit of a run-in with the waitress when we were paying our bill. The whole thing was strange because the place didn't have a cash register, so they kept all their money in a big popcorn tin with a slot cut out on the top. When you paid your ticket, they would take the top off and scoop out your change from the bottom, doing all the math in their heads. Then they would drop the ticket in the slot after you paid. Well, we had a little trouble because the woman didn't believe us that we left a tip on the table, and forced Heather to give her $1.50 more for a tip. Then after we finally got that straightened out, the lady forgot to drop the ticket into the tin and then claimed that we didn't pay at all. A little miscommunication... which is why we ate at Chipotle in Chinatown the next day. The strangest thing to me is that every time we were in this part of town, the only time I ever saw any Chinese people was when we were eating at Chopsticks. There were no street vendors selling cheap purses, or signs written in Chinese. They might as well have at least had a LeeAnn Chin there or something instead of having the main street lined with fast food, Italian, seafood, Mexican, and American grilles.

After our filling and entertaining dinner we went to see the Washington Monument, which was really cool because it was dark by the time we got there and the lights made everything look a little more exciting than it does in the daylight. It was nice to be there in the evening because there weren't any other people around, it was nice a cool, and we just hung out in the grass and on the benches. This day went pretty well and we all enjoyed each other's company.

That wasn't really how it continued the next day. First of all I have to stop here and say that none of the girls I was with have any experience driving in big cities. I'm pretty used to driving in Mpls/St. Paul (which isn't really that bad), so I got nominated to drive the ENTIRE time we were there. I got to drive us in and around the city, to and from the Metro, and pretty much most of the way home. The traffic there wasn't really as bad as I thought it would be, but the worst part about driving all the time was that the street signs trying to find our way to the house we were staying at and the Metro stations and the highways were tiny, so every time we missed it it was my fault. Whatever... it would have helped to have someone there who could read an atlas. Anyway, we finally got to the house we were staying at around midnight that night, met the family, showered and crashed. Running all day on 2 hours of sleep was not fun.

The next day we started off at the National Zoo, which was a bad idea. We all got frustrated pretty quickly because it was like a million degrees out and we walked all the way through this Zoo and saw like 2 animals. I don't know where they were. And there is something really frustrating about walking all day, dripping with sweat, with three other people who won't make decisions about where we are going to go and what we are going to see. So we ended up at the visitor center of the Zoo watching a movie in an auditorium of a panda sleeping. I mainly just wanted to die because it was so hot and we all enjoyed the sleeping panda because it meant that we got to be in a cold, air conditioned building. That day we also saw the Smithsonian Science museum (full of dinosaurs), Ford's theater, the Lincoln Memorial, the Air and Space museum, and the Vietnam Vet's memorial. It was all pretty cool to see, but we all got so frustrated with each other because of lack of decision making, the heat, complaining, and sore feet/legs. Not a good place to wear flip-flops all day.

The next morning we saw the Holocaust Museum, which was very cool. I enjoyed it a lot because I read a few Holocaust books in my adolescent lit class this semester and thinking and learning about it was fresh in my mind. The whole thing is just so crazy to me, that millions of people were killed for no reason and tortured in such horrible ways. There was so much to see and so many things that I learned that I hadn't been taught in history classes. It was cool. When we finished we had lunch and hit the road to come home in the late afternoon. By the time we left we were all tired, sore, and on information overload from so many museums and exhibits in 2 days. But once we began our trip back home, we all had fun and enjoyed a dance party in our seatbelts for most of the 6 hour drive.

Washington D.C. isn't my favorite city, and I probably would have enjoyed it more if I didn't have to see it all in 2 days, but I don't know if I'll plan another road trip that direction any time soon.