DC Trip

My trip to DC with David was a blast!

We stayed at the Crystal City Hyatt, and our room was very nice! We didn't spend too much time there though. We had a busy agenda!

Friday was Capitol tour day. We started at the new Capitol Visitor's Center, which was very roomy and full of interesting things to look at while waiting for the actually tour. The tour to the Capitol building itself was pretty straight to the point - the House side, the Senate side, the old Supreme Court chamber, the rotunda. I guess to get a more in depth tour, you now need to get a congress-critter to sponsor an intern-led tour.

After a wonderful lunch at the center's cafeteria (expensive, but very good!), we took advantage of the tunnel to The Library of Congress, Jefferson building. In all the times I've been to DC, I've never visited the library. While waiting for a docent led tour, David and I wandered around the Bob Hope exhibit and the Gershwin Brothers exhibit. Both were really informative but paled in comparison to the actual tour of the building. The main room of the library is so incredibly ornate! A docent tour is the way to go to get all the little details, as well as a good history of the library itself. Did you know there's a frieze of a bunch of nude guys playing baseball there? There are two of these, and without the docent, you never would have noticed them amongst all the finery. There is also a copy of the Gutenburg bible.

From here, David and I took a walk around the capitol mall and headed toward the Washington Monument for a tour. Again, this is one of the sites I've seen during my trips to DC, but never actually toured. The ride up the elevator takes something like 70 seconds! The view from the top is incredible, as is the history of the building of the monument. I had no idea it took so long for the monument to be completed from its time of conception.

As if this wasn't already a full day, we still had more to do! From the Washington Monument, we taxied over to Union Station for our Monuments by Moonlight tour. We ate a quick dinner and picked up a Barack Obama comic book then jumped on the trolley and headed right back to where we were earlier in the day. The weather was cold and there was a spot or two of light rain, but the trip was well worth the weather. We drove past the White House, the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument, the Jefferson memorial, Arlington Cemetery, and a few others I can't remember. We stopped at the Lincoln/Vietnam/Korea memorials, the FDR memorial, and the Marine Corp memorial. David shot some great photos of the Korean and Marine Corp memorials. I'll try to steal some from his computer and post them later. After all this, we were DONE.

Friday was other-than-historical museums day, and we started out at the new Crime and Punishment museum. It's a lot bigger than it looks, and we spent a lot more time there than we thought we would. We were asked to test out an inauguration program, which we were more than happy to do. It was a booklet that chronicled a crime scene investigation (CSI something or another), with clues you had to discover throughout the museum. I was fine until the simulation of a car chase. I sat in the simulator for less than a minute before I was sick as a puppy. David had to take over and even he was getting queasy. After that, it was pretty much downhill in the museum. Not due to the exhibits though, we were just sick.

Just around the corner from the C&P museum is the International Spy museum. This was our next stop. Thankfully, I had pre-purchased tickets to this (and all other) museum. It was packed! Since I had already been to this museum twice before, I was thinking I would just go along for the ride with newbie David; however, they have a new Operation Spy tour which allows you to become a spy with a group of others. I couldn't resist the chance to play spy, so I signed us up for this, too! It was a lot of fun, though slightly chaotic due to the nature of working with strangers under pressure. We had a limited amount of time to perform surveillance, break transmissions, raid an office, and interrogate an agent. Our team earned a 3 out of 5 for our efforts. Good enough! After Operation Spy, we toured the museum for about an hour, then headed out to dinner.

The weather was great for walking, so we skipped the taxi and ambled over to the restaurant. We arrived a little bit early, so we took advantage of the time to climb the tower at the Old Post Office building. The views here were every bit as spectacular as the views from the Washington Monument, and the crowd was minimal. We stayed a little longer than we intended to though so we hurried over to Fugo de Chao for dinner. Yummy! Brazilian barbecue is just what Dr. Atkins ordered, and we ate like little piggies. We took our time, figuring that by pacing ourselves, we would be able to eat more. It didn't work. We couldn't eat as much as we wanted to. I cheated a bit and had flan for dessert. Brazilian flan is more dense and rich than Mexican flan, and it's my favorite. I had a martini to get into the mood for our next stop.

Across from the restaurant and next to the Old Post Office is the Ronald Reagan and International Trade building. My big surprise for David was taking him to see The Capitol Steps, who perform regularly here. For the next hour and a half, David and I were in stitches! I laughed so much my dinner threatened to make a reappearance. My favorite skit was Putin and his Midnight Raid to Georgia. These folks leave no politician or scandal unturned, and their own language, Lirty Dies is hilarious. If you go to DC, please make this a stop on your itinerary. You won't be disappointed.

Sunday was another beautiful day, and for us it was Smithsonian Day. We slept in and then took the subway in to DC. We started at the American History museum, and were immediately disappointed with the crowd size. Sunday was the wrong day to visit! We did trudge through to see the Presidents, America at War, Science from 1930s and Abraham Lincoln exhibits. I really want to go back and visit on a weekday. There was much left unseen.

From here we went next door to the Natural History museum. There were a lot of people here, too, but not nearly as many as we left next door. We started at the cafe, which was expensive but good, and then hit the 2008 Nature Pictures awards exhibit. Lots of great pictures, and good ideas on which camera to invest in soon. We checked out the Mammals Hall, ended up at the Insect Hall, and hung out for awhile with the butterflies. I had one that was perfectly content to rest on my gray sweater. It was fun trying to shake him off, but I ended up breaking the rules and lifting him off. It was getting late, so we made a last stop at the Gems and Minerals/Hope Diamond exhibit to dream, and then headed back to the hotel. We had a very early flight home the next morning, and I had to go straight to work.

I'm now itching to get back to DC again! Maybe I'll take the kids over their Spring Break. If I do, I'll bring MY camera, so I can post pictures!